Marcus Flor vs. Tourist Trap (1979)

It's here; the Spooky Season is upon us at last!

I'm planning to watch a whole bunch of horror movies to celebrate, starting off with the perplexing Tourist Trap.

This movie is a mixed bag if ever I saw one. It's a mixture of surreal, creepy, hokey, and just down-right strange. There is a lot to like here, but there's also a lot missing that could've made this a horror classic.

This movie needed some synergy between its elements. As it is, it's more of a mess of ideas. Many of those ideas are interesting and freaky, but they aren't focused on, or developed. The movie tries to be several things at once; trying to juggle many things, and fumbling them.

If this film had doubled down on the mannequin half of its personality, it'd be stronger for it. I found the slasher elements holding the movie back, making it feel dated. It's dumb caricatures for characters are especially dated, and feel quite generic.

Tourist Trap reminded me of another movie; Japan's Hausu (House 1997), which predates this one by two years. The surreal phenomena, the cliched characters, and unpredictability all scream Hausu with a megaphone. It seems like this movie was trying to recreate Hausu's magic, but couldn't put the ingredients together quite right.

However, that doesn't mean you won't enjoy this movie. It's still one hell of a trippy time. If you're going to watch this, grab some weed and some friends. Tourist Trap is still a Good.

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