Tourist Trap – 1979
Director
David Schmoeller

Writers
David Schmoeller
J. Larry Carroll

Cast
Chuck Connors
Jocelyn Jones
Jon Van Ness

Review by Wayne Malin

OK horror film–not scary, but a little creepy,
The plot is old and, with the exception of Connors, the acting is pretty dreadful. Still this movie sort of works. A car with a bunch of kids (20s) breaks down in the middle of nowhere and a kindly man (Connors) offers to help them. Too bad they didn’t know he has a psycho brother and a wax museum full of very life-like mannequins–VERY life-like. You can take it from there. It’s predictable, but the movie does work (sometimes). The mannequins in this film are enough to scare anybody and I’ll never forget the sequence in which a woman walks across a room full of mannequins and their eyes all follow her!

As I mentioned before, Connors gives a very good performance–he’s scary and also very likable. Too bad the material isn’t there for him. Purportedly, this movie was a drive-in favorite (probably because of the PG rating). Also, I know it’s a cult film which totally escapes me. I’m assuming the cult is made up of people who were scared by it when they were kids–this film would scare kids–not adults. So, all in all, a pretty good little time-filler–nothing more.