BaronBl00d

This is a bizarre, yet strangely intriguing slasher film(not really a slasher but very much a slasher formula to some degree) that came out in 1979. It undoubtedly was trying to cash in on the Halloween fame and predates Friday the 13th and a slew of others that were to come out in the next year. Its premise is simple: a group of travelers have a bad tire in one of their vehicles in the middle of nowhere - somewhere off the main highway that was once a passage commonly used by all travelers. We have three lovely girls wearing very little and two guys wearing quite a bit in this heat. One of the guys rolls his tire to find a gas station. I have a question? If his friends were following close behind in another vehicle - why did he not wait for them? If you can logically answer that one, you are miles ahead of me intellectually. Anyhow, he finds a once popular gas station. Walks in, finds no one there, goes into a room behind the counter because he heard voices, and there gets locked in while cabinet doors, closet doors, and window panes open and shut. Doll heads move. Etc... Eventually a long pipe flies across the room and embeds itself in his side.. Things then get silent again. We then cut back to the other travelers who now go to look for him, and guess what they find? Well, here the film is very standard now in our expectations for the basic premise behind the film. However, the execution of this premise is not so straightforward and will defy your general expectations a good deal. I liked Tourist Trap because it is weird and quirky and NOT terribly predictable. All the young people are decent actors and there is a beautiful young Tanya Roberts wearing a top tied-off around her lithe waist and some nice short shorts. Despite her, another of the girls looks even better in similar attire - Robin Sherwood. Jocelyn Jones, another beauty, rounds out the trio of female victims. Jones gives the best performance as her role actually has some depth. The guys(at least the guy playing Jerry(Woody is only in the opening scene though he does roll a tire with great effort) is equally fine. However, make no mistake, despite the decent performances and the abounding beauty, this is Chuck Connors's film. He gives quite the performance and whenever he is in the film your eyes are naturally glued to him. He is that commanding. I cannot say too much about his performance without giving key plot lines away, but let us just say his presence is what makes me like this film more than anything else, because the film DOES have some major problems. All deal with how the victims are killed, what becomes of them, and the science behind it - which is never fully explained(or even partially). What we do get is a taut horror film built up with some very distressing images with mannequins and dolls, and even doll face on people. The setting creates great atmosphere The end is interesting to say the least but it and most of this film imbue much that was to become horror in the 80s. For that reason alone, this is a gateway film to the slashers still to come.

This movie really surprised me. I knew it was a somewhat less than faithful adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, but I did not know how darn entertaining it was. I mean it is the kind of movie I could not pull away from. The story was crisp in terms of pacing and transitions. Joe May's brisk and solid direction help highlight those things as well as the actine. May directed The Invisible Man Returns and the Sherlock Holmes film The House of Fear as well. The acting is top-notch with George Sanders playing the evil, elder brother Jaffrey Pyncheon with his customary aplomb - he looks so young yet that sardonic, acidic, acerbic wit oozes through every scene he is in. He is just great though not in much of the film after the beginning. Vincent Price - gosh, is he young...maybe 27 or so - is real good. Vinnie is a bit husky here. You can see him coming into his own as an actor and does an excellent job as the younger brother Clifford who befalls the miseries of having Jaffrey as his elder brother. There are some real nice character actors in here like Cecil Kellaway as a family lawyer and friend of Clifford and Cousin Hepzibah. Alan Napier, Alfred from the Batman series, plays a postman and his scenes are very charming and mark the passage of time throughout. Lovely Nan Grey(best known probably for Dracula's Daughter as well as The Invisible Man Returns) is solid as a young cousin who needs to live with Hepzibah. But for me, the real star is Margaret Lindsay. To be honest, I was not particularly familiar with her work, but she is aces here. Beautiful and forceful. She plays a happy woman with her future before her with her love at the beginning of the film. Her smile is infectious. As the plot unwinds and bad things happen to her and her lover, the bitterness which slowly creeps into her life is worn equally as well. Her performance really was that good. The writing here is very good too. The dialogue is very witty, often funny, and pops in every scene. This movie is roughly 90 minutes but I was glued to it for each and every minute in it. This is definitely - as far as I am concerned - a minor classic.