When psychotic preacher's son Chatwill (Henry Silva) he catches much younger his wife (Danone Camden) in bed with another man, he accuses the man of rape and gets the approval of the town elders to run the man out of town. Four university students on a hiking trip unfortunately witness the Chatwill's brutal murder of the man and are captured by the other men implicated in the crime. When the elders discover that Chatwill has in fact killed the man (and then kills one of their own when he tries to help the students), they aide Roger (Nicholas Campbell) in his attempt to rescue his friends from Chatwill and his sadistic buddies who plan to get rid of the witnesses.

Once it gets past the labored setup - pacifist protagonist in class voicing principles we know will soon be challenged, juxtaposing Silva chasing two kids with a shotgun with the college girls in their ballet course - TRAPPED is a rousing little thriller. Going over the top, Silva is a very successful backwoods madman and certainly earns his spectacular comeuppance. With the exception of Campbell, the other actors playing the students are not given much to do other than run and scream (for a change, the backwoods people are given more dimension than the outsiders). Barbara Gordon is excellent as Chatwill's sister who is the first to voice her dissent. There are some excellent action set-pieces (including a startling death-by-television-aerial spoiled in the trailer) as Chatwill demolishes the literal foundations of the community in attempting to do away with our hero.