In the wake of Low Budget Blockbusters like THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE and HALLOWEEN, there came a crop of- in all honesty- crap. Most of what followed was of the Murder Movie variety, with usually unclad teens being hacked to death by masked assailants. I don't need to list them here; if you're a Fright Film fan, you've already suffered through most of them, anyway. There was an occasional deviation from the formula- movies like TOURIST TRAP. While not exactly the most ORIGINAL idea ever committed to film (the mask worn by "The Killer" is straight out of the original version of THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE and the "Living Dolls" were done to death on THE TWILIGHT ZONE, etc.), TOURIST TRAP isn't as bad as it very well might have been: most of the shots are composed well and the outdoor scenes shot at night have that Dean Cundey look and feel to them (if I'm not mistaken, the cinematographer went on to do a decent little vampire movie, THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS). I liked it as a kid and I still think it's a decent little flick.

It's actually a pretty good little horror film that does get under your skin. Certainly it gets a lot of mileage out of its use of mannequins. These things have rarely been portrayed in a more off-putting, memorable manner. While this does owe an obvious influence to other horror films of the decade, such as "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", "Carrie", and "Halloween", it's still effective on its own merits. The creation of backwoods atmosphere is impressive, and at the centre of things is a marvelously demented performance by good ol' Chuck Connors as our merry antagonist.Chuck plays Mr. Slausen, proprietor of an out of the way museum who encounters some young adults who have had car trouble. Since the girls have a tendency to be stupid and go wandering off on their own, they're fair game. Unfortunately, Slausen has a younger brother, Davey, who's prowling around the premises, and soon these city slickers will find out just how much trouble they're in.Some nifty, and sinister, touches and twists make a difference in this directing credit for David Schmoeller, who also co-wrote the screenplay with J. Larry Carroll. Another heavy asset is the sometimes comical but often genuinely spooky music score by the always reliable Pino Donaggio. Other talents behind the camera include cinematographer Nicholas Josef von Sternberg, art director Robert A. Burns, and editor Ted Nicolaou; the latter two, of course, had actually worked on "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".The victims may be daft but the actors at least do a decent job. Jocelyn Jones ("The Great Texas Dynamite Chase"), daughter of the great character actor Henry Jones, is appealing as Molly, while Robin Sherwood ("Death Wish II") and Tanya Roberts ('Charlie's Angels') offer some sass as Eileen and Becky. But Chuck is the glue that holds all of this together; he's a wonderful psycho and is even touching at times.Worth it just for a particular death scene, which is really quite disturbing.Future "Tremors" and "City Slickers" director Ron Underwood was the first assistant director here.Seven out of 10.

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!

A few good jump scares in the first scene, as guy is locked in room and things start flying through the windows, and at him, while mannequin cackles, until a metal post pierces his lower back, killing him- followed by complete silence, as we survey the damage to the room, the scene of the crime. Good opening promises a lot, I hope the rest of the film can hold up. A group of three girls and one guy stumble upon a waterfall after their jeep breaks down. They don't' seem alarmed by the strange local hick (imagine George Lazenby doing a bad Clint Eastwood impersonation) trying to drive them away with a shotgun - he takes them to Slausen's Museum, closed to the public. He even decorated it himself. They're warned by this hick to stay away from the odd, old house in the distance, and for good reason. One girl goes to have a look anyway: life-like mannequins seem to be coming to life to attack her inside. In a good unmasking scene, (Phantom of the Opera reference? vaguely Psycho reference) it is revealed that the old hick thinks he is his own brother, and is killing people to turn them into wax figures, mannequins, which he has some type of power and control over. Jerry jumping out the window was a Texas Chain Saw Massacre reference. Stupid twist of Tanya getting free but then allowing villain to take her back to the house is a major turning point for the film, but not for the better. The first half is quite good, with many references to earlier horrors without being overly derivative, but this weird combo of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, House Of Wax, and Psycho gets silly during Tanya Roberts' attack, and never fully recovers its edge it had in the first half. A basic, uncomplicated premise helps, the plot is not over complicated; weird camera angels and the bizarre mannequins themselves all make this highly effective and memorable, but the climax couldn't be any more stupid. A better ending to the film could have made it a classic.