The Funhouse

source: The Funhouse

You've seen this slasher film many times before. A bunch of kids spend the night in a funhouse. One of the girls gets to show off her body in the shower for no reason except the director wanted to see her *. The kids have boring sex. The kids who have boring sex get knifed by some goon in a mask. The one girl who doesn't have sex does not get knifed by some goon in a mask. Now throw in some puppets with bobbing heads. Why? Who cares. Tobe Hooper, whose only claim to fame is the miserable Texas Chain Saw Massacre, serves up another bomb in Funhouse. The effects are cheesy which is surprising because Rick Baker did them. Funhouse is unwatchable, boring, derivative, predictable, dull, did I mention boring, over talkative, uninteresting and did I mention boring. Funhouse rips off Halloween and Psycho. Did I mention this film is boring?

Well...I logged on hoping to find a review of this movie that felt like I did, and it just wasn't there. The vast majority of the reviewers of this film seem to have fond memories of being scared by it when they were younger. Never having seen it before might explain why I found the film so boring and unoriginal. The opening scene, described by many as a homage to "Halloween" and "Psycho", felt more like a ripoff to me; plus I felt bad for poor Elizabeth Berridge (better known as Mozart's wife in "Amadeus") who had to bare her breasts within the first 4 minutes of the film, for no other reason than to fulfill the gratuitous boob shot that was required of so many films in this genre. The film itself takes much too long to get going...nothing happens (and I mean NOTHING) within the first hour. By the time deaths finally began to occur I really didn't care. The look of the film is great, the score is interesting (without borrowing a lot from other films), and the killer is interesting as well, but I just couldn't get past one simple fact: for a travelling carnival, the funhouse itself is huge, consists of multiple floors and most obviously could never be packed up an d moved to a neighbouring town by the one man who runs it. It looks great Tobe, but a basement on a carnival ride? Enter at your own risk.

Two couples on a double date spend their evening at the local carnival, against the main character's father's wishes. Rumor was circulating that kids in another county were killed at that carnival in the past. But they ignore the father, craft a really thin lie (the old "sleeping at a friend's house" routine), and go anyway. And then comes the big idea: stay overnight in the funhouse. This plan goes fine until the kids witness a fortune teller slash prostitute get murdered by the man in the Pat Sajak mask. Tobe Hooper, the director, is a big name in horror. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Poltergeist" are modern classics. I don't claim to be an expert on Hooper -- I've seen only a handful of his work -- but I would rank this near the top of the list. I have read other reviews calling this film, without hesitation, Hooper's best work, and I think they make a strong case. While the least known of the big three Hooper films, it has a timelessness to it that will strike terror in people's hearts forever. Carnivals are scary. From "Carnival of Souls" to the more recent "Dark Ride", the background of a circus can be chilling. Throw in some clowns, carnival barkers and automated robots (dolls that move) and you have the perfect set-up. You don't really need a masked killer to heighten the fear, but Hooper throws one in anyway. If nothing else can be said about this movie, you can say the perfect atmosphere was created for winning film. Beyond that, we have the same old horror standards. Teenagers making out, smoking pot and being stupid. We have a main character -- Amy Harper (Elizabeth Berridge) -- who is quite sexy, although her taste in men needs some adjustment (I'm sorry, but I thought Buzz Klemmet (Cooper Huckabee) was a jerk). And getting busy on the first date after not hitting it off well? Believable for some reason. Unlike her female co-star (Largo Woodruff), they find ways to get her topless multiple times in the film. I'm not complaining, but the real mystery is this: why didn't we see her in more 1980s films? I think the defining moment for this movie is when the mask is removed from the killer. I won't reveal anything that will spoil it, but I have to say that the man under the mask was quite the shocker for this first-time viewer. You think you know, but you have no idea. Absolutely see "The Funhouse". 1970s and 1980s horror is a defining era for the genre, and this film sits right near the top of some of the best works. Possibly eclipsing "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and comfortably resting with "Halloween" (a film this one pays homage to in the opening scene), Hooper has made a name for himself. More recent contributions -- such as "The Damned Thing" -- are lacking, but classics like "The Funhouse" will guarantee him a slot in the Horror Movie Hall of Fame, if such a thing existed.

Who could fail to make a good horror movie out of a carnival? It has all the perfect ingredients: freaks, sleazy carnies, creepy fun houses... The answer, unfortunately for viewers of The Funhouse, is Tobe Hooper. The film, which follows a group of dim-witted teenagers trapped in a fun house, suffers from bad writing, poor character development, and general unbelievability. For starters, the film goes nowhere for the first forty-five to fifty minutes. If this time had been used for character development, it wouldn't be so bad, but instead it just follows the characters as they meander through the carnival. Furthermore, when things finally get going, none of the characters are worth caring about. Their behavior is too stupid for the viewer to be invested in them, particularly when they just stand around when they should be running. This issue is particularly striking in the case of the heroine. She does little if anything to protect herself. For the viewer to invest themselves in a protagonist, whether it be Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween or Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street, they have to make some effort to defend themselves, or at least act independently. Our heroine just stands around screaming. The only thing saving this film from a one star rating is its at times inspired use of atmosphere. The carnival comes across as genuinely sleazy, with shifty carnies and the occasional mad person walking about. Furthermore, the ending is truly eerie. However, this is not enough to save a boring, badly made film.

Two young couples, Amy (Elizabeth Berridge) and her boyfriend Buzz (Cooper Huckabee) plus Liz (Largo Woodruff) and her boyfriend Richie (Miles Chapin) decide to visit a carnival while it's in town. They visit the various lame attractions the carnival has to offer like a magician named Marco the Magnificent (William Finley), a strip show, a fortune teller named Madame Zena (Sylvia Miles), and a freak show complete with two headed cows and deformed babies. Completely out of nowhere total knuckle head Richie suggests that they spend the entire night in the carnivals funhouse, don't ask why. Amy's little brat of a brother Joey (Shawn Carson) visits the carnival on his own, strangely he doesn't interact with anyone else at the carnival and has no significance whatsoever to the overall story, he just generally walks around aimlessly to waste time. Once in the funhouse they hide and get ready for a long night. Then under neath them a light turns on, they appear to be above another room. The friends look on as Madame Zena the fortune teller and the funhouse's attendant (Wayne Doba) who wears a Frankenstein mask enter the room below them. The attendant gives Zena $100 in exchange for her to * him. After he can't get an erection and Zena refuses to give him his money back he strangles her. The friends try and leave the funhouse but all the doors are locked and chained up, they are trapped. They decide to head back to their hiding place, again they look into the room below. The funhouse's Barker (Kevin Conway) who happens to be the attendants dad is also there now. The attendant takes his Frankenstein mask off and reveals that he is a mutant freak. Richie drops his lighter and they are discovered. From then on the friends must survive as they are hunted down one by one. Directed by Tobe Hooper, and according to the IMDb he turned down Steven Spielberg's offer to direct E.T. (1982) because of this film, bad move Tobe, bad move. This adds nothing new to the horror or slasher genre. It's predictable, dull, boring, over talkative and uninteresting. The opening sequence rips off both Halloween (1978) and Psycho (1960) or if you prefer pays homage to them, either way it gave me the feeling that there wasn't going to be an original idea in the whole film, and by the end I thought I was proved right. There's just about next to no gore or violence and an extremely low body count, no one is killed until over half way through the film. The monster itself, created by Rick Baker, is revealed in a very low key fashion. It's obviously just a mask that has no movement at all, the eyes, nose and forehead are static while occasionally it's mouth will open and close a little bit. Personally I thought he looked creepier with the Frankenstein mask on. There is brief nudity at the start as Amy takes a shower. The script by Larry Block is strictly by the numbers, I could easily tell who was going to survive, and that she would stop screaming become tough and resourceful and kill the bad guy at the end. Something else to take into consideration is that this was made after or about the same time as most other early eighties slashers including Halloween, Friday the 13th (1980), the Burning (1981), the Prowler (1981), Hell Night (1981), Just Before Dawn (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Night School (1981) and I would stick Funhouse right at the bottom of that list. The main problem I had with it is that it's just so devoid of any action, it takes 40 odd minutes for Richie to even suggest they spend the night in the funhouse, and it's one of those film where I got the feeling not much really happened between the start and finish. The only thing the film has going for it is the fact that it's technically very well made and has a polished look about it, otherwise this is a total waste of time. Recommended to insomniacs only.

Group of teenagers double date and get the idea of spending the night in a carnival funhouse for a lark. They get more then they bargained for however when they witness the murder of a psychic at the hands of a freak. Richly colored, nicely mounted flick has effective jump scenes, terrifying special effects and a good cast full of oddballs. One of Tobe Hooper's better horror films. Rated R; Violence, Nudity, and Profanity.

Inexplicablilty added to the infamous "videos nasties" banned list in the UK during the 1980's Funhouse ranks as possibly the most boring horror movie of all time. Tobe Hooper dined out for years on the over-hyped Texas Chainsaw Massacre churning out derivative horror garbage like Funhouse during the subsequent years. For a movie with a running time of one hour 35 minutes its about 44 minutes before anything remotely interesting happens. The walking talking clichés who enter the carnival do the attractions and then the viewer is taken round some of the attractions again. Yawn. In the meantime the kid brother of one of the main players, having sneaked out of the house and made his way to the carnival wanders around the funfair trying to find his older siblings. This is also really boring. Hooper has mastered the art of stringing out tedium to the point of infinity with a script that could be summarised on the back of a postage stamp. Even factoring in the age of the film, Funhouse is a cliché ridden, poorly acted borefest with a lamentable rubber faced monster. And some people rate this as a masterpiece. Nurse!.

The teenager Amy Harper (Elizabeth Berridge) dates Buzz Dawson (Cooper Huckabee) for the first time and they go to the carnival with their friends Richie (Miles Chapin) and Liz (Largo Woodruff). They smoke grass and have good-time visiting the attractions including a side show with freak animals. The silly Richie suggests the group to spend the night in the Funhouse for fun. During the night, they witness the murder of the fortune teller Madame Zena (Sylvia Miles) by a man wearing a mask of Frankenstein from an opening in the ceiling of a room. They decide to leave the fun house but they find all the exits locked. Meanwhile Richie sneaks in the room and steals the money of the manager of the place. The masked man returns with his father and owner of the fun house to show the corpse of Madame Zena; when the man realizes that he had been robbed, he presses his son that removes the mask and shows his horrible face. Richie startles and drops his lighter in the room. The owner asks his freak son to chase the thieves and eyewitnesses in a night of terror for the teenagers. "Funhouse" is a good low-budget slash movie and as usual based on the stupidity of a group of teenagers, especially Richie that is an irritating character. The cast is formed by unknown actors and actresses and Miles Chapin seems to be repeating his performance in "Hair" with another imbecile character. Tobe Hooper uses the entertainments in the fun house to keep a creepy atmosphere, but the movie could be shorter. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Pague para Entrar, Reze para Sair" ("Pay to Get In, Pray to Get Out") Note: On 02 April 2015, I saw this movie again.

Fast-paced and atmospheric thriller set in and around the carnival midway. Two couples visiting the local traveling carnival decide to spend the night in The Funhouse and fool around as a lark. After witnessing a murder, they become the targets of a deformed maniac and his barker dad who are determined they will not leave to report it to the police. I read the Owen West (aka Dean Koontz) novelization back in the day, which was infinitely more padded with back story, abortion issues, religious fanaticism, and a rather Byzantine attempt to link the heroine and her younger brother to the killers before they ever set foot on the midway. Mercifully, the film abandons all of the excess baggage and strips the story done to the bare essentials. I enjoy Tobe Hooper's direction here much more so than that shown in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre as it seems we are seeing a much more polished effort. He nicely establishes the atmosphere of the midway, which by turns is colorful and sordid. The central characters are nicely delineated (although due to the abandoning of the subplots from the novelization, Shawn Carson's younger brother seems like a fifth wheel rather than integral to the story) and well played by an appealing cast. They seem like credible and overwhelmed young people rather than fodder for the axing. Lead Elizabeth Berridge, in particular, has a nice girl next door quality and radiates a resourcefulness through her terror without ever seeming like either Superwoman or a victim. The make-up for the primary killer is particularly effective and novel. The film builds up a substantial head of steam before going for broke in a wild Grand Guignol climax. The score is also worth mentioning as it provides a very effective counterpoint to the action. Ironically, this film is rarely mentioned by horror fans, having been buried amid the morass of Friday the 13th clones that proliferated in this period, but it is definitely one that should be rediscovered.