Tourist Trap – Die Touristenfalle (1979)

Tourist Trap – Die Touristenfalle: Directed by David Schmoeller. With Jocelyn Jones, Jon Van Ness, Robin Sherwood, Tanya Roberts. A group of young friends stranded at a secluded roadside museum are stalked by a masked assailant who uses his telekenetic powers to control the attraction’s mannequins.

“After many of my friends recommended this to me, I figured I had to check it out, so I bought the (relatively) new Blu-Ray release, settled in for the night, and checked it out. To my surprise, Tourist Trap lives up to its hype and then some. One can see why it never became a huge mainstream success like, say, Jaws or Halloween, but it has all the makings of a cult classic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe set up is nothing spectacular. In fact, it owes a lot of its plot to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, and House of Wax (even more surprising, the 2005 remake of that film is more of a remake of Tourist Trap than the u0026#39;53 film). What makes this one stand out from the then growing slasher genre is a sense of the surreal, the dreamlike, and the nightmarish. Attractive teens arenu0026#39;t just killed one by one by some creep in a mask. Thereu0026#39;s a lot more at play here than your average stalk u0026#39;n slash flick. By the last 20 minutes of the film, everything seems like a bizarre fever dream and hope is a thing of the past.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA lot should be said for Jocelyn Jonesu0026#39; wonderful performance – going from kind wallflower to woman in the process of a nervous breakdown. Chuck Connors is also terrific as Mr. Slausen, the owner of the titular Tourist Trap whose motives seem to always be up in the air. And yes, thatu0026#39;s future Charlieu0026#39;s Angel, Tanya Roberts, as one of the other victims.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor those looking for something creepy and different, Tourist Trap delivers in spades. Perfect for a Halloween party or even for a kidu0026#39;s first horror film (it is rated PG after all).”