DVD Artwork
In 1973 Tobe Hooper unleashed one of the most celebrated horror movies of all time upon the unsuspecting world. That movie was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and ever since then every time he makes a new movie it comes with the burden of being from “the director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”.
It must be tough for him, the levels of expectation hoping that maybe, just maybe the next movie will reach the level of horror of his breakthrough movie. Let’s face it though, it just ain’t gonna happen, let’s just all move on and see what he comes up with next.
Because of this it is sometimes easy to overlook some of his other output. Good solid movies such as Lifeforce, Poltergeist and The Toolbox Murders remake. Another good, if not spectacular, addition to this list is The Funhouse.
Originally released in 1981, The Funhouse starts off in slasher mode, with a scene that to me came across as an homage to Halloween and Psycho. This is no slasher movie though, even if it does share a few similarities with a few of them.
The premise is a fairly simple one; Amy and her three friends go out to the local carnival for a night of fun and games. Things start to go down hill though when they have the bright idea of spending the night there, hiding away inside the Funhouse.
First off, right from the start Amy must be a bloody muppet. You see it is her first date with her fella, but no sooner has she got in his car when he starts insulting her father and acting like a bit of a twat really. I don’t know about other people but that can’t be a good sign. She should have saved herself a lot of time and effort, kicked him to the curb and moved on. I digress however.
Whilst they are hidden away inside the Funhouse they witness a creature, that looks like Andy Warhol had a run in with Mike Tyson and lost, killing the carnival’s fortune teller. Never a good sign in a horror movie if you ask me.
Obviously staying overnight doesn’t seem like such a clever idea now, as the kids attempt to make it out alive before they are discovered and become the next victims.
The only other person that knows they are inside is Amy’s kid brother, who has followed her to the carnival. To tell the truth though he does very little apart from wander around popping up here and there and hiding from the Carnies.
This is a very simple movie, with a straightforward plot; stupid kids do stupid things, you know the rest. However at the same time it is still a quite an enjoyable movie. There is a nice assortment of over the top characters (most of whom work for the Carnival), in particular the old hag who keeps cropping up and spouting warnings to the girls.
The Funhouse is a fairly bloodless affair, for a start there isn’t really all that much in the way of killing, there are a few murders but it isn’t a guts and gore job. Saying that though you can’t go far wrong with an axe in the head, which whilst fairly impressive it is still moderately free of claret.
The atmosphere is what keeps this movie ticking along, not the murders, not the poor helpless kids, no it is that creepy carnival atmosphere. We all know they it is supposed to be a fun place to go, but when you scratch beneath the surface things always seem a little more sinister. Tobe Hooper has done a wonderful job in getting this across on screen.
The cast here does an ok job, the bit players more than make up for the lack of personality displayed by our hapless leads. The owner of the Funhouse in particular over acts just perfectly. My one serious flaw would be the ‘creature’. This character would have worked better had they kept him in the shadows a little more, as once he is out in full view the make-up does start to look a little on the dated side. That being said he is one ugly fucker that would certainly scare the shit out of most people.
A quick word on the extras then shall we? Well it will be a quick word because there is fuck all here on this release apart from a trailer. Yep, that’s your lot, one single solitary trailer. A trailer of the bloody movie you are just about to see. Nice one Universal, you really gave this movie the red carpet treatment didn’t you?
Maybe this will get the remake treatment, then we might see a decent re-release of this movie with a few special features. As it is it’s a shocking release. Good movie, bad disc.
Overall though The Funhouse is a great little movie that relies on atmosphere with a few jump out of your seat moments thrown in for good measure, rather than the more visceral horror that was so prevalent during the early 80′s.
A worthy addition to any horror fans collection if you don’t mind a bare-bones release.
