Sunday, October 1, 2023

Samhain Project 3: Tourist Trap

 


Tourist Trap is Night of the Living Manneqins meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  You got a group of young and attractive folks lost in what is basically the middle of nowhere with a flat tire, right off the bat. 
Most of these folks are familiar faces to frequent 70's viewers, which lends an air of unpredictability.  

Jon Van Ness along with Jocelyn Jones of millions of television and movie appearances are here with the big roles. Robin Sherwood whose film career appears to have ended with Death Wish II, (and for the love of all that is decent and holy, who could blame her.  She has some stories to tell in the exemplary documentary Electric Boogaloo) and former Charlie's Angel, Tanya Roberts round out our young list of potential horror movie victims.  

Last, but definitely not least, is our resident weirdo, Chuck Connors, The Rifleman himself.

Much like The Boogens, the acting talent is probably above the script level.  However once our cast start encountering creepy ass mannequins, isolated woodland surroundings, run down structures,  and a heaping helping of Mr. Connors, it develops a bit of a lift off from its generic first half hour.  This is a standard Halloween creeper, and for the squeamish, it's good fun, due to an almost complete lack of gore. (There's an "uncut" version on Tubi right now that I believe has some grue the one that hit theatres probably lacked).  It even got a PG rating, and considering the era and the genre, that's a tad hard to believe.  That is, until you've seen it yourself. 


By the way, also like The Boogens, Stephen King is an admirer.

Also, this was an early work from Charles Band, who went on to be the chap behind Full Moon studios. You know, the producers of the legendary series starring indy-God Tim Thomerson and occasionally Helen Hunt, Trancers, and the long-running Subspecies.  Then his studio descended into Evil Bong and Famous T & A.  


What happened?  

Evil Bong?

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