fedor8
Predictable every step of the way – including the moronic "it was him all along" plot-twist that evokes (bad) memories of "Psycho" and countless other similar rip-offs. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" plus mannequins and unexplained supernatural powers; so blatant is the ripping-off of TTCM that the villain has a strong, shameless resemblance to Leatherface. TT gives us a poor man's Leatherface though, complete with a boring, un-menacing voice that drones on and on, never saying anything remotely original or interesting. The occasional goofy Bugs Bunny music only serves as added weight in sinking this cheesy shipwreck of a disaster to even lower depth of B-movie turkeydom.It's hard to get into a movie that gives away almost everything only 20 minutes after its commencement. There isn't an inkling of a surprise plot-twist anywhere in sight. It's strictly by-the-numbers slasher bull, executed with very little imagination and zero effort.And zero brains. Leatherface drowns the blond – yet she inexplicably resurrects, and not as a mannequin. Nor are we offered a hint as to why only super-thin young women in their early 20s end up stuck on that remote road that leads to the movie's very dull "museum".The boyfriend predictably fails to capitalize on any of his laughable escape attempts, including a typical B-movie bonehead decision to leave the (predictably and typically indestructible) bad guy lying on the floor instead of finishing him off as any sane person in his place would do. These are the kinds of plot-devices incompetent, lazy and uninspired writers use all the time.The only offered explanation for his immense magical powers (with which he could realistically rule the world, not just some stupid remote backwoods alley) is that "he's crazy". I know hundreds of crazy people, yet not one of them has supernatural powers. Certainly no crazy people I know of have the ability to turn people into zombified mannequins.
punishmentpark
Putting a telekinesis spin on the slasher genre, how inventive and well done! Well, maybe 'Carrie' (and other horrors) did just the same thing, but still this feels quite different somehow.Big log Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors) never seems quite as innocent as he'd like to suggest, so unfortunately there's no big surprise there. But when he puts on that weird voice and starts babbling about all sorts of things, it didn't work for me at all.Which leaves me with only a couple of terrific telekinesis kill scenes and a lot prancing about of the victims - which is doable because of the cute ladies.6 out of 10.
Scott LeBrun
It's actually a pretty good little horror film that does get under your skin. Certainly it gets a lot of mileage out of its use of mannequins. These things have rarely been portrayed in a more off-putting, memorable manner. While this does owe an obvious influence to other horror films of the decade, such as "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", "Carrie", and "Halloween", it's still effective on its own merits. The creation of backwoods atmosphere is impressive, and at the centre of things is a marvelously demented performance by good ol' Chuck Connors as our merry antagonist.Chuck plays Mr. Slausen, proprietor of an out of the way museum who encounters some young adults who have had car trouble. Since the girls have a tendency to be stupid and go wandering off on their own, they're fair game. Unfortunately, Slausen has a younger brother, Davey, who's prowling around the premises, and soon these city slickers will find out just how much trouble they're in.Some nifty, and sinister, touches and twists make a difference in this directing credit for David Schmoeller, who also co-wrote the screenplay with J. Larry Carroll. Another heavy asset is the sometimes comical but often genuinely spooky music score by the always reliable Pino Donaggio. Other talents behind the camera include cinematographer Nicholas Josef von Sternberg, art director Robert A. Burns, and editor Ted Nicolaou; the latter two, of course, had actually worked on "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".The victims may be daft but the actors at least do a decent job. Jocelyn Jones ("The Great Texas Dynamite Chase"), daughter of the great character actor Henry Jones, is appealing as Molly, while Robin Sherwood ("Death Wish II") and Tanya Roberts ('Charlie's Angels') offer some sass as Eileen and Becky. But Chuck is the glue that holds all of this together; he's a wonderful psycho and is even touching at times.Worth it just for a particular death scene, which is really quite disturbing.Future "Tremors" and "City Slickers" director Ron Underwood was the first assistant director here.Seven out of 10.
Anaraksoasis
I had only recently heard about this little gem, though when I learned it was PG-13, I was a little wary of it. My experience with PG horrors has been not so good. Initially what really made me interested in this flick was the idea of evil mannequin's. I find mannequin's and old dolls mucho creepy. Yeah, yeah. Bite me! The cover art for this film sold me with that scary arse mannequin. Yeah I was interested. When I finally got around to watching it, I was nicely surprised. This flick be good yo! The story from a glance may seem silly. A bumpkin with telekinetic powers uses mannequin's to murder people and then turn them into mannequin's. Oddly enough, it works. The choice to not really explain why the guy has these powers and how they work was a brilliant move. Some thing's don't have an explanation, they just are. This makes things creepier. The acting is decent for a low budget film, and the girls are very nice to look at, especially the short shorts, tube top wearing Tanya Roberts (Shame we couldn't get a nude shot). Chuck Conners, however, stole this flick. Dude really hams it up but never in a bad way. He turned up the creep factor when it was needed. You can tell dude had a good time making this.There's not a lot of blood in this one, but there doesn't need to be. The mannequin's supply all the scares. They were cheap looking, but for some reason that just enhanced their creepiness. I loved how they would turn into living people,then quickly back into mannequin's. Good stuff! The score really worked well for this flick too. Eerie as hell.Is this a horror masterpiece? Naw, but it's a good flick and deserves more recognition. Eventually Hollywood will sink their grubby fingers into this one and make a remake which will probably blow, but at least a spotlight will be put on the original and horror fans will get to enjoy this one. Give it a watch, you may never view store mannequin's the same again!
AD
