Film Review: TERROR TRAP (2010)

It is no secret that the horror industry relies on the popularity of its cult actors to help promote and guide the production of low budget horror films.  Actors such as Michael Madsen – starring in Piranhaconda (2012), Highway to Hell (2012), The Tomb (2009) and The Bleeding (2009), to name a few, and Jeff Fahey – starring in Tornado Warning (2012), Locusts: The 8^th Plague (2005), The Sacred (2012), and Sushi Girl (2012), to name a few, have been the only reason why some films have ever been made much less watched by an audience.  Madsen and Fahey are just two of these cult icons which also includes the names of Lance Henricksen, Tony Todd, C. Thomas Howell, William Forsythe, Vinnie Jones, Marc Singer, and Danny Trejo, to name a few.  In Terror Trap (2010) we get two cult icons for the price of one with Madsen and Fahey chewing up scenery.

Dan (David James Elliott) and his wife Nancy (Heather Marie Marsden) are having relationship problems and driving home through the country side when they are forced off the road by another car.  Stranded, Dan and Nancy call for help which arrives in the form of country police office Cleveland (Fahey) who takes the couple to a nearby motel until their car can be towed the next morning.  Unbeknownst to Dan and Nancy they are about to become part of an elaborate stalk and kill game in which they will be hunted by a gang of masked assailants for the pleasure of a watching audience.

If you’ve seen the film Vacancy (2007) then there is nothing new here that you haven’t already seen before because this is a low budget version of that film but with unlikeable characters and horrible acting and characters doing dumb things because they are dumb characters that have nothing else to do.  Fahey chews scenery like no one else and seems to be having a good time at it but Madsen is his usual stoic self and adds nothing to the film.  If you enjoy these two actors then this film will at least be a curiosity but other than that this is a film not worth even checking out.  Just watch Vacancy again.