Tourist Trap is scary. It is. At least in regards to a creep factor that’s so weird, it’s become a cult classic. Tourist Trap is hilariously campy, riffing on better horror movies before it and arguably inspiring young directors to pay loving homage to it later, namely Sam Raimi.
From the opening scene, hearing Pino Donaggio’s weird but brilliant clockwork score, you’re not sure if Tourist Trap is a comedy or a horror movie. It quickly becomes apparent that Director David Schmoeller is about to screw with your brain with a very confusing but unsettling cold open.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s streaming on Shudder so you may want to watch it first since there will be some spoilers ahead even though the first five minutes of the film sets up almost everything you need to know.
A young man named Woody wanders into an old and seemingly abandoned roadside gas station/diner hoping to fill a flat tire. Instead of doing the smart thing and turning around, he decides to go inside where he discovers these strange uncanny valley mannequins. He finds himself in a dusty old storage room when suddenly the door swings shut on its own and the mannequins, opening their hinged jaws start laughing like malfunctioning baby dolls. It’s a disturbing scene made stranger when glass jars and other junk launch at him by an invisible force.
Meanwhile, his girlfriend and group of co-traveling friends (including a very young Tanya Roberts) in a different vehicle, go looking for Woody eventually arriving at the same gas station called Slausen’s Lost Oasis.
They can’t find Woody and now their car mysteriously won’t start. Enter legendary actor Chuck Connors as Mr. Slausen the tall man who owns the Lost Oasis and a very big shotgun. The setup is complete. From here, it’s slasher business as usual.
What makes this film so unique are the mannequins who might be alive. Possessed? Controlled by telekinesis? It’s never explained.
Remember above when I mentioned Sam Raimi? His first Evil Dead feels arguably like a beat-for-beat homage to Tourist Trap but instead of wax figures, Raimi used Deadites paired with a lot more gore.
Both films share a tone that is both terrifying and tongue-in-cheek. Just like Ash in Evil Dead, our final girl in Tourist Trap must avoid being turned at the hands of grotesquely ridiculous-looking villains.
Even so, a better comparison might be House of Wax both the 1953 version and the 2005 remake. However, those films take the situation more seriously and are a lot more dramatic. Tourist Trap has (unintentional?) levity, especially in scenes where life-sized wax humanoids come to life.
Tourist Trap is one of those movies that is hard to forget over the years, whether it’s because of its questionable acting or an iconic killer reveal.
If you come out of it and ask yourself, “What the hell did I just watch?” Congratulations! You join millions of others who have been saying the same thing for 45 years.
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