- Tourist Trap. (1979. Dir. David Schmoeller). Five young people on a roadside trip land in “Slausen’s Lost Oasis” —a ‘tourist trap’ of a wax museum. As they have been having car trouble, Slausen himself offers to drive to the nearest town for help. Just one rule —don’t disturb his brother, who lives in the house next door. But the house in question is filled to the brim with mannequins. Some of which appear to move on their own sometimes. And then, nobody who ever visited that house has come out of it…
What at first glance would seem to be a mis-mash of assorted horror clichés turns out to be one genuinely unique movie. While it’s true that it wears quite a few influences on its sleeve (“Psycho”, “The Texas chainsaw massacre”, “Carrie” and “Evil Dead” all spring to mind very quickly), said influences are used in a novel way: More than nods to the fans, they are used to set up situations that seem familiar, only to quickly turn them on their head. The storyline appears to be a by-the-numbers slasher movie at first —but then we get these seemingly living mannequins. Then it turns out that a few characters we had assumed to be dead might not be —and vice-versa. It all builds up to a genuinely delirious, truly oneiric (rather, truly nightmare-like) crescendo, complete with an appropriately surreal ending.
Quite recommended, both for horror fans and for fans of offbeat cinema.
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