Throwback Thursday: "Tourist Trap"

Tourist Trap is not a film that I haven't seen and decided to watch for the first time, as most of my Throwbacks are, but rather one that has been tormenting me since I first saw it during a shut-in at the YMCA in little Greeneville, Tennessee.

Granted, it didn't take too much to scare me back then, but having seen the movie once more a few days ago, I can honestly say that it is a genuinely scary and innovative film that I am surprised doesn't have a more significant following.

Today's horror movies avail themselves of a few modern elements that I think actually hurt the genre, if indeed the purpose of a horror flick is to scare the viewer.

1. Jump scares. These occur when the creepy hand comes out from under the bed and grabs the all-too-inquisitive protagonist, often accompanied by a harsh violin noise. This is nothing new, but the ability to make it loud and solicit more "jumps" is, due to THX sound and home theaters. Hence, however, you have film after film of no real substance, but just one jump scare set up after another. There's just no meat there.

2. CGI. Two words: Van Helsing. There isn't a damn thing about that movie that is remotely scary or disturbing, and CGI is the sole culprit in this. A cartoon wolf - no matter how large, muscular, or agile - is still a cartoon wolf.

3. More CGI. This time, I'm talking about CGI gore. Humans are not easily fooled when it comes to what we see, particularly in regards to other humans. So when someone gets cut and a bunch of CGI blood flies out, there's a very subconscious part of our brain that cries "BS!" Thus, anything that would have been disturbing is now cartoonish and maybe even funny.

Trap has none of the following modern techniques, and it - like so many others - is all the better for it. The fear comes not from hands that shoot out of nowhere or wayward cats leaping from the closet, but from tense, prolonged scenes of horror as the mannequins are brought to life - they laugh, fool, and otherwise torment the teens about to meet their doom. Cacophonous music echoes and builds to a crescendo that ends with the inevitable demise of the victims, with cuts to the various mannequins building the fear factor and making it stick in the head.

In contrast to cartoon wolves of no consequence to the viewer, something as blatantly illogical as a moving mannequin adds a disturbing undertone to the film, so you're not asked to fear some hillbilly hanging on to the dregs of a dying tourist attraction, but rather his animated minions and his masked alter-ego (again, a time when something unnaturally fake is disturbing, not laughable).

Just ask yourself: what was the scariest thing about Poltergeist? The clown, right? Trap taps into that same base revulsion of the doll brought to life.

So pass up gag-worthy modern horrors when you're in the mood for a good scare and give Tourist Trap a try. It represents the type of horror flick now high on the endangered list - the kind which stays with you after it's over.