TOURIST TRAP (1979)

What if Texas Chainsaw had a threeway with House of Wax and Dolls? That’s the vibe I got with TOURIST TRAP…and not to its detriment. We have a group who are traveling and end up in the country (what movie doesn’t have that) where they end up at an old house via a local who offers to help them fix the tire on their car. Where that should be numero uno on what not to do in a horror movie, the way it unfolds in this one seems pretty natural. And besides, after being caught swimming naked in a public lake, why not make one more bad decision? Anyway, after being introduced to the house we are eventually treated to a collection of wax figures, mannequins, a mysterious person wearing a mask, telekinesis (random, I know), and other seemingly unwholesome vibes. What sets this one apart from most of the slasher flicks that follow the ‘local helps out traveling schmucks’ is the mystery throughout where we don’t exactly know what is going on until the story gets going…as well as the infamous ‘make a mannequin’ scene that even by today’s standards is still creepily effective. And for context remember, this was 1979; before Freddy, Jason, The Burning, any of the generic 80s slashers, etc. At this point in horror history, all we had has the first Halloween in terms of slasher genre. For that alone, this one gets entertaining points for creativity but it also executes those ideas well. If you like your horror cliché of folks getting lost and/or trouble and end up enlisting the wrong kind of help…with some mystery thrown in then check out this tourist trap. This is one you will get your money’s worth. Go for the Joe Bob Briggs version on the Last Drive-In though.

SLASH SCENE: MANNEQUIN MAKING!

SLASH SCORE: 4.5/5