Tourist Trap is a 1979 horror film directed by David Schmoeller, revolving around a group of friends who wind up stranded at Mr. Slausen’s “museum,” where the mannequins are very lifelike. Schmoeller co-wrote the script with J. Larry Carroll and Irwin Yablans (Halloween) produced.
Robert A. Burns, who had worked on Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, handled the art direction – and the majority of the special effects – on Tourist Trap, including the mannequins. Italian composer Pino Donaggio was working on Joe Dante’s Piranha (1978) at the time that David Schmoeller was filming Tourist Trap. Since Donaggio spoke Spanish – as did Schmoeller – the director was able to convince the composer to score the music for Tourist Trap.
Eileen (Robin Sherwood) and her boyfriend Woody (Keith McDermott) are driving through the desert. When their car gets a flat Woody goes to find a gas station. Their friends Becky (Tanya Roberts), Jerry (Jon Van Ness) and Molly (Jocelyn Jones) are traveling separately in a different vehicle. They reach Eileen waiting at the car and they all drive off to collect Woody.
Woody has found a gas station but it appears deserted. He enters the back room but becomes trapped. Various mannequins appear in the room, and multiple objects fly at him until a metal pipe impales and kills him.
The others find a tourist trap and conclude Woody is there. As they drive in, their vehicle mysteriously breaks down. Jerry tries to fix his jeep and the girls go skinny dipping in a nearby oasis. As they swim, Slausen (Chuck Connors) appears holding a shotgun. Though outwardly polite he also seems embittered by the decline of his tourist trap since the highway was moved away. The nude girls feel awkward in the water as he chats and they apologise for trespassing.
Slausen offers to help Jerry with the jeep, but insists the group go to his house with him to get his tools. There, they see the tourist trap: animated wax works type figures including armed bandits…
“The mannequins prove to be the most chilling feature, their blank expressions and unsettling laughter creating an eerie atmosphere. One sequence in particular that lingers in the memory is when one victim is literally transformed into a dummy, her face being drowned in plaster. The one plot point that never quite works is the telekinesis, which takes away from the realistic elements of the story and instead lifts it into the supernatural, immediately diluting the constant sense of dread much of the film employs. Whilst the end result is somewhat disjointed, Tourist Trap is still an effective and unique horror that still stands as arguably Charles Band’s best effort.” Retro Slashers
