An underseen classic!
Executive producer Charles Band thought he had a winning lottery ticket in his hand. The classic horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (which Band would later distribute on VHS and turn into a famously unpopular Atari video game) had just been released a few years earlier, and now he was making a new horror film with the participation of several Chain Saw crew members. Chain Saw editor J. Larry Carroll wrote the screenplay for Tourist Trap with director David Schmoeller, based on Schmoeller's University of Texas thesis film The Spider Will Kill You. Chain Saw sound recordist Ted Nicolaou edited the film, while the two productions shared production designer Robert A. Burns. Pino Donaggio, fresh off composing the score for the hit Stephen King adaptation Carrie, was brought in to score the film as well.
Best of all, Tourist Trap had legendary Western star Chuck Connors playing a complicated lead role. Connors hoped to launch a horror phase of his career and become the new Boris Karloff. Meanwhile, Band's friend John Carpenter was making a horror movie at the same time, a simple slasher called Halloween. Carpenter had even been considered for the Tourist Trap directing job before it was decided Schmoeller should direct it himself. From Band's perspective, Halloween didn't seem to have much going for it: a straightforward "maniac on the loose" story with a cast of unknowns. Sure, Donald Pleasence was in it, but Tourist Trap had the star of The Rifleman!
The two films shared the same budget ($350,000), with $50,000 of Tourist Trap's budget going to Connors. At the time, it looked like Tourist Trap would be the breakout success while Halloween might struggle. Of course, history played out very differently. Halloween became one of the biggest horror hits of all time, spawning a massive franchise, while Tourist Trap largely disappeared. Over the decades, however, it has built a devoted cult following and earned a reputation as one of the creepiest horror films of its era.
Automatonophobia is the fear of mannequins and other human-like dolls, and Tourist Trap exploits that fear masterfully. The story takes place at Slausen's Lost Oasis, the tourist trap of the title, a wax figure museum that once attracted twenty-five to thirty visitors a day before a newly built highway diverted traffic elsewhere. The museum's wax figures are actually animatronics capable of acting out various scenarios, and the property also includes a forest, a waterfall, a swimming hole (where visitors are warned about water moccasins), and a secluded house behind the museum that's filled with mannequins. Visitors aren't supposed to see what's inside that house, but when they do, things take a very dark turn at Slausen's Lost Oasis.
Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the movie begins with five young people out on a road trip in two separate vehicles. Rather than running out of gas, one vehicle gets a flat tire while the other mysteriously breaks down not far from Slausen's Lost Oasis. It initially seems like a fortunate coincidence.
Everyone in the cast had to audition except Chuck Connors, who was directly offered the role of Mr. Slausen, the seemingly kind owner of the attraction. Mr. Slausen tells a sympathetic story. The new highway destroyed his business, much like what happened to Norman Bates in Psycho, and shortly after construction finished, his beloved wife died of cancer. She had dreamed of turning the property into a resort complete with a hotel, but that future never came to pass. His talented brother created the museum's remarkable wax figures before leaving for better opportunities in the city, leaving Mr. Slausen alone with his memories and his collection of oddities. Or so he claims.
Hiding in the house behind the museum is a masked man named Davy, who insists he is Mr. Slausen's brother. According to Davy, Mr. Slausen forces him to wear masks because he's more handsome and he fears his wife would be attracted to him. Never mind that the wife is dead. Davy claims Mr. Slausen believes he remains locked away in the cellar, but he regularly sneaks out to nearby highways and gas stations, searching for victims to abduct and torment. He's not just a homicidal maniac, he also possesses powerful telekinetic abilities. Mr. Slausen supposedly disapproves of those powers, while Davy insists using them simply feels good, even if they occasionally frighten him.
The twist is that there is no Shailar Coby, the actor credited as Davy. Chuck Connors plays both Slausen brothers, delivering two completely distinct performances. As Mr. Slausen, he projects warmth and kindness. As Davy, acting behind grotesque masks and using an altered voice, he becomes deeply unsettling. Connors clearly had the talent to become the horror icon he hoped to be, so it's unfortunate that he never received more opportunities like this.
The young travelers aren't especially memorable as characters, but they serve their purpose well. Molly, played by Jocelyn Jones, gradually emerges as the film's final girl. If it isn't immediately obvious, the swimming hole scene provides the giveaway. When the others eagerly suggest skinny-dipping, Molly is naturally the one worried about not having swimsuits. She's also the member of the group who feels genuine sympathy for Mr. Slausen after hearing about his tragic past. She listens to his stories with compassion and eventually becomes curious enough to browse through his personal photo albums, discovering that one of the museum mannequins serves as a tribute to his late wife.
The supporting characters fare no better. Molly is traveling with Eileen, Woody, and married couple Jerry and Becky. Woody goes searching for help after discovering his spare tire is flat, leading him to an abandoned gas station where the nightmare begins. Eileen, the most impulsive member of the group, is immediately eager to swim without worrying about swimsuits and quickly grows suspicious of Mr. Slausen, prompting her to investigate the forbidden house behind the museum. It's a disastrous decision.
Becky occasionally feels like she could become a secondary final girl. She's happily married, avoids unnecessary curiosity, and eventually gets a genuine chance to escape her situation. She just isn't successful. The travelers aren't the only victims, either, as Davy has already been holding a young woman named Tina captive in his cellar long before the others arrive.
Before long, Molly finds herself fighting for survival against the masked killer. When she gets hold of a double-barreled shotgun, she makes exactly the right decision by emptying both barrels into him. Unfortunately, it barely slows him down, forcing her to smash him across the face with the empty weapon. It's the strongest moment for the character, who becomes increasingly passive after being captured and strapped to a bed. She remains remarkably calm while pleading for her release, a reaction that feels frustrating at first but ultimately fits where the story takes her.
The basic setup is very familiar. A group of young people experiences car trouble in the middle of nowhere. There's skinny-dipping, a suspicious old house that someone insists on exploring, a phone that conveniently doesn't work, an isolated backwoods killer, and even an "evil brother" storyline before the revelation that the brothers are actually one fractured personality. Horror films involving wax museums, mannequins, and isolated killers certainly weren't new even then. What separates Tourist Trap from its influences is Davy himself. His telekinetic abilities, reportedly added at Charles Band's request following the success of Carrie, transform what could have been another rural slasher into something much stranger. The powers work perfectly within the film's dreamlike atmosphere, making scenes of flying objects and animated mannequins feel genuinely nightmarish. Combined with Pino Donaggio's eerie score, they give the movie a uniquely unsettling atmosphere.
The opening sequence immediately establishes that Tourist Trap's horror scenes are unlike anything audiences might expect. As Woody enters the deserted gas station searching for help, the building erupts into supernatural chaos. Doors slam open and shut, lights flicker, objects fly across rooms, and a mannequin appears to laugh at him. Just as he breaks through a door in an attempt to escape, unseen hands restrain him while a metal pipe flies through the air and impales him. Death by telekinesis.
Eileen's fate is similarly memorable. Inside the house behind the museum, Davy uses his powers to lock doors, shatter windows, hurl objects around the room, and ultimately strangle her with a scarf.
Other characters are killed with thrown knives, transformed into mannequins and dismantled, or overwhelmed by rooms full of mannequins that somehow come to life. But the film's most disturbing scene belongs to Tina. In front of Jerry and Becky, Davy slowly covers her face in plaster while calmly narrating the experience: "Your world is dark. You'll never see again." It's one of the most unnerving death scenes in horror history.
Production began in the Los Angeles area on March 27, 1978, and wrapped after just twenty-four days. As Tourist Trap entered post-production, John Carpenter was beginning principal photography on Halloween. Carpenter's film reached theaters first in the fall of 1978, while Tourist Trap followed in March 1979. While Halloween received an R rating, Tourist Trap earned only a PG. That may have hurt the movie initially, as audiences fresh from Halloween could have assumed this PG horror film would be tame. It isn't. Although it lacks nudity despite featuring a skinny-dipping sequence, its violence is surprisingly disturbing and its bizarre atmosphere keeps you on edge.
Its weirdness may have limited its commercial appeal as much as its rating did, but the PG rating ultimately benefited the film. It allowed Tourist Trap to receive heavy syndication on television, introducing it to generations of viewers who gradually transformed it into a cult favorite.
Among those admirers is Stephen King, who wrote in Danse Macabre that Tourist Trap "wields an eerie spooky power." Another is drive-in movie host Joe Bob Briggs, who selected the film for his first Shudder special, declared it one of the most underrated horror films ever made, and spent much of the broadcast enthusiastically discussing Chuck Connors' career and his unrealized ambition to become horror's next Boris Karloff. Joe Bob also explored David Schmoeller's career and highlighted cast members like Tanya Roberts, while jokingly deducting half a star from his rating because a horror movie with a skinny-dipping scene somehow managed to avoid showing any nudity. Briggs' favorite film is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, making Tourist Trap an especially fitting choice for his Shudder return.
More than forty-five years after its release, Tourist Trap still deserves far more attention than it receives. It's one of those horror movies that lingers in viewers' memories thanks to its bizarre atmosphere, unsettling imagery, and unforgettable Chuck Connors performance. It may never have become the phenomenon Charles Band expected while Halloween conquered the world, but time has been kind to Tourist Trap. It remains one of horror's great cult films and one of its most underrated gems.
No comments:
Post a Comment