Tourist Trap(1979)

I saw this film on TV a few weeks ago and I remembered it from years ago. It is directed by David Schmoeller. It isn't a movie that is well-known and I had forgotten all about it until it popped up on TV.

The movie begins with four young people who are looking for a missing friend come across Slausen's Lost Oasis which is a tourist trap. They meet the owner, who is a nice, kind man and he tells them that since the new highway came alone, nobody comes near his place. He has a museum full of mannequins which seem very lifelike. Their car breaks down and he tries to help them to fix it.

There are three girls,Molly(Jocelyn Jones), Eileen(Robin Sherwood) and Becky(Tanya Roberts). They are accompanied by Woody(Keith McDermott). Woody is trying to fix the car and the girls stay with Mr. Slausen(Chuck Connors). When people start to disappear, Mr. Slausen goes off to find them and two of the girls and left alone in his house where they try and phone for help only to find that the phone doesn't work. Mr. Slausen also has a mannequin of his dead wife in his house which makes the girls uncomfortable. Eileen decides to venture off on her own and she gets killed by a maniac who is hiding in Mr. Slausen's house.

What the girls don't know is that the maniac is Mr. Slausen's telekinetic brother, David (Shailar Coby) who kills for pleasure and to add to his mannequin 'family'.He moves the mannequins and uses them to hurt people. He is running around after the girls and he catches Woody and Becky and takes them down to the basement where he has another captive. He proceeds to suffocate his captive with plaster and then he tells the other two that they will be next. They try to escape from him,but he is very powerful. They need to escape from him before they become wax dummies too!

I am not going to give away the ending as there is a bit to it and it would ruin it. I did see the twist coming, but then I was still surprised by the ending of this movie. There isn't much to it really. There is a lot of weirdness in this movie, but it is good fun. I like the wax dummies and the way that their eyes follow people around the room. That is creepy. I would recommend this for anyone who likes their horror with a lot of weirdness mixed in.It is worth a 7/10.