DVD Review: Tourist Trap (C)

Tourist Trap (1979)
Directed by David Schmoeller
Starring Chuck Connors, Jocelyn Jones, Robin Sherwood and Tanya Roberts
MPAA: PG
Grade: C

Review by Bobby Nashville

Its tough to find horror films that are truly original, and most borrow from the classics. Tourist Trap seems to borrow a little bit from Psycho (as so many horror films do) and the rest from the Vincent Price classic House of Wax. Those are pretty good influences to work from, so when David Schmoeller cast Chuck Connors as the creepy lead for his horror flick Tourist Trap, he must have thought he was off to a pretty good start.

Tourist Trap tells the tale of some vacationers (three beautiful women and one kinda dopey fella) that get stranded at an out of the way, long closed wax/mannequin museum. The crusty old proprietor, Mr. Slausen (played very well by Chuck Connors) is a friendly but very odd man. He always seems to have a rifle with him, he has a fondness for mannequins, and likes drinking cheap beer (who can blame him on that one). Mr. Slausen takes to the pretty blonde of the group, Molly, and for some weird reason she takes a shining to him as well. Very weird.

The freaky wax museum in the middle of nowhere, combined with unexplained telekinetic powers used throughout Tourist Trap make this an odd film indeed. It approaches camp at many levels, but at the same time, it exudes an underlying creepiness that allows this movie to work. Light on the gore, yet heavy on the psychological horror, Tourist Trap tries hard to freak you out, and at times, it succeeds.

However, the reason that Tourist Trap does not really take off is the lack of a strong protagonist (that means "good guy" to all of you non-film geeks out there). The three gals stranded in the tourist trap are all blandly defined, they are basic victims, with not a lot of definition beyond that. Their guy pal is even blander, he just stands around most of the time (when he's not tied up).

Overall, Tourist Trap is an interesting horror film that never seems to get into third gear. The work by Chuck Connors (a strange casting choice that worked) is excellent, and the mannequin factor gives the film some weird aspects. But ultimately, the vague characters fleshing out the rest of Tourist Trap keep the movie from succeeding.

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