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Films: Tourist Trap
Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on the new internet machine.

As I inch closer to finishing my Oscar project, at least for now, I’m finding myself returning more and more to reviewing horror movies. They are, after all, my first love, and 10+ years of stretching myself to other genres should get a little payoff. Movies like Tourist Trap are a part of the reason this shift appeals to me. Tourist Trap is so weird that it deserves to be talked about. It is simultaneously right in line with other horror movies and also so utterly unlike anything else that it can’t help but be interesting.

We start with Woody (Keith McDermott), who is clearly having car trouble. He’s walking down a country road with a tire, at least. Eventually, he comes to a house and goes in to investigate and try to get some help. What he finds instead are some weird mannequins. Soon enough, he is assaulted by items being hurled at him, and the mannequins themselves seem to come to life. Eventually, Woody is impaled by a flying pipe and its time to meet our other potential victims.

Wednesday Horror: Puppetmaster

Films: Puppetmaster
Format: DVD from Cortland Community Library on The New Portable.

There’s certainly no lack of examples of the idea that dolls and children’s toys can be decidedly creepy when shown that way. Child’s Play cemented that idea, but there are certainly plenty of other examples. Puppetmaster (also called Puppet Master depending on where you find it) is perhaps a bit tangential to that concept. I mean, the killers in this film are puppets (without strings), but none of them would be mistaken as toys.

So let’s dive right in. Alchemist Andre Toulon (William Hickey) has discovered a way to bring his puppet creations to life. Despite his being in Bodega Bay, California, he is about to be accosted by Nazis. He decides to hide his living puppets in a case behind a false wall in his hotel room, and before the Nazis show up to confront him, he kills himself.