Recently, while digging for some old VHS tapes for my collection, I was absolutely riveted by this real cool art cover depicting a very handsome couple in some sort of post-apocalyptic civilization, and even though this is not a personal favorite genre of mine, I ended up taking this one home with me, believing I had just spend my budget for the day in a real big turkey. Well, not that big to my surprise. The real problem I found with this movie is that it can't make up its mind of what it is. On the one hand we're presented with this post-apocalyptic scenery with brutal gangs acting like animals, and people trying to survive, with our main guy named Steve (played by Merritt Butrick) who is a technology freak in seek of revenge for the brutal attack of a gang on her mother and grandma using all kind of gadgets, traps and a wheeled robot (that looks like a real cheap toy to be honest) and also with the help of his girlfriend Rebecca (played by a stunningly beautiful Emily Longstreth), but on the other hand we are shown this cute family living in a suburban house in a city with hospitals and supermarkets and police. Also the tone is quite confusing, as the movie seems to try to target a teenage audience, but then we have some gruesome violence and some blood scenes that can only aim at a more mature audience. The direction and editing is also a horror, specially towards the end, with characters that are transfered most the times to different locations in a blink of an eye without explanation, what makes its view a bit annoying. Some of the acting is real bad and over the top (as expected from a low-budgeted B-Movie like this), and overall the plot is rather silly. But on the positive side, I loved the main couple. Both Emily Longstreth and Merritt Butrick are in charge of carrying the weight of the movie on their backs and they do with great success in my opinion, although I don't think they were used to their full capacities unfortunately. Still there is a great chemistry between the two lovebirds and you really empathize with them. I also liked some of the sceneries and atmosphere, and I loved the main theme too, an electronic/synthwave tune that immediately takes you back to the 80s and puts you in the right mood to enjoy a movie like this. So to sum up and in conclusion, and if I have to be all fair in my review, then all things considered I don't think I should give it a pass, but then again there are far worse dystopian movies out there, and Booby Trap after all, although silly, is quite competent and fun, and I'm completely sure that if I had watched it when I was a kid I would have loved it, so all in all I'll rate it with a 5 out of 10, and all happy.
