Another week goes by, another movie watched by myself that I could have sworn I'd already watched years ago. Tourist Trap is quite a well-known horror movie, at least among horror movie fans who didn't just start their journey through the genre in the '90s or at the start of this century, and I always confused it with some other films I'd already seen (probably something like Just Before Dawn). Anyway, now I've finally seen it, and I'm glad.
The first feature from director David Schmoeller, who also co-wrote the thing with J. Larry Carroll, this is an enjoyably simple premise that uses the framework to deliver some impressive imagery and a feeling of spiralling madness. It may seem a bit crude and cheap to modern viewers, but there are still a handful of moments here that really impress.
Chuck Connors plays a man who encounters some holidaying youngsters in a place that is fairly isolated. There are large woods to wander around in, a lake to swim in for a whole, and the titular tourist trap, a roadside museum featuring a number of disturbing mannequins. It's not long until these young people start to get anxious about their predicament, and they start being picked off, one by one, even before you can say "the car engine won't start, dammit."
Aside from Connors, there's nobody truly memorable in the cast here. You have people like Jocelyn Jones, Jon Van Ness, Robin Sherwood, Tanya Roberts, and one or two others, enough to at least present a generous selection of potential victims. I wouldn't single anyone out as bad, nor would I single anyone out as a real highlight. Connors is fun as the standard old man who advises the younger people against too many shenanigans, but there's more of an impression made by one or two of the aforementioned mannequins.
Considering the relatively familiar and uninspired plotting, Tourist Trap excels thanks to some fantastic visuals throughout, helped by the cinematography of Nicholas Josef von Sternberg, as well as a score from Pino Donaggio accompanying the unfolding insanity. Lots of other people work behind the scenes to make this the best it can be, including Ted Nicolau editing and working in the sound department a few years before starting his own directorial career, and the end result is something that feels as surprisingly influential as it was itself influenced by a number of key horror movie classics.
It could have done with a few more suspects/red herrings, and maybe a few more scenes that showcased some onscreen bloodshed, but this remains a great little horror movie for those who will appreciate the atmosphere, creepy visuals, and general sense of characters being pushed further and further into a bottleneck of absolute insanity.
8/10
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