Terror Trap (2010) User Reviews

A Vacuous "Vacancy" Rip-Off.

[NozinAroun81 · 3/10 · 26 September 2010]

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/

Low Rent rip-off of Vacancy.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 2 November 2010]

Terror Trap starts late one night as squabbling married couple Don (David James Elliott) & Nancy (Heather Marie Marsden) drive through the isolated back-roads of a small Louisiana town called Santa Parish on their way to a casino in Marksville, suddenly a car crashes into them & speeds off leaving Don & Nancy stranded in the woods. They call 911 for help & Sheriff Cleveland Taylor (Jeff Fahey) arrives, Taylor drives Don & Nancy to a nearby motel, the Royal Vista which is a rundown dump. Don & Nancy are given a room but soon discover that the owners are playing a sick game in which the motel is used to snuff films & the paying guests used as unwilling stars...

Written, produced & directed by Dan Garcia this film could quite easily be thought as of a cheap low budget remake of Vacancy (2007) as the two are so similar, from the big city couple checking into a rundown motel in the middle of nowhere to their terrorisation & attempts to kill them by the owners for profit & the eventual turning of the tables by the resourceful city folk. Now I will list what I liked about Terror Trap, firstly I appreciated the fact that it lasted just under 75 minutes, secondly I liked that the main city couple were adults rather than dumb teens & I liked the feisty Nancy who had a lot of personality & gave as good as she got in some amusing verbal sparring between herself & Don, she almost made this watchable. Almost. You see what I didn't like far outweighs what I did. Even at only 75 minutes in length Terror Trap takes ages to get going, it's forty odd minutes before the city folk realise what's going on & the onslaught begins, the body count is really low & the gore is none existent, the plot mechanics are never adequately explained, who is in charge of the operation? Why ran Don & Nancy off the road? Are they making snuff films? Is it being streamed across the internet? How do they make their money? There's about eight people who watch monitors of what's going on but surely they wouldn't make much from that? What are these people paying for? Do they participate or not? Do they just get to watch? What do the van load of women have to do with anything? Who is Michael Madsen in this exactly? Who is the guy he blow's up at the end? The whole film feels unfinished, the film feels like a first draft without the finer points of the plot fleshed out. The film feels a lot like Vacancy. I already said that didn't I? Well, it's worth repeating. Basically I liked Nancy as a surprisingly strong & well rounded character but not much else.

Gore fans will be disappointed with Terror Trap, there really is no gore to speak of & the potential was there for some torture scenes but no-one is ever shown being killed apart from a few of the bad guy's at the end & even then it's just a few bullet wounds rather than memorable gory death's. There's no sex or nudity either. The film looks alright, there's some annoying black and white ultra quick edited supposedly stylised sequences that just irritate as you can't really tell what's going on. As a whole Terror Trap is competent but little else & the lack of gore in a supposed torture pron film such as this is unforgivable, isn't it? There's no tension or scares, the seemingly random attacks on Don & Nancy are pathetic with a few guy's in animal mask's chasing them but making no real attempt to kill them for reason never really explained.

With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 one has to ask where the money went, it certainly wasn't on special effects & considering the types of films they lower themselves to make these days it couldn't have been on Michael Madsen or Jeff Fahey's fee. Fahey is quite good here actually, we never really find that much about him out & Michael Madsen's character seems almost irrelevant to be honest (I don't even remember him getting a name) although it's always nice to see a couple of pro's even if it's in junk like Terror Trap.

Terror Trap (which sounds a lot like Tourist Trap (1979)) is a total rip-off of Vacancy, the two films could have been made from the same script with minimal changes. This is far too tame & forgettable to make any sort of impact, at least it's short & Heather Marie Marsden as Nancy gives it her all but when all said & done give this one a miss.

Decent Little Horror Film

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 12 March 2013]

While driving at night on a lonely road, the car of estranged couple Don and Nancy is hit twice by another car in the middle of nowhere. Nancy asks for help and unpleasant sheriff Cleveland offers to take them to the nearby Motel Royal Vista and wait until the morning, when their car would be towed.

Another reviewer called this a lame ripoff of "Vacancy". Well, it might be a little bit lame. And yeah, it has some hints of "Vacancy" in it. But an outright ripoff? No way.

What this film has that "Vacancy" lacked is the cult actor appeal: Jeff Fahey as the sheriff, Michael Madsen as his typecast bad guy self. Sure, "Vacancy" is the better movie and has the better cast, the better plot and all that... but does Luke Wilson have the horror fan base that Fahey and Madsen have? No way.

Lame Rip-Off of Vacancy

[claudio_carvalho · 2/10 · 23 September 2011]

While driving at night in a lonely road, the car of the estranged couple Don (David James Elliott) and Nancy (Heather Marsden) is hit twice by another car in the middle of nowhere. Nancy asks for help and the unpleasant sheriff Cleveland (Jeff Fahey) offers to take them to the nearby Motel Royal Vista and wait until the morning, when their car would be towed. .

When the couple arrives in the low-budget and foxy motel, they are attended by a weird receptionist. They are disturbed by noises and screams inside the next door room and Don asks them to keep quieter since his wife and he are tired and need to rest. But sooner they realize that they are part of a sick and deadly game, and their lives are threatened by sickos led by Cleveland and his partner Carter (Michael Madsen).

"Terror Trap" is a lame rip-off of "Vacancy", with terrible story, characters and acting. The plot has several holes and the conclusion is absurd and apparently with no consequences to the creepy and sadistic participants and the victims of the sick game. Nancy is one of the most detestable and annoying characters I have ever seen, especially considering that she is leading lady of the story. I was cheering for her to be killed and vanish. Michael Madsen is a one-dimensional actor, repeating his performance in "Reservoir Dogs" is many low-budget movies. My advice: better off watching "Vacancy" again than spending time with "Terror Trap". My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Não Há Vagas" ("No Vacancy")

Awful

[PopcornLovesMovie · 1/10 · 2 November 2010]

Where do I start with Terror Trap AKA Error Crap. My goodness, this movie is a utter failure in movie making. I don't mind the everything they stole from Vacancy. No sir, that's fine. What I mind, however, was the illogical plot line, the amateur hour actors and the lack of any sort of gore. The plot line might be similar to Vacancy but the execution was much worse.

For those who want to see Michael Madsen, don't. His presence in this movie is completely useless. In fact, the movie will make more sense if he's not in it. It seems they just inserted him in so that they can have Michael Madsen in the credit.

For those looking for gore, forget about it. This movie has none. It's basically as tame as Die Hard. Guys either get killed by guns or knives. And they don't show the killing scene.

A complete and utter failure of movie making, I can't stress that enough.

OK for a Rip-Off

[msclarissa · 28 July 2011]

I do not know how Michael Madsen and Jeff Fahey have ended up in this cheaply and obviously independently produced rip-off of "Vacancy".

There are no surprises in here, but the main actors give a solid performance, especially Fahey and Elliott, and the technical quality and directing are not that bad.

I found it fairly enjoyable for what it is. A bit more originality, and it actually could have become something.

Watching it without having seen "Vacancy" might be OK, but then the experience of "Vacancy" will be spoiled. If you have a choice, go for "Vacancy". If you liked "Vacancy" so much that you would like to see it one more time with different actors and on a lower budget, it's your responsibility. Avoid it, if you have something better to do, though.

Atrocious Vacancy rip-off without a decent idea in it

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 22 November 2013]

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.

Pointless

[cmoyton · 1/10 · 1 October 2011]

This film is the epitome of plagiarism. As already noted this is a clone of the superior Vacancy in all but name. And you should know better - you don't need this review to warn you off. Michael Madsen alas these days is a name synonymous with movie garbage.

Jeff Fahey also pops up, eagerly hamming it up as the "sheriff" who is always at hand to lead the troubled motorists to the motel. The acting is not too bad but the production and direction suck with the movie littered with continuity errors. The ending is a farce. We see the bickering couple finally escape, then jump back to the funeral scene shown at the start of the movie ( this time with the inference that other baddies are running a motel from hell)and then jump to Madsen wasting a guy in an explosion. Then cue the credits. Amateur hour.

No Vacancy.

Terror Trap (2010)

[SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain · 4/10 · 15 July 2012]

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.

Wall to wall slaughter.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 24 March 2012]

If you've seen VACANCY, this movie will look very familiar. You've heard of speed traps; this is a terror trap. You may say a terror trip for an estranged couple Don(David James Elliot)and Nancy(Heather Marsden)taking a road trip in hopes of gaining some excitement in their marriage. While on a lonely Louisiana highway their car is sideswiped and then rammed. The local sheriff(Jeff Fahey)investigates and advises the couple to spend the night at a nearby motel. Soon after occupying their room, they realize something is very wrong. They find out that after people check in, they become sordid entertainment for people from the backwoods that pay to watch people slaughtered on closed circuit TV. Slash, stab, splatter and shoot. Don and Nancy do make it to the parking lot, but so do the gang of brutal killers. If only they can find a vehicle to escape as the sun rises. Also appearing in this mess is: Michael Madsen, Matt Triplett, Andrew Sensenig, Lacey Minchew and B. Martin Williams. When you see a road sign up ahead that says AVOID, it is advise well taken.

Terrible acting terrible dialogs

[psalfate · 1/10 · 5 May 2020]

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

Why negative reviews

[mommyceita13 · 8/10 · 17 August 2022]

It's a decent low budget horror flick. Who cares if the theme is redundant. There should be a part 2 but overall it's decent and good to kill time no pun intended.

A decent tense slasher

[Robert_duder · 7/10 · 16 June 2012]

Of course if you read the reviews on IMDb you'll see countless people tell you how stereotypical this is, how often we've seen this premise and what movies it "rips off." Welcome to Hollywood. And welcome especially to the horror genre. Hundreds of slasher flicks starts with teenagers whose cars break down but that doesn't make them any less interesting. Terror Trap does borrow elements from films like Vacancy but that doesn't make it any less watchable. Terror Trap is violent, gritty, tense and fun to watch. Certain elements are campy but that can be a fun thing when it comes to horror. Best of all the film was relatively low budget but still had great special effects and gore. Fan favourites Michael Madsen and Jeff Fahey are a lot of fun but Madsen is mostly used as a figure head and doesn't get a lot of good screen time. David James Elliott and Heather Marsden are really good as the couple stranded at the horrifying hotel. This film won't blow you away but if you're looking for a decent slasher flick in a sea of less than stellar entries than Terror Trap should fill your desire. It's fun and enjoyable. 7.5/10

delivers nothing except good acting by Jeff Fahey

[trashgang · 5/10 · 13 December 2012]

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

Another try at the "Vacency" type movies. This is not anywhere near as good. Drawn out and boring. No excitement. I say C-

[cosmo_tiger · 15 September 2011]

"Well, it'll be an interesting evening." After a hit and run accident Don (Elliot) and Nancy are left stranded in the middle of nowhere. After the local sheriff gives them a ride to a motel run by Carter (Madsen) they soon realize that this is not the safest place for them to be. This movie started off really good, you feel tense when the cop talks to the passengers and really pull for the strangers. Then after the 20 min mark the movie starts to fall apart and drag on, and on, and on. Think "Vacency" without the horror and excitement. There are a lot of aspects they introduce that seem to go nowhere, and the ones that do aren't exciting enough to follow. I do like Michael Madsen (who doesn't like "Reservoir Dogs") but his last few movies have been bad, like Val Kilmer bad, and I hope that he will once again start making real movies. Overall, this movie was much better when it was called "Vacency". I give it a C-.

Would I watch again? - Nope.

*Also Try - Vacency 1 & 2

Terror Trap

[Scarecrow-88 · 4/10 · 27 June 2015]

Lean, mean, derivative variation on (well, it directly lifts everything from) Vacancy, has a married couple on the outs who are trying to rekindle the little flame still lit (played by a very likable David James Elliot, of JAG fame and a feisty, mouthy little number, Heather Marie Marsden) is left in their marriage. They are the unfortunate example of "passing through the wrong neck of the woods at the wrong time" kind of horror movie cliché, and a car purposely hits them so the couple will have to stay at a nearby fleabag motel at the insistence of Sheriff Jeff Fahey (his performance is actually inspired; he just fits perfectly into his role, suitable for the kind of growly, hick, trailer park "officer of the law" this requires). Supposedly, Fahey is the "whole law" of whatever Louisiana backwater town this film sets itself, but when a police officer arrives where James and Marsden were wrecked, and no car is there to be found, we realize that he's more or less a fiction rather than any sort of authentic sheriff no matter how he carries himself.

What I liked was that James is established as an ex-Marine, so when he starts succeeding in hand-to-hand combats and isn't someone who goes down easily, it isn't far-fetched. Plus, because he isn't a scumbag, it isn't too hard to side with him, while Heather's Nancy (considered by many viewers to be a cipher) isn't some bargain-basement weak damsel-in-distress type. She's got fire, and James may appear to be an easy target, he's tough, too. Michael Masden, as the owner of the motel, Royal Vista, is pretty much worthless. He spends his time in one room, and he's ridiculously out of place. He looks like some sort of Vegas gangster. The killers dress in tribal masks and Michael Myers-style work suits. They service the film as disposable victims for James, although there just isn't enough real tense action on screen, nor is the violence all that potent. Much more is implied than shown. Masden's part is truthfully a pathetic joke that could have been written out almost entirely. He is used to sale and rent the film out to unsuspecting victims, his face on the cover promising far more than is delivered.

Fahey is the show here. Just not enough in Terror Trap to satiate the intended audience. What is established is if you cross Masden or are no longer worth his time, you're toast. Opening scene with the delicious female with her blouse unbuttoned, laying eyes opened but dead, is a grabber. The couple might be defined mostly at the beginning, with a majority of the film having them go out of their room, only to be forced into another for their own safety, as the addicted eyes of twisted onlookers stare at screens showing them the action, but they aren't just absolute clichés which helps give a crap about them.

Unimpressive and bland retread

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 20 August 2015]

Stopping off at a motel in a small town to rest for the night, a man and his wife find the area a front for a group of criminals to make videos of them torturing people to demented passersby and force them to fight the group off to get away alive.

Overall this was a rather tedious, tired retread without a lot of interesting moments about it. One of the biggest issues with this one is the rather bland and tiresome story here that is quite unimpressive with how it gives out its plot points. The revelation about the secret organization is not only given quite early from the set-ups showing the cameras hidden around the room or listening into their conversations but also seems obvious based on their insistence upon staying, the general sleazy atmosphere and the completely desolation location that continues on throughout here. These here really hurt the first half by dragging this out through a series of scenes designed to build up suspense yet never does anything for that factor in a tired example of the style. There's also a big problem here in the boredom it takes before the first attack by showing them doing nothing of interest around the hotel or fighting with each other which makes this extremely taxing to get through because of the problems with the couple and the lack of the group in action in the beginning. These here are enough to hold off against the few minor areas of enjoyment here, starting with the action throughout the final half as the masked men make for some enjoyable times here tending to the various escape tactics present with the race for the booby-trapped car, the break-in attempt on the motel room and finally the big brawls here throughout that are quite fun and tend to really get some excitement going. That frantic action here not only gives the section some nice gore but also a pretty thrilling way to work the creepy looks of the masks the gangs' wearing during these interactions that add a darker overall tone to these proceedings. Still, all of these aren't enough to overcome the main flaws with this one which is overall quite problematic and flawed.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.