Tourist Trap

As Eileen (Robin Sherwood) and her boyfriend Woody (Keith McDermott) traversed the arid expanse, their vehicle's tireless tread came to a grinding halt. With Woody dispatched to locate a gas station, his companions - Becky (Tanya Roberts), Jerry (Jon Van Ness), and Molly (Jocelyn Jones) - continued on in their own vehicle, unaware of the impending doom that awaited them. Meanwhile, Eileen patiently waited for Woody's return, oblivious to the eerie fate that was unfolding.

As the hours ticked by, Woody's search led him to a forsaken gas station, its deserted landscape eerily silent. His curiosity piqued, he ventured into the back room, only to find himself trapped when the door slammed shut behind him. The air grew thick with an unsettling atmosphere as mannequins began to materialize around him, objects flying through the air like deadly projectiles. In a gruesome and sudden turn of events, Woody met his untimely demise at the hands of a metal pipe.

Later that day, Eileen, Becky, Molly, and Jerry stumbled upon the run-down ghost town of Slausen's Lost Oasis, convinced that Woody was still within its crumbling borders. As they drove deeper into the dusty terrain, their vehicle inexplicably succumbed to mechanical failure. Jerry attempted to repair his jeep while the women indulged in a refreshing dip in a nearby oasis. However, their serene state was short-lived, as they were suddenly confronted by Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors), a peculiar individual wielding a shotgun and harboring a deep sense of melancholy.

The three women, now awkwardly clad in nothing but the water's chilliness, were treated to an unsettling encounter with Slausen, who seemed both cordial and embittered by the decline of his once-thriving tourist trap. As they apologized for trespassing on his property, Slausen offered Jerry a helping hand with his jeep, but insisted that the group accompany him to his abode to retrieve his tools.

Within the confines of Slausen's house, the group discovered an assortment of animatronic waxworks, their glassy eyes fixed on the visitors. Eileen's curiosity got the better of her as she ventured toward a nearby dwelling, but Slausen firmly insisted that the women remain within the museum's walls. As Jerry and Slausen worked on the jeep, Eileen slipped away to find a phone in the mysterious house. There, she encountered an assortment of mannequins, their plastic faces frozen in perpetual smiles.

Suddenly, a stranger wearing a grotesque mask emerged from the shadows, his presence marked by an unsettling aura. The room's objects began to move on their own accord, and Eileen's scarf tightened around her neck like a noose, snuffing out her life in a gruesome and unexpected fashion. As the darkness closed in, the group remained blissfully unaware of the horrors that lay ahead, trapped in Slausen's Lost Oasis, where the boundaries between reality and nightmare were precariously thin.

As Slausen returns to Molly and Becky with the news that Jerry's truck has arrived in town, he's met with disheartening revelations: Eileen has vanished, leaving behind only a hauntingly familiar silence. Undeterred, Slausen sets out once more to scour the streets for his missing companion, only to return empty-handed and announce his departure to continue the search. The women, worn down by worry and frustration, decide to take matters into their own hands, venturing forth to find Eileen themselves.

Becky's subsequent excursion takes her to a nearby residence, where she uncovers a chilling surprise: a mannequin eerily resembling Eileen. Her discovery is short-lived, as the masked killer swiftly descends upon her, unleashing a gruesome onslaught of mannequins and mayhem. Becky awakens in the basement, bound alongside Jerry, who's still reeling from his own capture. As they take stock of their dire predicament, they're joined by Tina (Dawn Jeffory), a young woman helplessly strapped to an operating table.

As fate would have it, Tina becomes the killer's next victim, suffocated beneath a torrent of plaster that seals her fate forever. Jerry, fueled by desperation and rage, manages to free himself and launches a valiant attack on their captor. However, his bravery is short-circuited when he discovers that the killer possesses an unsettling ability: telekinesis.

Meanwhile, Molly remains outside, doggedly searching for any sign of her missing friends. Her pursuit leads her straight into the clutches of the masked man, who whisks her away to a museum where Slausen awaits. As she struggles to comprehend the treachery unfolding before her, Molly finds herself armed with a gun that's been loaded with blanks – a cruel joke at her expense. The mask is soon removed, revealing Slausen's true face, and Molly's panic turns to despair as she's captured and restrained.

As Becky and Jerry manage to escape from their subterranean hellhole, they become separated in the chaos of their frantic flight. Slausen reappears, snatching Becky away to the museum where a deadly gauntlet awaits her – a hailstorm of gunfire from Old West figures that ultimately ends with a gruesome stab wound courtesy of an Indian Chief figurine.

As Molly's situation becomes increasingly desperate, she manages to free herself from the restraints and embarks on a perilous quest for escape. However, her hopes are quickly extinguished as Slausen materializes once more, his telekinetic powers animating the very mannequins that had been mere statues mere moments before. With an eerie grin, he invites Molly to join him in a macabre dance, his eyes gleaming with a malevolent intensity. Just as it seems like all hope is lost, Jerry bursts into the scene, only to reveal that he has himself fallen victim to Slausen's insidious powers - his arm, once a symbol of strength and salvation, now reduced to a mere puppet limb. As Molly watches in horror, Slausen's wife, transformed from lifeless dummy to living, breathing person, glides across the floor with an unholy glee.

Consumed by a sense of dread and despair, Molly seizes upon a nearby hatchet, her determination to escape morphing into a primal urge for retribution. With calculated ferocity, she strikes Slausen's shoulder, ending his malevolent reign and restoring lifeless stillness to the room's once- animated mannequins.

The film's final act unfolds with a jarring suddenness, as the camera pans out to reveal the desolate wasteland of a morning after. Molly, her eyes aglow with a manic intensity, steers the jeep down the highway, a cavalcade of lifeless dummies - erstwhile friends, now nothing more than mere puppets - riding shotgun beside her. The film's final shot lingers on Molly's maniacal grin, as the soundtrack fades to an unsettling silence, leaving the viewer to ponder the true extent of the devastation that has been wrought.