Time for a Road Trip with Three Classic Horror Movies that Visit Roadside Attractions
Gary Scott Beatty
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Over the river and through the woods, the holiday season is the busiest time to travel. If you’re thinking of pulling over to rest at a cheap roadside attraction or take a break at an out of the way motel, you’ll think again after watching these horror classics.
Look, it’s a creepy roadside museum! Oh, not to worry, the proprietor looks friendly. Say, isn’t that the star of that ‘50s TV show “The Rifleman?” A fine, upstanding guy, for sure. Let’s go in.
David Schmoeller (Puppetmaster) made his directorial debut with Tourist Trap (1979). Although the film is all over the place with plot and theme, that’s nothing new to ’70s B-horror; and Tourist Trap is one of those little slasher gems that bears up to repeat viewings.
Five friends, including the stunning Tanya Roberts (“Charlie’s Angels,” “That ’70s Show”), stop by a roadside museum owned by Chuck Connors (“The Rifleman”) after car trouble. Slausen’s Lost Oasis features lifelike mannequins. Schmoeller films these life-sized dummies in various states of disrepair to build a wonderful creepiness.
Fans generally seem to love this movie, even when shaking their heads at the flaws. Stephen King, in his book Danse Macabre, talks about the movie’s “eerie spooky power.” I, myself, have to laugh at Pino Donaggio’s goofy choice of intro music — it sounds as if we’re in for a farcical comedy, but the film never returns to that mood.
If you like the slasher genre and ’70s B-horror and haven’t seen Tourist Trap, it needs to be on your must-see list.
https://youtu.be/6Opx5vuiZYI
Unlike Tourist Trap, Motel Hell found its audience as the number one ranked movie for the weekend of October 24-26, 1980.
What’s not to love? Veteran movie and TV actor Rory Calhoun is Vincent Smith, a farmer who, with his sister, Ida, sets traps for victims, buries them to their necks in a secret garden, fattens them up, and then makes them into his famous smoked meats.
“It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters” is the man’s motto. This gives you an idea of what’s coming: Motel Hell is played for laughs.
The movie will make you chuckle, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its unforgettable imagery. The moving sacks in the garden, all lined up in a row, are eerie as hell. Then the sacks are yanked off to show buried humans, vocal cords cut to prevent screaming. You will remember that scene.
Then comes the harvest —
Some of the images are so disturbing they’ve entered popular culture in other works: the pig head mask in Saw, for instance, and the preparation scene for my own “Welcome to Dunwich” in Strange Horror #1, where sacrifices are buried up to their necks, dazed, and waiting for elder gods.
There are depths to Motel Hell. The farmer’s friendly relationship to the clueless community around him and his resolute sense of purpose make his character unique in the horror genre. The love story is so psychologically twisted I won’t even start to explain it here.
The victims are interesting, well-rounded characters, not teenagers in tank tops and short shorts.
An interesting, amusing, and entertaining horror film from director Kevin Connor (The Land that Time Forgot).
A year after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, director Tobe Hooper was back to depicting rednecks as maniacal killers. This time it’s a single redneck, Judd, portrayed by Neville Brand (“Laredo”) in Eaten Alive (1976), sometimes titled Horror Hotel, Murder on the Bayou, or Starlight Slaughter. Brand’s experience in movies and TV helps here as he gives this one-dimensional character twisted realism.
Judd runs a broken-down hotel, and when people agitate him, he feeds them to a pet crocodile conveniently hanging out just outside his place. It’s not hard to understand why the crock stays there — Judd becomes agitated often.
This film is outlandish fun and utter chaos. Don’t expect the mood of Tourist Trap or the depth of Motel Hell. Myself, I find a movie where the set is obviously a set has its own unworldly charms. Eaten Alive most definitely has that gritty look we all expect from our ’70s B-movies.
Slasher genre movies have to have something special to interest me, whether it’s the creepy directing in Tourist Trap, the fun and startling imagery of Motel Hell, or the over-the-top strangeness of Eaten Alive. Here are three to recommend, so don’t drive by… pull over and enjoy! Your mileage may vary.
Gary Scott Beatty is a writer and illustrator of strange horror stories who shares art, story, video, and progress updates with those on the Aazurn Fan List. If you’re interested, sign up at strangehorror.com.
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