Tag: Supernatural

At the crossroads between the gory slashers of the 1980’s and the gritty, anything goes horrors of the 1970’s sits this David Schmoeller directed classic supernatural pro-slasher from 1979. Produced for Charlie Band’s production company and considered one of the better movies he produced (Which given he’s made over 300, that’s a good accolade). Originally this was intended to be directed by John Carpenter, but the deal fell through on terms (It’s unclear if this was on pay, Carpenter getting final cut or something else) and Schmoeller was asked to direct his own pitch.

The Trap

Written by Schmoeller and J. Larry Carroll, the movie features Chuck Connors (Who would later play the main villain in the 80’s “Werewolf” series) as Slauson, a psychotic with supernatural powers including the ability to animate mannequins. The main support come from Jocelyn Jones and Jon Van Ness. In the timeline of horror this sits between Halloween and Friday the 13th and while it is mostly supernatural it definitely has slasher elements. So let’s see if it still holds up 44 years later.

The set up is fairly standard horror stuff (It wasn’t as cliché in 1979, but it wasn’t exactly original either), a group of young adults travelling through the California desert get a flat tire and end up taking refuge in an old tourist trap (That has been shut down since they built the highway through the area). They meet old man Slauson who appears to live there alone after his wife died and his brother went to Hollywood to build animatronics. Naturally they start getting picked off one by one until we’re left with a final girl (It wasn’t always a girl, but is here).

Psionic Psycho

But this isn’t a standard slasher. It actually seems to draw influence from a variety of 70’s horrors. Not just the gritty proto-slashers like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974), “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (1976), “The Hills Have Eyes” (1977) and of course “Halloween” (1978), but also supernatural films like “Carrie” (1976), and “The Omen” (1976). Slauson’s abilities are never explained (And didn’t need to be). He is unnaturally strong, can move objects with his mind and cause mannequins to act like they are alive. Even on occasion giving them the appearance of being human. He can also do this in reverse: Turning people into mannequins. It seems the destiny of his victims is to end up as mannequins for his macabre collection.

These abilities are paired with a playful sadism where he seems to enjoy toying with his victims to elicit the maximum amount of terror. Even at one point deliberately causing a victim to die of fright. Though it’s clear Slauson is mad, it’s never quite clear how mad. For a while he pretends to be his brother Davey and acts like he is even saying he wants to kill Slauson, but once the ploy is revealed his brother is forgotten. More confusing perhaps is how he talks to his mannequins. Given his powers, this perhaps isn’t as crazy as it first appears.

Death, Dolls and Doctor Phibes

Cast wise, the youngsters were all fine. Nothing special, even for the final girl, but nothing bad either. But this is Connors’ movie and he puts in a solid and believable performance. Especially effective was his monotone voice when he is in psycho mode that really increased the creepiness. The music matches the movies tone of quirky and creepy in equal measures. I would have preferred it a little less quirky, but it’s still a good score that does it’s job well. Well enough that I actually found myself listening while I write this review.

While a lot of the set up, chase and cat and mouse games between Slauson and his victims feel quite dated by today’s standards, the movie excels with the creepiness of the murder scenes and the variety it manages while maintaining the overall theme. We have death by telekinesis, death by animatronics, a torture murder that could have come straight out of a Doctor Phibes’ film (Another clear influence) and a death by… <SPOILER> … randomly turning into a mannequin. <END SPOILER> I also liked the general grittiness of it, simple touches like having a victim’s teeth bleed as he desperately tries to bite through the ropes binding him to save a woman from being killed. It all helps the feel.

The Ending (SPOILERS)

The ending of the movie is an interesting one and leaves it a little open to interpretation. As I mentioned one murder involves a character going from about to attack Slauson with an axe to turning into a mannequin and having their arm and then head pulled off. After this all the mannequin’s become life like with the mannequin of Slauson’s wife taking on a human form. The final girl kills Slauson and then drives off with the mannequin versions of her friends in her car…. Yes it’s a very strange ending.

I can’t help but wonder if we are meant to conclude that all the characters other than Slauson, including the final girl were mannequins all along. That theory could go as far as saying the whole thing is just a crazy guy playing with his dolls. Perhaps. Alternatively maybe Molly has just gone mad herself now (Seems to be Wikipedia’s view) or maybe she’s not mad (But still obviously traumatized) and just didn’t want to leave her friends remains, even in doll form, in the Tourist Trap.

Conclusion

This is a bit of a hidden gem and likely a lot of fun for fans of 70’s horror. The movie is gritty, smart and ridiculous in equal measures. It does feel notably cheap though and shares a flaw in common with a lot of modern horrors in that I didn’t really care about any of the victims. However this is a 40+ year old film in a very saturated Horror genre that still manages to feel original. That pushes my score up to a narrow 6.5/10. This deserves it’s status as a cult classic.