Review of Tourist Trap

TOURIST TRAP (1979) *** 1/2 Lurid and spooky low-budget horror quickie of some cult quality about a group of young friends on a road trip that are detoured into a nightmare when their Jeep breaks down in the middle-of-nowhere discovering a broken-down wax museum run by a deranged caretaker (Chuck Connors channeling Vincent Price and affectively off-beat to boot) with a madman brother named 'Davey' whose telekinesis leads to murderous activities. Creepy and often joltingly scary thanks in large part of the film's singular stroke of genius in using the disturbing imagery of the mannequins that seemingly come to life with screaming, gaping eye-less maws that get under one's skin and has a long-lasting effect long after viewing this arguably guilty-pleasure cheese-fest (Connors has some loony moments including a riotously black humor soaked 'soup sequence' and playing with dolls) that provides some unsettling choice edits of shock and disbelief of what is unspooling. Pre-'Charlie's Angels' sexpot Tanya Roberts is one of the doomed guests providing a few moments of genuine terror at the proceedings at hand. Kudos to filmmaker David Schmoeller (who co-wrote the screenplay with J. Larry Carroll) in treading the sublime with the ridiculous to the utterly horrific. A blend of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' by way of 'Carrie' and 'Psycho' yet original none-the-less as a precursor to the genre yet to come: madman-slasher-on-the-loose. Best bits: the first victim's genuinely scary demise (those laughing dummies scared the hell out of me!); the attic sequences with 'Davey' and the film's freeze-frame ending that will haunt you for days! One of the few films that truly unnerved me when I saw it as a kid and recently viewing it on DVD gave me pause to watch in the dark ….alone! Screams for a remake! Best line: 'See my friend!'