Every year young people disappear.

Tourist Trap
1979 | Color | 90 Minutes | 1.85:1 | PG | Horror | Stereo | Full Moon Entertainment

Source: Blu-Ray

Director: David Schmoeller

Writers: David Schmoeller, J. Larry Carroll

Stars:

Chuck Connors

Jocelyn Jones

Jon Van Ness

Tanya Roberts

Plot: Four people go in search of their missing friend. What they find is Slausen's Lost Oasis, and the mannequin dressed museum and a seemingly abandoned mansion owned by gentle old Mr. Slausen. He agrees to help with their car trouble, but some of the girls decide to look for a working phone inside the house even though Mr. Slausen warned them not too. Hidden within the home is Mr. Slausen's misunderstood mask hidden younger brother. What they learn is that the mannequins seem very much alive, or is there something much more terrifying behind the mask?

He is the Man!

Wow, where do I start? First yes I have not seen this movie until now and I have tried countless times to sit and watch this. Finally after hearing so much about it per message boards and podcast I decided it was time to sit and watch what I have been missing all of these years.  Now I'm a huge Chuck Connors fan and grew up on Gun Smoke and see the man as a father figure and in this movie he still gives you that soft warm gentleman approach. And it works so well for this movie he fits in great and you can not believe he is going to go nuts! He plays a very strong and likeable character its hard to believe he was the third choice.

The young cast fills in the gaps very well and for the young director David Schmoeller (Crawl Space, Puppet Master) who seemed to have a good handle on them. They play off of Conners like seasoned vets. And Robert Burns (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hills Have Eyes) and Ev Neill (Face Off, Hunger Games) set the mood so well that it instantly draws you in. Their creepy effects with the mannequins are truly amazing! Again why the heck do we need CG! And the setting is perfect for this movie. I really could gush on and on about the make-up and set pieces but it's better to see it believe it.

The story moves at a great pace never really giving you much time to breath. From the opening scene when Woody enters the house looking for help and Schmoeller and Burns treat us to some good special effects for the first death scene. My jaw was on the ground for the whole first 10 minutes and could watch it again right now. I get it now why so many people had nightmares due to the mannequins. Creepy!!!

And when you talk about how creepy this movie is you have to talk about Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Piranha) score! Talk about awesome, this score fits this movie in so many ways and is so creepy I must own it. Easily one of my top 10 scores of all time. Donaggio's fee for composing the score was one-sixth of the movie's budget but well worth it. Producer Irwin Yablans reportedly hated Donaggio's score for the film, as Yablans wanted another synthesized score in the same tradition as John Carpenter's Halloween. I can not stress enough how glad I am that they did not go that route it would not have worked at all.

Plasterface

The Blu-Ray itself looks pretty good. It does still have its dirt here and there and I will admit it a few times it took me out of the movie wondering just how bad did the DVD or VHS look. It does come with some pretty good special features. The audio commentary with David Schmoeller is very informative and he remembers a lot from the shot. He talks about how it startled him when the film received a PG rating despite its disturbing subject matter  he felt the film would have been more commercially successful had it received an R rating. Still I think it works just fine as a PG. He also talks about being a green director and how the script originally called for nudity, but Schmoeller was too bashful and embarrassed to bring it up with Tanya Roberts and the other actresses during casting. When they got to the lake scene, he finally asked them if they'd be willing. The collective answer was no. We also get trailers and a nice little interview with David who kind of gives you a nice recap if you do not like commentary's.



This movie hits all the high notes with a great cast, creepy special effects and one hell of a score! If you have not seen Tourist Trap yet and like me you have heard so many things about it now it's the time to check it out.

 It was easy to give this movie and everything about it

4 Bloody Brains!

I just don't know what took me so long to watch it. Here is the link to some of the sound track check it out. They just don't use the viberslab like they use to.