tourist trap plaster scene

The Death of Summer: ‘Tourist Trap’ & ‘House of Wax’ Make for a Perfect Double Feature

We are still in the heat of summer, and that means there’s still some time for the pool, camping, and leisurely road trips across the country. If you’re inclined to take to the open road, may I suggest sticking to major highways and leaving dusty backroads alone. You don’t wanna end up like the kids in either David Schmoeller’s Tourist Trap or Jaume Collet-Serra’s House of Wax (2005). You’re smarter than that. Sure, there’s a compelling case to be made for swapping out hardtop for gravel and dirt. Perhaps you want to witness relics of the past for yourself – abandoned towns and roadside barbeque pits, or even the scarce side-show attraction (if those still even exist). But don’t be a fool. If there’s anything to be learned here, it’s that disaster awaits around the next bend.

In 1979’s Tourist Trap , a group of youths ignore every possible red flag and venture off the main road in search of their friend. Woody (Keith McDermott), who set off on foot to get a spare tire fixed, stumbles upon a derelict gas station. The place is eerily empty, with no one manning the desk. Against his better judgment, he tiptoes to the backroom, where he hears the muffled cries of a woman. But when he approaches, a mannequin pops up from the sheets and cackles. Several more plastic figures bounce from the shadows, screeching with their mouths agape and bobbing their wigs. It’s an unholy scene – and the entire reason I became fearful of mannequins as a kid. Woody inevitably dies from a deep flesh wound. As objects come flying from a cupboard, a metal spike impales in him the back.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group make their way off the main drag onto a gravel road and pass a sign which reads, “Slausen’s Lost Oasis.” When their Jeep breaks down, Molly (Jocelyn Jones), Eileen (Robin Sherwood), and Becky (Tanya Roberts) leave Jerry (Jon Van Ness) to fix the vehicle and go skinny dipping in a nearby oasis. Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors) appears and laments the lack of business ever since the highway was built. He then offers to help Jerry with the automobile and gives the group a ride back to his wax museum.

Lurking in the shadows, a killer (Slausen’s brother Davey) wearing a mannequin’s face circles around the group. When the moment presents itself, he pounces on his prey – picking off the characters one by one. But he’s not your typical serial murderer. He wields telekinetic abilities. With such power, he frequently kills without even touching his victims (an unseen force chokes Eileen with her scarf, for example). What would be your ho-hum horror flick turns into a wonderfully disturbing funhouse. The mannequins, proving to be essential to the story, are basically the killer’s makeshift family. They have personalities of their very own, each one bending to the will of their master.

‘Tourist Trap’

Once Becky and Jerry are captured and tied in the basement, we meet another traveler named Tina (Dawn Jeffory-Nelson). In the film’s most frightening scene – the scene I remember most as a kid – Davey puts sticky plaster over Tina’s face. Blob by blob, her face is completely covered. “You’ll die of fright,” he snarls, claiming she won’t die of suffocation. Her heart will burst from her chest before that happens. Her heart throbs in our eardrums, each pulsating beat growing in intensity until she stops squirming. She heaves one last time before her body becomes cold and lifeless.

Later, Molly runs for her life through the surrounding woods. Davey carries a mannequin’s head and tosses it to the ground, where it tumbles and screams into the night air. I also recall this chase scene the most; there was and is something about it that’s downright terrifying. I think it’s the mannequin head. It’s always the mannequins. Burn them all with fire.

…but I digress.

Molly eventually meets Slausen driving in the woods, and he takes her back to the museum. He hands her a shotgun while he heads inside. Unbeknownst to her, Davey sneaks up from the darkness and attacks her. Molly fires several shots, knocking Davey to the ground and shattering his mask. Slausen reveals himself as the killer with a shit-eating grin etched across his face – one of the greatest killer reveals of all time!

Back at the museum, Becky and Jerry escape their ropes. Becky, unfortunately, meets a grisly fate, getting stabbed in the back of the head – but Jerry manages to come to Molly’s rescue. Molly, tied to a bed, breaks free and fends off her attacker just long enough for Jerry to arrive. But Jerry isn’t Jerry. Jerry is a mannequin under Slausen’s command. What a twist! After screaming her lungs out, Molly gets the upper hand and slaughters Slausen with an axe.

A very traumatized Molly hops in the Jeep and drives away, with the mannequin versions of her friends piled in next to her. Dawn has broken, and Molly has managed to barely get away within an inch of her life. The film stops abruptly, leaving the final moment to be a chilling reminder of her friends’ untimely deaths.

Tourist Trap captures the sheer terror of being stranded in the middle of nowhere. There’s a sense of isolation that presses upon you from every edge of the frame. It’s claustrophobic and unrelenting. Connors undeniably steals the show with his dual-deranged performance, each character distinctly different from the other. Like many genre performances, he deserved major hardware for his turn as Davey/Slausen. While the rest of the characters are pretty uninspired, it ultimately doesn’t matter. The disturbing nature of the mannequins and several twists are more than worth the price of admission. As many times as I’ve seen this film, the curveballs still hit me. It’s one helluva trip.

‘House of Wax’

Once across the shallow creek, they enter the town of Ambrose. The streets are empty, save for a few parked cars peppered here and there. That should have been a tell-tale sign right there that something was amiss. Not as single person is found. But they walk further into town, anyway, first heading to the only gas station where they discover it abandoned, and then to the church. There, they interrupt a funeral, much to the dismay of the preacher and gas station attendant Bo (Brian Van Holt). Bo is dashing, and honestly, he’s quite a hunk. Nothing, in particular, seems off about him. While he finishes up the funeral service, Carly and Wade head up to Trudy’s House of Wax and poke around the various sculptures. Everything is made of wax, even the walls, the ceiling, and the floors.

Later, Bo gives Carly and Wade a ride back up to his house to get a fan belt. While using the bathroom, Wade gets bludgeoned over the head by Bo’s brother Vincent and yanked into the basement, where Vincent hooks a now-naked Wade up to a contraption that sprays molten wax all over his body. A horrific sequence that’s still burned into my brain. The first time I viewed the film, I recall the shivers that danced down my spine. Just last week I burned my fingertips on hot candle wax – can you imagine that sensation all over the body?!? Yikes.

The film comes to an appropriately fiery end. When it’s “revealed” that Vincent is actually Bo’s brother – unlike Tourist Trap – the showdown happens inside the wax museum, which has now caught fire. Carly and Nick fight for their lives, staving off Vincent’s advances while also trying to survive the building’s slow melting. Carly beats Bo to death with a baseball bat, and later, Vincent is stabbed in the back and falls to his death into the all-consuming flames. Carly and Nick barely escape… The following morning, the cops arrive and survey the scene. The film’s twist comes when the cops expose that there was a third brother in the family: Lester, who waves to Carly and Nick as they drive away. I gotta admit, I was hooked on the idea. Too bad we never got a sequel. We deserved one!

With their similarly-plotted stories, there’s no better double feature for summer than Tourist Trap and House of Wax . Again, there’s still time to hit the highway and go on a road trip, up the coast or into the mountains. If, perchance, you decide to venture deep into the wooded countryside, don’t forget the biggest horror rule of all: never split up. You’ll survive longer that way. But even still, just never leave the main road no matter what you do. Doing so only spells disaster.

Double Trouble is a recurring column that pairs up two horror films, past or present, based on theme, style, or story.

11 Years Later: The Horrific Cycles of Violence in ‘Only God Forgives’ Starring Ryan Gosling

Traditionally, movie theater walkouts are usually associated with the horror genre, with infamous cases ranging from 1973’s The Exorcist (particularly during the crucifix masturbation scene) and even Lars Von Trier’s controversial serial killer memoir, The House That Jack Built .

That being said, there are exceptions to this rule, as some movies manage to terrorize audiences into leaving the theater regardless of genre. One memorable example of this is Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2013 revenge thriller Only God Forgives , a film so brutal and inaccessible that quite a few critics ended up treating it like a snuff film from hell back when it was first released. However, I’ve come to learn that horror fans have a knack for seeing beyond the blood and guts when judging the value of a story, and that’s why I’d like to make a case for Winding’s near-impenetrable experiment as an excellent horror-adjacent experience.

Refn originally came up with the idea for Only God Forgives immediately after completing 2009’s Valhalla Rising and becoming confused by feelings of anger and existential dread during his wife’s second pregnancy. It was during this time that he found himself imagining a literal fistfight with God, with this concept leading him to envision a fairy-tale western set in the far east that would deal with some of the same primal emotions present in his Viking revenge story.

It was actually Ryan Gosling who convinced the director to tackle the more commercially viable Drive first, as he wanted to cement his partnership with the filmmaker in a more traditional movie before tackling a deeply strange project. This would pay off during the production of Only God Forgives, as the filmmaking duo was forced to use their notoriety to scrounge up money at a Thai film festival when local authorities began demanding bribes in order to allow shooting to continue.

In the finished film, Gosling plays Julian, an American ex-pat running a Muay-Thai boxing club alongside his sociopathic brother Billy ( Tom Burke ). When Billy gets himself killed after sexually assaulting and murdering a teenager, Julian is tasked by his disturbed mother ( Kristin Scott Thomas ) with tracking down those responsible for the death of her first-born child. What follows is a surreal dive into the seedy underbelly of Bangkok as the cycle of revenge escalates and violence leads to even more violence.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

There’s no right or wrong way to engage with art, but there are some films that clearly require more effort from the audience side in order to be effective. And while you can’t blame cinemagoers for just wanting to enjoy some passive entertainment, I think it’s always worth trying to meet a work of art on its own terms before judging it.

Despite being a huge fan of Drive , I avoided Only God Forgives for a long time because of its poor critical reception and excessively esoteric presentation. It was only years later that I gave the flick a chance when a friend of mine described the experience as “David Lynch on cocaine.” It was then that I realized that nearly everything critics had complained about in the film are precisely what made it so interesting.

If you can stomach the deliberate pacing, you’ll likely be fascinated by this stylish nightmare about morally questionable people becoming trapped in a needless cycle of violence and retaliation. Not only is the photography impeccable, turning the rain-slicked streets of Bangkok into a neo-noir playground, but the bizarre characters and performances also help to make this an undeniably memorable movie. And while Gosling deserves praise as the unhinged Julian, I’d argue that Vithaya Pansringarm steals the show here as “The Angel of Vengeance,” even if his untranslated dialogue is likely to be unintelligible for most viewers.

However, I think the lack of subtitles ends up enhancing the mood here (even though some editions of the film ended up including them against the director’s wishes), adding to the feeling that Julian is a stranger in a strange land while also allowing viewers to project their own motivations onto some of the “antagonists.”

And while Only God Forgives is frequently accused of burying its narrative underneath a pile of artsy excess, I think the heart of the film is rather straightforward despite its obtuse presentation. I mean, the moral here is basically “revenge isn’t fun,” which I think is made clear by the horrific use of violence (though we’ll discuss that further in the next section).

To be clear, I’m still not sure whether or not I enjoyed this movie, I just know that I’m glad I watched it.

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

There are two different kinds of gore effects. One of them is meant to entertain viewers with exaggerated wounds and excessive blood as you admire the craftsmanship behind the filmmaking. The other kind is simply a tool meant to simulate what actually happens when you injure a human body. Like I mentioned before, Only God Forgives isn’t trying to be “fun,” so you can guess what kind gore is in this one…

From realistic maimings to brutal fist fights that feel more painful than thrilling, the “action” label on this flick seems downright questionable when the majority of the experience has you wincing at genuinely scary acts of grisly violence. I mean, the story begins with an unmotivated rampage through the streets of late-night Bangkok and ends with the implication of even more pointless violence, so it’s pretty clear that you’re not really meant to root for an “action hero” here.

I can’t even say that the deaths resemble those from slasher flicks because the movie never attempts to sensationalize these horrific acts, with Refn preferring to depict them as straightforward consequences of violent people going through the motions – which is somehow even scarier than if this had just been yet another hyper-violent revenge movie.

Not only that, but the characters’ overall lack of moral principles makes this story even more disturbing, with the main antagonist being the closest thing to a decent person among the main cast despite also being a brutal vigilante.

Only God Forgives doesn’t care if you like it or not (and actually takes measures to make sure that the viewing experience is often unpleasant), but if you’re willing to step up to this cinematic challenge and engage with the narrative and visuals on their own terms, I think you’ll find an unforgettable nightmare waiting for you on the other side.

There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.

Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’ Is Now Available to Watch at Home!

‘Infested’ Review – One of the Best Spiders Attack Horror Movies in Years

Mr. Vampire - underseen vampire horror movies

Five Underseen Vampire Horror Movies to Stream This Week

Limited Edition ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ Monster High Doll Releasing This Week!

Rated “R” ‘The Little Mermaid’ Horror Movie Coming Soon; Watch the Trailer

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Search Please fill out this field.
Newsletters
Sweepstakes

Tourist Trap star recalls shooting gruesome death scene: 'This darned role almost traumatized me!'

How Dawn Jeffory-Nelson portrayed a nightmarish demise in director David Schmoeller's horror film

Senior Writer

To read more from EW’s Untold Stories issue, pick up the new Entertainment Weekly on stands now, or buy it here . Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

In director David Schmoeller’s 1979 film Tourist Trap , a group of college-age kids are terrorized at a mannequin-filled roadside attraction owned by Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors) and his brother, Davey (who is really Slausen in a mask). Although the film was rated PG, there is nothing kiddie-friendly about the scene in which Davey literally scares the strapped-to-a-table Tina (Dawn Jeffory-Nelson) to death by smothering her face in plaster. Below, the actress recalls shooting this nightmarish moment.

DAWN JEFFORY-NELSON: This darned role almost traumatized me! I could not get off of that damn table. I’d hop up there and [the props person] would buckle me down with handcuffs or whatever, and I believe there was also a rope across my body, or another belt. So that in itself is kind of crazy. You feel very vulnerable.

On the comic side, there were so many mannequins and body parts all over the set, that they would sometimes forget that that was a “real” me. I mean, literally, I had people lean on me. One time, they all left me there. Lunch was called and everybody ran off to lunch. And I’m yelling, “Hey, you guys, unstrap me!” David Schmoeller, the director, was a doll. He was very supportive and he would remember to ask if I was okay. [ Laughs ] So, that was the funny side of being in a set peopled with mannequins.

It was either mashed potatoes or whipped cream being put on my face. I can’t remember which. I probably had to act out my death five to eight times. Not having suffocated or died of a heart attack — thank God! — I did some research on the breathing and what happens to the body. You suspend your disbelief, and you go for it.

I don’t think the film was very well reviewed, but many more people than I ever suspected love the film, which is awesome. I was the acting coach for the young boy who played Danny in the miniseries of The Shining . One of the things I found out was that this was one of Stephen King’s favorite films. But it still is a surprise to me. None of us thought it was going to become a cult classic!

Watch the trailer for Tourist Trap , above.

New Releases
Avengers April
Full Moon Fridays
Godzilla Retrospective
Star Wars Retrospective
Summer of Slashers
Troma Tuesdays
Universal Monsters Marathon

Select Page

Tourist Trap (1979)

Posted by FilmNerd | Aug 28, 2020 | Cult Films , Full Moon Fridays , Horror , Reviews | 0 |

After earning a Master’s degree from the University of Texas, David Schmoeller got an internship working on 1978’s Capricorn One . Following his internship, Schmoeller was developing a screenplay off of his thesis film The Spider Will Kill You . He wrote the screenplay alongside J. Larry Carroll, and they tried pitching it to Sam Arkoff and Bruce Cohn Curtis. Eventually, they pitched their screenplay to Charles Band, who liked it and agreed to produce, with Schmoeller serving as director. He was given a $300,000 budget, $50,000 of which would go towards a name actor, that actor being Chuck Connors. The rest of the cast consisted of relatively unknown actors, though they helped Schmoeller learn working with actors. The crew included production designer Robert Burns from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Pino Donaggio as the composer. Finally, March of 1979 saw the release of Schmoeller’s directorial debut, Tourist Trap .

Friends Molly (Jocelyn Jones), Jerry (Jon Van Ness), Eileen (Robin Sherwood), and Becky (Tanya Roberts) are traveling through the desert. Unfortunately, their car breaks down, but fortunately, they get help from Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors), a tourist trap owner. The four follow him to said tourist trap, a museum full of lifelike wax mannequins, some having mechanical movements. Slausen tells the girls to stay in the museum while he and Jerry go off to fix the truck. Eileen, however, ignores his warning and goes to check out a nearby house, where she runs into a masked killer. When they don’t hear back from them, Becky and Molly decide to go find them, only to find something horrifying. Turns out Slausen’s brother, who built the mannequins, has been in hiding and killing any tourists who come by. But not all is as it seems at the local tourist trap!

Tourist Trap is a very underrated chiller that could be considered a slasher film, releasing one year after Halloween . Admittedly, its plot is nothing special: young people stranded in a deserted area being stalked by a killer. Not only that, but the film borrows elements from other films, including Psycho , Carrie , and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . That being said, this film has plenty to help it stand apart, such as its mood and emphasis on atmosphere. Chuck Connors delivers a phenomenal performance as Mr. Slausen, who seems innocent and charming, but you know there’s something off. The other actors do a serviceable job, Jocelyn Jones, in particular, standing out as our main heroine and final girl. For a first-time director, Schmoeller shows quite a lot of potential here, creating an effectively creepy and unnerving mood throughout. It’s easy to see how he went on to later direct Puppet Master .

For a PG-rated film, Tourist Trap is surprisingly disturbing, even with the lack of excessive blood and gore. For instance, there’s a death scene where a woman suffocates from having plaster applied to her face without breathing holes. Also, if you’re freaked out by mannequins, this film will haunt you with all the shots of their blank faces. There are some supernatural elements added in which, while not a detractor from the film, feel somewhat out of place. On the flip side, Donaggio’s score is very unique, at times playful and innocent, and other times haunting and creepy. Even with a 90-minute runtime, the film can be slow at times, but it does work to build up tension. Even with its flaws, it’s a shame this movie is so overlooked as it’s an effectively creepy film deserving recognition. Overall, Tourist Trap is an effective chiller worthy of its cult status.

Buy Tourist Trap from Full Moon Direct: https://bit.ly/2EG12PM

8 Million Ways to Die (1986)

July 20, 2018

Venom (2018)

October 5, 2018

Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)

November 10, 2020

The 12 Slays of Christmas (2022)

December 23, 2022

Top Rated Movies

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
12 Angry Men (1957)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Fade to Black (1980)

Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time.

Switch to the dark mode that's kinder on your eyes at night time.

Shudder Classics: Tourist Trap is Everything You’re Looking For

Shudder Classics is a new series from 25YL. Our writers have been given free reign to pick a film from the Shudder library that they feel is a classic and tell us why. Join Josh Lami as he looks back at the film that brought Joe Bob Briggs back to the drive-in, Tourist Trap.

What can be said about David Schmoeller’s horror masterwork, Tourist Trap (1979), that hasn’t already been said? A lot, actually, as this movie has been criminally under-appreciated since its release. Especially considering the fact that Stephen King gave this movie a lot of praise. No doubt, many will note this movie as the kickoff to Joe Bob Briggs’ return to horror movie hosting in July of last year for the thirteen-movie marathon The Last Drive-In…and what a perfect movie to lead with. So perfect in fact, that the wise folks over at Shudder saw fit to turn the one-time deal into a weekly series. I’ve said before that I wouldn’t be averse to Joe Bob hosting this movie again on the series, simply because there are so many scenes perfect for fat-chewing. That’s almost certainly not going to happen, though, and that’s part of why 25YL is here. To jaw-flap about movies. There’s Always More to Discuss.

Now let’s talk about that opening scene in Tourist Trap . Woody and his girlfriend find themselves stranded on the side of the road…we’re either watching a horror movie or a porno…and oh look, there’s a gas station just up ahead. Woody stupidly wanders around the convenience store and finds a mostly empty room with a couple of mannequins lying around. They begin taunting him. I just want to say I’d have dipped out the moment I saw the first sign of life from a wooden dummy. I think anyone would have, but we don’t come to these types of horror movies with an expectation of well-developed, believable characters. We come to see dumb people do dumb things and die in insanely idiotic ways.

Schmoeller doesn’t disappoint. Woody tries in a futile effort to break through the door and escape from a bunch of laughing mannequins, Jack Torrance style, but ultimately fails when (presumably) someone grabs his arm and holds him in place on the other side of the doorway as Woody is pelted with household items. The scene culminates with him being impaled by a steel pole, which enters the base of his spine. Without uttering a single gasp, in total silence, Woody makes this face:

Lego to the foot, pole to the spine... one expression to rule them all.

This is the exact face of silent, excruciating pain my grandmother used to make if someone stepped on her corn.

Tourist Trap along with Motel Hell and Friday the 13th represent some of the best slasher fare available during an era before slashers would ultimately go on to dominate the horror movie landscape during the 1980s. There were masterpieces released in that era, like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Sleepaway Camp , screwball clones that are still fun anyway like Blood Rage , and middle of the road slasher efforts that make up the bulk of this sub-genre with movies like Slumber Party Massacre and I, Madman .

But then there are the prototypical movies that were just a smidge ahead of their time. Am I saying Tourist Trap is ahead of its time? Yes, but not because audiences weren’t ready for such onscreen brilliance. Rather, because if it had been released a few years later it might have opened to a more receptive audience. Maybe not, but it seems likely that Tourist Trap would have fared better in 1982 than in 1979.

As much as I love the Friday the 13th franchise, I’ve never personally been scared or disturbed by a scene in twelve movies (and counting). Tourist Trap , on the other hand, boasts a scene that is genuinely terrifying and suspenseful, a feat most slasher films of the ‘80s cannot claim. They can claim camp, humor, nostalgia, and even evoking moments of disgust and special effects innovation, but few of them can actually say they induce genuine dread and fear in viewers. Tourist Trap , for all its campiness and predictability, still manages to bother horror fans in 2019 with a scene that is no less than mortifying for those not expecting it.

In a scene straight out of my nightmare list of ways I’d prefer not to die, the character of Tina (Dawn Jeffory) is strapped down to a table by a masked Chuck Connors looking suspiciously like Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Slowly and methodically he spackles her face with plaster, which begins hardening, as he narrates the terror and excruciating pain she’s currently undergoing. As far as narrators go, this fella is less Martin Jarvis and more Keith David as possessed by an evil Wolfman Jack. Remarking that the plaster may indeed be cool to the touch, it soon will begin burning Tina’s skin as it sets. Connors sounds genuinely haunting as he declares “now your world is dark, and you will never see again.”

That line could only be scary if you knew it to be true, and the helpless woman strapped to a table knows exactly that.

Her friends watch in horror as she either suffocates or her heart explodes within her chest from fright. It’s a scene that’s both anti-climactic and overwhelming. Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors) declares that it’s the exploding heart which will ultimately be Tina’s demise, but I’m not sure on the accuracy of such a statement. Can that even happen? Still, just the thought adds an unnerving layer of what if during a scene in need of exactly that amount of ambiguity. Good horror is ultimately a well-balanced equation; Schmoeller has worked one out. It’s not the theory of relativity or anything so profound, but it’s a good equation…probably. I’m an English person and a movie guy. I’m just guessing with these math analogies.

The big reveal is should be that Mr. Slausen and his brother are one and the same, despite assertions that they are two different people. Watching this movie for all of twenty minutes (at most), you’ll notice Mr. Slausen never enters the same shot as his crazed brother. This will cause the half-attentive viewer to guess the ending long before the revelation.

In a sense, I wonder how sequels to Tourist Trap might have been. God knows I’d have loved to see Chuck Connors back in action as Mr. Slausen and his Leatherface-ripoff alter ego.

Alas, the movie wasn’t particularly successful and spawned zero sequels. That’s probably for the best. No possibility of bastardization, just a fine horror film that is a blast to watch with your friends or even by yourself on an otherwise boring night. There’s little to analyze in terms of deeper meanings, but there are some solidly creepy moments and mannequin designs keeping the viewer feeling like they’re watching a slasher movie, not quite on the level of Halloween , but still a cut above the rest. If you’ve never seen it before but are looking for a movie reminiscent of the golden era of horror, look no further. If you’ve seen it numerous times, like me, there’s no better time than the present to watch it again. Like pie, any time is a good time for Tourist Trap .

horror Shudder Slasher Supernatural Horror Chuck Connors Joe Bob Briggs The Last Drive-In Tourist Trap

Very cool. And thanks for reading!

The full moon dvd release of Tourist Trap has a commentary by David Schmoeller in which he talks about the inspiration for the plaster face scene.

Written by Josh Lami

Sometimes Dead is Better: Horror Obsessive Team Celebrates Thirty Years of Pet Sematary

Buried Treasures: American Mary

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website.

Add to Collection

Public collection title

Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review

Tourist Trap (1979)

Rating: ★★★.

Director – David Schmoeller, Screenplay – David Schmoeller & J. Larry Carroll, Producer – J. Larry Carroll, Photography – Nicholas Von Sternberg, Music – Pino Donaggio, Special Effects – Richard O. Helmer, Makeup Effects – David Ayres, Robert A. Burns, Ken Horn, Ve Neill & Karen Stern, Art Direction – Burns. Production Company – Charles Band Productions.

Chuck Connors (Slausen), Jocelyn Jones (Molly), Jon Van Ness (Jerry), Tanya Roberts (Becky), Robin Sherwood (Eileen)

Four friends are travelling along a backroad when their vehicle breaks down. They are caught skinny-dipping at a nearby waterfall by the genial Slausen who owns the land. He introduces them to his pride and joy – a museum full of very lifelike mannequins built by his brother Davey as a tourist exhibit, which now languishes unvisited after the new highway took the traffic away. As they wander into the house, the mannequins come to life, along with Davey who has seemingly returned from the dead to stalk and kill them.

Tourist Trap is a genuinely strange film. Nobody knew how to pigeonhole it when it came out. There was an attempt to sell it as part of the slasher cycle created by Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980), although it did not belong there. Certainly, it has a typical slasher entourage – one can spot the good girl who is going to survive because she is dressed as a ridiculous Little Bo Peep figure all in white, while the other girls wear as little as possible without actually taking their clothes off. There is the house with the dark, twisted past taken right from Psycho (1960), while the situations the victims wander into are predictable slasher fare.

However, Tourist Trap also has a genuinely strange atmosphere to it. There are some spooky scenes with phones ringing only to find the cord is not connected. Chuck Connors has some extremely strange moments – there is one scene where he sits down to have dinner with a mannequin that comes to life and starts conversing with him before its head falls off. Or the genuinely creepy scene where Jon Van Ness comes to rescue Jocelyn Jones only to have Connors remove Van Ness’s arm and then his head, revealing that he has been an animated mannequin without realising it.

Connors has clear fun, giving a great demented performance – although it is of no great surprise when he turns out to be the killer all along. Connors has one great scene with victim Dawn Jeffory tied to a table as he plasters over her face, all the while telling her how she is going to die from fright, how her skin is going to burn, how he will cover her eyes and then her lips and then her heart will explode from fright, which it promptly does. The only failing of the scene is the laughable lack of consistency to the plaster, which nobody thought to water down and ends up being applied in solid, caked lumps.

The film is also lumbered by having to make essentially inanimate mannequins appear sinister. To his credit, director David Schmoeller does a fine job, having their eyes and limbs move out of the corner of the eye. Unfortunately, the mannequins are only standard storefront mannequins and are far from the convincingly lifelike, near human figures they are held out to be throughout the film.

Tourist Trap was one of the earliest efforts of producer Charles Band, before the formation of the Empire chain and Full Moon Productions where Band and father Albert made numerous B genre movies. David Schmoeller returned to make several other films for the Bands’ subsequently, some of which uncannily echo elements of Tourist Trap – notably Crawlspace (1986), which features Klaus Kinski as another demented psycho pursuing women through an old decaying house, and Puppetmaster (1989), which features more magically animated figures, in this case puppets, stalking people through an abandoned hotel. Schmoeller’s other genre films are The Seduction (1982), Catacombs (1988), the alien vampire film The Arrival (1991), the strange the voodoo film Netherworld (1992) and the children’s films The Secret Kingdom (1997), Search for the Jewel of Polaris: Mysterious Museum (1999) and Little Monsters (2012). The film was also one of the earliest acting parts of later Charlie’s Angel and B movie actresses Tanya Roberts.

Trailer here

Tourist Trap (1979)

Parents Guide

Certification

Sex & Nudity (2)
Violence & Gore (6)
Profanity (1)
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking (1)
Frightening & Intense Scenes (3)
Spoilers (3)

Sex & Nudity

None 36 of 62 found this to have none Severity? None 36 Mild 22 Moderate 1 Severe 3 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
Nude mannequins are seen with visible nipples. Not sexualized. Edit
Three girls go skinny dipping, but we only see their bare shoulders, no nudity is visible. Edit

Violence & Gore

Moderate 25 of 44 found this moderate Severity? None 1 Mild 13 Moderate 25 Severe 5 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
A forced kiss. Edit
A man is impaled on a large pipe that flies out of a cupboard. We see blood trickling out from the pipe. Edit
A woman is strangled to death. Edit
A woman is suffocated to death by having plaster applied to her entire face. Edit
A woman is struck in the head with a tomahawk; some blood is visible on her hands and head. Edit
A man has an axe slammed into his neck. Some blood is shown. Edit
None 28 of 34 found this to have none Severity? None 28 Mild 5 Moderate 1 Severe 0 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
Uses of damn and hell. Edit

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

None 27 of 34 found this to have none Severity? None 27 Mild 6 Moderate 1 Severe 0 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
A character drinks a small amount of wine. Edit

Frightening & Intense Scenes

Moderate 25 of 46 found this moderate Severity? None 3 Mild 7 Moderate 25 Severe 11 We were unable to submit your evaluation. Please try again later.
(Deleted. Personal opinions about ratings are not appropriate for the Parents Guide.) Edit
Creepy and unsettling mannequins. Edit
A character is suffocated with plaster.. Edit

The Parents Guide items below may give away important plot points.

A forcible kiss. Edit
A man has his arm, then his head, ripped off. No blood. Edit
A man with a terrifying mask chases a woman with the head of a talking doll in his hands. Edit

Taglines | Plot Summary | Synopsis | Plot Keywords