Monday, November 25, 2019

TOURIST TRAP / A Place To Lose Your Mind And Soul - 1979

In today's wild and weird story, a group of young friends on vacation are stranded at a secluded roadside museum where they are stalked by a masked assailant who uses his telekinetic powers to control the attraction's mannequins!

This one stars Chuck (SOYLENT GREEN) Connors, Jocelyn (THE ENFORCER) Jones, Jon (END OF THE WORLD) Van Ness, Robin (DEATH WISH II) Sherwood, Tanya (THE BEASTMASTER) Roberts, Dawn (MOMMIE DEAREST) Jeffory and Keith (WITHOUT A TRACE) McDermott.

Hey, looks like that Slausen place could be some sort of tourist trap!.. Well then, let's make sure we don't go there!! The girls decide to go skinny dipping in a pond instead. A Mr. Slausen shows up and tells them that there are snakes swimming around in the pond, then leaves.

And wouldn't you know it, their vehicle broke down and they have to rely on Mr. Slausen to help them out. He takes them to his place, what could possible go wrong, right?!

It doesn't take long before things get weird. One girl gets locked inside a room full of mannequins and is greeted by Slausen's 'brother' who wears a mask!

Dude's a maniac, he takes some special goop and slaps it on her face to satisfy some craven need! Don't worry, she doesn't make it out alive...

Molly's having a crappy time at the tourist trap. She thinks she has conked the brother over the head with a rifle butt, but, it ends up being Slausen himself, he's crazy!

Slausen spends much of his time with his mannequins, that's him in the blond wig, just talking and acting out for them. It's already established that Slausen has eerie psychic powers!

There's just something about this shot that I like, reminds me of a painting I did in the eighties about Martian Mummies invading Earth in their flying saucer.

In Slausen's man cave, this wooden Indian tosses a hatchet and wins a prize!

Poor Molly is seemingly the last survivor, Slausen likes her. Jerry, the only guy, comes into the room. Molly tell him to kill Slausen with his ax, but, he's a mannequin!! First, he pulls Jerry's arm off, and to make sure she understands what's happening, he pulls the head off too!

But, when Slausen is dancing with a mannequin that turns into a woman, Molly drops the ax on his neck, surprise mofo!!

So, the danged mannequins start screaming their heads off!......

We'll give Molly the last word... There's a lame surprise ending that's not worth mentioning. So, there you go, Hollywood changed Chuck into a raving lunatic! Tune in on Wednesday as we wind down November, here, at The Dungeon!..

6 comments:

  1. remember this one as a teen.... Never thought of Chuck Conners as a Villain.. (cool twist on the story-line)
    always remembered the very end shot of her (and her friends) driving home.... Those mannequins scared us (back then) even the commercial left me wanting to sleep in living room floor... too many horror masks "staring" at me in my darkened room...
    Wishing you guys a pleasant Thanksgiving !

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  2. Hey Doc, yeah, after THE RIFLEMAN, it was hard to see Chuck as a bad guy, actually shocking in this one... You can't trust your heroes any more, they've turned on us!

    And, the best to you and yours on this Thanksgiving, thanks for checking in pal -

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  3. I guess it's a pretty early role, but Chuck Connors plays a very good COMICAL villain in the movie DESIGNING WOMAN. I guess it's before he was typecast as the good guy.

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  4. Chuck Connors has become a new hero of mine, from the past year watching reruns of THE RIFLEMAN on MeTV. For me, it's the best western series ever.

    But yeah, he did an obscure film noirish film in 1956 called WALK THE DARK STREET, made by Wyott Ordung(!), and of course Bert I. Gordon's 1973 THE MAD BOMBER aka THE POLICE CONNECTION. But the strangest film Connors did was the 1962 GERONIMO (with him in the title role), from some of the same team that made films like MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE VAMPIRE, and the masterful 1952 noirish, WITHOUT WARNING!*

    * If you haven't seen WITHOUT WARNING! (1952, on DVD) you're missing a really cool little flick!

    PS: Happy Thanksgiving to all from the dusty plains of Central Arizona. :)

    /ramble

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  5. Sweet! I found "Without Warning" streaming on YouTube! Super cool! Here's a big thanks for all your giving!!

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  6. It was my pleasure, Sir EEGAH!

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