Tourist Trap (1979)
Koch Full Moon Releasing DVD (region 1)
d. David Schmoeller; pr. Leonard Baker, Charles Band, J. Larry Carroll; scr. David Schmoeller, J. Larry Carroll; ph. Nicholas Josef Von Sternberg; m. Pino Donaggio; ed. Ted Nicolau; cast. Chuck Connors, Jocelyn Jones, Jon Van Ness, Robin Sherwood, Tanya Roberts (90 mins)
The mid to late 1970s saw a number of films that can be termed the country psycho movie. These films often featured out-of-the-way establishments run by demented killers who would inevitably persecute a number of usually young and wayward or irresponsible, even merely curious intruders. The model for this subgenre is of course the seminal Tobe Hooper film of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre although there were also often allusions to the classic Psycho (ironically inspired from the same true life case – that of Wisconsin necrophile Ed Gein) as was the case with Tourist Trap. Tourist Trap was an expansion of key concepts from director David Schmoeller’s thesis film and in its adaptation to feature length he attracted the attention of budding producer / director Charles Band. Band would later become a prolific producer in the field of low budget horror / science-fiction / fantasy when he formed the ill-fated Empire Studios in the 1980s and then went on to run the successful independent Full Moon. For Full Moon, Band made a number of his friends and co-workers into in-house directors and there are some genre historians who may consider Band a downscale version of Roger Corman, a producer instrumental in launching the career of many directors: of these, David Schmoeller is perhaps the major figure and his loose trilogy of serial killer films – Tourist Trap, Crawlspace and The Arrival – are intriguing low-budget studies.
Tourist Trap takes place in the late 1970s amidst little traversed back-roads (supposedly in the South although filmed in and around Los Angeles). Several young people are on a trip, a fun excursion, when their vehicles break down and they are subsequently stranded in the woods. After some wondering about what to do, they meet a kindly old man (Chuck Connors) who invites them back to his establishment – a somewhat rundown roadside wax museum of sorts where he keeps his collection of mannequins, some rather more lifelike in appearance than others. Connors is in financial trouble, his business having been eroded by a nearby highway which has taken the roadside tourism away from his small place. Though friendly, he warns the youths (including Jocelyn Jones and a pre-stardom Tanya Roberts) all to stay away from his adjacent home, but one by one curiosity inevitably gets the better of them. Connors disappears for long stretches, during which the youths are menaced by a man in a mask, who seems to be Connors’ demented brother. This man is a serial killer. He captures two of the youths and torments them, intending to cover them in plaster and turn them into mannequins to add to the collection. After a run-in with this killer, Jones flees into the woods, only to find Connors waiting for her. She appeals to him for help but he takes her back to the roadside museum where a terrible fate awaits her. read more