Tourist Trap
Tourist Trap
PG | 14 March 1979 (USA)
Tourist Trap Trailers

A telekinetic psychopath lures a group of young people to his ramshackle roadside attraction, unleashing an army of psychically controlled mannequins and other monstrosities upon them.

Reviews
Danny Blankenship

"Tourist Trap" from 1979 is one film that to me is a B list horror gem the plot is a little silly and the scenes seem far fetched yet, still for it's day it provided fears and fright for an audience. The plot revolves around a wax museum and a group of teenage kids who wander away(which was typical of late 70' and early 80's horror pictures).Set in the California desert area a group of teenage kids break down and after getting rid of car trouble they find and wonder their way to a creepy and deserted wax house called Slausen's Lost Oasis and each one by one are lured into this trap of death and a wax bath! The owner Slausen(Chuck Conners) runs an actual chamber of horrors.The picture becomes gross and crazy with flying and twisting mannequins who murder in this sordid show of fear and fright. Really this is a picture of crazy madness a B list movie that proves you never know what you will encounter and find and mostly never trust anyone!

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skang-54305

I heard some praise for this "horror" movie for its visuals, setting, and mystery. Wanting a good scare I decided to watch it. The presentation does fulfill the expectations I had. This movie has the motifs of claustrophobic uneasiness in a sparse population, unnerving helplessness, and ambiguities regarding the tourist site host. It is not original but that is not a bad thing. The procedure of murder is similar to "House of Wax," the setting is in secluded place like many dark house horror movies, and it has the gritty aura of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Many wonder why this movie is so underrated and in my opinion it is underrated because despite all of its horror movie elements it was really boring. I did not get scared and it ended up being a search game for the qualities I expected from a horror movie. It fulfilled the expectations of why it should be scary but was ironically not scary. I am not trying to prove that I am super brave and hard to phase. This was my honest reaction from what many consider a "underrated horror movie." I guess it is easy for me to pinpoint many key details and elements that comprise good horror movies. Strangely it is not those qualities that make anyone scared. It depends on how much anyone is willing to believe anything is scary that makes true horror. I can say for myself I watched the movie with the wrong attitude from the start and it will now never be scary for me.

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bensonmum2

A group of young people breakdown in the middle of nowhere and set out in search of help. They find an old roadside museum filled with mannequins, run by an old guy named Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors). Very quickly, the group realizes all is not right when, one-by-one, the friends go missing.I'm shocked to see all of the glowing, 10/10 reviews for Tourist Trap. I've probably seen the movie three or four times over the years and it's never really done much for me. It's got too many faults for me to rate it average or above. First, the movie is horribly predictable and the final twist is easy to guess about 20 minutes in. There are no surprises. For the most part, the acting is abysmal. Chuck Connors is the only real "actor" in the cast. The group of friends aren't the brightest bulbs - and that's by horror movie standards. Could they have made it any easier for the killer? They each take a turn wandering around aimlessly and alone in the dark. It's hard to feel anything for people this stupid. Finally, unlike most reviews I've read, I've never found Tourist Trap all that atmospheric. Yes, there are some creepy moments, but overall, the movie's never worked on that level for me.I always try to include the good side of any movie I watch, so here it is for Tourist Trap. Chuck Connor is good. He is the creepy part I was referring to earlier. Other than a few instances, Pino Donaggio's score is quite good. Much of the film's music belongs in a better movie than Tourist Trap. Finally, one of the movie's real highlights is Tanya Roberts' tube top. It's the center of attention in most scenes.

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Anaraksoasis

I had only recently heard about this little gem, though when I learned it was PG-13, I was a little wary of it. My experience with PG horrors has been not so good. Initially what really made me interested in this flick was the idea of evil mannequin's. I find mannequin's and old dolls mucho creepy. Yeah, yeah. Bite me! The cover art for this film sold me with that scary arse mannequin. Yeah I was interested. When I finally got around to watching it, I was nicely surprised. This flick be good yo! The story from a glance may seem silly. A bumpkin with telekinetic powers uses mannequin's to murder people and then turn them into mannequin's. Oddly enough, it works. The choice to not really explain why the guy has these powers and how they work was a brilliant move. Some thing's don't have an explanation, they just are. This makes things creepier. The acting is decent for a low budget film, and the girls are very nice to look at, especially the short shorts, tube top wearing Tanya Roberts (Shame we couldn't get a nude shot). Chuck Conners, however, stole this flick. Dude really hams it up but never in a bad way. He turned up the creep factor when it was needed. You can tell dude had a good time making this.There's not a lot of blood in this one, but there doesn't need to be. The mannequin's supply all the scares. They were cheap looking, but for some reason that just enhanced their creepiness. I loved how they would turn into living people,then quickly back into mannequin's. Good stuff! The score really worked well for this flick too. Eerie as hell.Is this a horror masterpiece? Naw, but it's a good flick and deserves more recognition. Eventually Hollywood will sink their grubby fingers into this one and make a remake which will probably blow, but at least a spotlight will be put on the original and horror fans will get to enjoy this one. Give it a watch, you may never view store mannequin's the same again!

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