A group of young people—three women and two men—experience car trouble while traveling through the hills north of Los Angeles and find assistance from a kindly museum owner who lives in the isolated desert area. He has an odd fascination with eerie masks and mannequins, and is portrayed by Chuck Connors. “Tourist Trap,” released in 1979, borrows ideas from various earlier horror films, including “Psycho” (1960), "Gargoyles" (1972) and its desert museum setting, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974), the psychic abilities seen in “Carrie” (1976), and a number of 1970s movies and television shows that featured unsettling mannequins—such as "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" ("The Trevi Collection"). It was directed by the same person who created “Puppetmaster” (1989) and had an influence on “House of Wax” (2005), even affecting the upcoming “Friday the 13th” movies. If those films appeal to you, chances are you’ll enjoy this one too. While it doesn't quite reach the quality level of some of its inspirations, and is considered overpraised by a few people, it remains a decent horror film from the late 1970s in the rural slasher style. What stands out most are Connors’s sympathetic performance, the remote locations used for filming, the design of the sets and props, and particularly the actresses: Robin Sherwood as Eileen, Tanya Roberts as Becky, and Jocelyn Jones as Molly. The movie has a running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes and was filmed in various Los Angeles locales including Samma Ranch, Agua Dulce (close to Vasquez Rocks), and Latigo Canyon in Malibu—the site of the waterfall scene. GRADE: B

Source on TMDB