Tourist Trap (1979)

From Television and Film Character Encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

A group of college students are trapped by a madman with telekinetic powers.


Genre

Horror, Slasher

Characters/Groups

Slauson - Chuck Connors

Molly - Jocelyn Jones

Jerry - Jon Van Ness

Eileen - Robin Sherwood

Becky - Tanya Roberts

Woody - Keith McDermott

Tina - Dawn Jeffory

Character thumbnails with links to profiles

Detailed Synopsis

Woody is pushing a tire down the road when he sees a sign for a place to get gas and food. Eileen is sitting outside Woody's car listening to the radio when Jerry pulls up in his car with Molly and Becky. They ask her what happened and Eileen tells them about the flat tire and the spare Woody had didn't have any air so he headed to the nearest gas station. Woody makes it to Oscars Gas and Eats, but finds it empty. He hears a noise coming from a back room and as he enters the room he finds what appears to be a woman on a bed, but turns out to be a mannequin, which laughs at him. The door suddenly shuts and as he tries the windows and other doors, different mannequin heads launch at him, and then turn and laugh. He grabs a metal pole and manages to break a hole in the door, but then his arm is grabbed, and he is held against the door. Items in the room come flying at him and he is eventually impaled by a metal pipe and dies.

Jerry drives his vehicle with Molly, Becky and Eileen in it and they head in the same direction as Slausen's Lost Oasis Mineral Springs and Old West Museum. They see Woody's tire near the exit to Slausen's Lost Oasis and drive in that direction. The vehicle suddenly stalls and one of the front headlights suddenly shatters. Jerry stays behind to work on the vehicle while Eileen, Molly and Becky go to Slausen's Oasis and go skinny dipping. Slauson walks up and introduces himself and mentions how the new highway caused a loss in tourists. He asks what they are doing and Becky tells him about Woody's car breaking down and he tells them, he hasn't seen anyone in a few weeks. He warns them about water moccasins and then walks away. They return to the vehicle and Slauson is waiting nearby and offers to help repair Jerry's vehicle and they accept his help. He shows them his museum and tells them his wife passed away after the new highway was built. Eileen notices the mannequins look so realistic and he tells her that his brother made them, but got a job in the city making wax dummies for a museum. He shows them how the mannequins are animatronic and Eileen notices a house nearby and Slauson seems hesitant to talk about it and tells them Davy lives there. She asks to use the phone and he tells her it doesn't work. Slauson leaves with Jerry to fix the vehicle while the others stay in the museum.

Eileen goes to investigate the house and hears voices from inside. She goes inside and finds it full of mannequins. Someone calls her name and she goes into a room and finds a red scarf on a mannequin which she takes and wraps around her neck. A man in a plaster mask suddenly appears in the room and he uses psychic powers to cause the scarf to strangle Eileen to death. Molly and Becky find a mannequin in a shrine whose texture feels like flesh. Slauson walks in and tells them he sent Jerry to take the vehicle to a shop in town. He tells them more about his wife who died from cancer. He asks where Eileen is and then goes to search for her. He enters the house and finds the now dead Eileen wearing a plaster mask. While going through Slauson's photo album, Molly notices his wife looked just like the mannequin they found in the shrine. Slauson walks in and lies and says he didn't find Eileen. Molly and Becky go to look for Eileen and they hear a noise in the house and Molly decides to go back to the museum while Becky decides to investigate the house. Becky finds Eileen's body and is grabbed by the man in the plaster mask. She hits him with a mannequin arm, but is knocked unconscious by a pile of mannequins. The man in the plaster mask brings her down into the basement where Tina is tied to a table and Jerry is tied to a post. He chains Becky up and then leaves after asking Tina why she doesn't like him. Tina tells Becky and Jerry that they are all going to die. The man in the plaster mask dresses up in a suit and starts to put plaster over Tina's face. Tina starts to scream until she has a heart attack from fear and dies.

Jerry manages to get free and attacks the man in the plaster mask, but loses the fight and is chained up. The man in the plaster mask tells Becky and Jerry how he kept Tina hidden from Slauson and how foolish his brother is. He continues, that he hates Slauson and how he is more attractive than him. The key to the locks for Becky and Jerry's chains falls to the ground and as Jerry grabs for it, the man in the plaster mask makes it move away from him. Molly goes looking for Eileen and hears a voice calling her name. The man in the plaster mask, this time wearing makeup and a blonde wig runs towards her holding a plaster head of Woody. She runs away and makes it to the road where she meets up with Slauson who is driving his truck. She jumps into his truck and tells him about the man in the plaster mask and he tells her that the man in the plaster mask is his younger brother and always wanted to be like him. He drives to the house and tells her that he is going to turn on the radio to make his brother come to him. Before leaving, he gives her his rifle. The man in the plaster mask comes out of the house and Molly pulls the trigger on the rifle, but the bullets don't seem to have any effect. He tells her that she shot him with blanks and she hits him with the butt of the ruffle, breaking his mask and revealing him to be Slauson.

She runs away to the oasis, but is grabbed by Slauson. Becky sees a knife and passes it to Jerry, who starts to cut at his chains. Slauson has dinner with the body of Eileen, but her head falls off. Molly wakes up and imagines a women helping her, but it is only a mannequin. Jerry frees himself and Becky, and Jerry jumps out of the window when Slauson sees him. Becky climbs out of the window when Slauson's back is turned but he sees her. He runs up to her as his normal self and takes the unsuspecting Becky back to the museum. He turns the animatronic mannequins on and Becky is killed when a mannequin throws a tomahawk to the back of her head. Molly wakes up in a room with Slauson and surrounded by mannequins. He tells her the real story about his brother, who he caught having an affair with his wife, who he then murdered along with his brother. He puts a plaster copy of his wife's face on her and starts to kiss her and asks her to tell him she loves him. Molly hears a banging at the door and what sounds like Jerry's voice. Jerry calls to Molly and when Molly runs to him, she finds out that it is only the animated corpse of Jerry. Molly takes the axe that Jerry used to break the door down with and hits Slauson with it in the side of the neck, killing him. She then drives away smiling in Jerry's jeep with the bodies of her dead friends sitting with her.