Terror Trap

They should've sold this script as Vacancy 3. A couple who are having marital problems are involved in a crash on a deserted highway in the middle of nowhere. The other driver takes off. Cue the creepy Sheriff (Jeff Fahey) who recommends staying at a dodgy motel up the road until they can arrange a tow. Cue the creepy guy behind the counter who don't much like them city folk. Break out the guys in masks, the disturbance in the room next door, the loud banging, the awful realisation that they're being watched and then introduce the sicko's who are viewing this snuff for their own sick pleasure. The only differences between Terror Trap and Vacancy are the use of a sinister Sheriff as opposed to a smiley Gas Station Attendant and the fact that the snuff customers are watching a live feed of the mayhem as opposed to buying the videos.

Cue Michael Madsen as the dude in charge. I'm a huge Tarantino fan and I have oodles of respect for Michael Madsen, but someone seriously needs to tell that guy to stop playing Mr Blonde in every movie. Whether he's playing a good guy or bad guy, his persona is always the same. Although, he was quite different when he played the lovable cat burglar in Heart and Souls. Wait a minute... that was Tom Sizemore.

I have a newfound appreciation for Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale's performances in Vacancy. I couldn't bring myself to care even slightly about the main couple. The woman, Nancy, is the most unlikeable heroin I've seen for a long time. About 10 minutes into the movie I started preying for her to get brutally slashed to death, just to shut her up.

The only reason I made it to the end of this film is because it hadn't been reviewed on IMDb yet. That's how bored I was. My review is quite generous. Save yourself!

Check out my IMDb List for some better suggestions. "HORROR/THRILLER: Obscure, Overlooked & Underrated" http://www.imdb.com/list/8QFZ78e4Ar8/

Hostel meets Vacancy in this cheap little knock-off. A couple's car is run off the road and a creepy town sheriff leaves them at a motel. This motel is actually a place where snuff videos are made and people come and sit and watch horrific acts being performed on the unsuspecting visitors. The film doesn't bog itself down with satire concerning business and violence, though it is mentioned. The big problem is that the horrible acts start in the middle of an argument between the protagonists. This means we're never truly on their side, though their actions do go some-ways to expressing their feelings for each other. Madsen just sits in a room for an easy cheque and Fahey overdoes creepy without ever being threatening. He just shouts. It isn't completely awful, but it's never scary or tense. However, the end is completely head scratching as it contains a scene that just doesn't add up to anything.

TERROR TRAP is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, an undisguised rip-off of VACANCY, a film which was hardly original to begin with. This bargain-basement B-movie sees an unlikeable middle-aged couple break down in the middle of nowhere and unwisely check in to a remote motel which turns out to be inhabited by voyeuristic psychopaths with murder in mind. What follows will surprise nobody, and indeed the biggest thing about this movie is the effort required to stay awake throughout it.

It's amateur night all around when it comes to production values, with a poor script and worse direction failing to elicit any kind of tension from the obvious premise. At one point the director is so desperate for thrills that he's reduced to shooting a scene straight from a softcore porn movie to try to flog new life into the narrative, but it's a failed attempt. It doesn't help that Heather Marsden's female lead is one of the most irritating I've seen in a movie in a while, grouching and bitching her way through the script and making every viewer hope she'll shut up and die soon.

The two familiar-faces-fallen-on-hard-times here are Michael Madsen and Jeff Fahey, neither of them a stranger to B-movie fare. Madsen makes no effort whatsoever, just sort of plodding his way through the production and disappearing for long intervals, while Fahey shouts a lot and makes you feel sorry for him considering Robert Rodriguez's PLANET TERROR wasn't so long ago. TERROR TRAP is dismal indeed.

They could of done better with the cat they had, a shame

I liked the cover of this Blu Ray and by getting it extremely cheap I gave my pocket a go. A go for two reasons one already know, the second because Michael Madsen was in it and Jeff Fahey. But what a let down on the part of Madsen. He's just in it for the money, what a bad acting he gave here. On part of Jeff I liked him, he got a kind of look I like. I liked him in Machete (2010) as Michael Booth just before this flick was made.

The story isn't really original but the fact that it's low on gore and also low on red stuff this fails completely. There are killings going on but nothing is shown. All off-camera. Just one shot involves a bit of red stuff when we look in room 5 we do see a girl in blood. But let that be all we do see for a horror geek. Still you want to know how it ends but even that I didn't like. Moving back to Carter (Madsen) and seeing him as a tough guy just didn't work.

People warned me that it looked like Vacancy (2007) and somehow it does or it also looks like a house being invaded. But this time you been trapped without terror.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5