Themes: Trapped or Confined, Circuses & Carnivals, Mutants
Main Cast: Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, Sylvia Miles
Release Year: 1981
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This low-budget horror film about teenagers trapped in a carnival funhouse with a freakish monster is pretty standard stuff. Director Tobe Hooper manages a few shocks and includes some typically peculiar supporting characters, but this film is less entertaining than either of his previous excursions into such territory. Not as scary as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) nor as bizarre as Eaten Alive (1976), The Funhouse may as well have been directed by an anonymous hack as one of the foremost names in the genre. The movie tie-in novel, penned by Dean R. Koontz under the pseudonym "Owen West," is actually far more frightening than the film on which it was based. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Review
Tobe Hooper's entry into the slasher film cycle of the early 1980's lacks the inspiration and scare power of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but still manages to deliver the goods for its target audience. The best element of The Funhouse is its setting: the filmmakers did an excellent job recreating the sleazy, nocturnal feel of a traveling carnival and this helps the film maintain a creepy atmosphere even when its storytelling falls short. The least impressive element of The Funhouse is Larry Block's lightweight script, which takes a long time to get going and builds itself around a quartet of cookie-cutter teen protagonists that aren't like to inspire much sympathy in the audience. The latter problem carries over to the performances: only Elizabeth Berridge sparks any interest via a believable, effectively underplayed performance as the main heroine. These problems make The Funhouse a pretty lightweight affair, especially when stacked up against a real horror classic like Halloween. That said, The Funhouse remains worth a look to horror buffs for a few reasons. The biggest reason is the supporting cast: Kevin Conway is believably sleazy (and terrifying) as the villainous Barker, mime-turned-actor Wayne Doba pulls off the impressive feat of humanizing the film's mutated killer without the benefit of any dialogue and cult favorites Sylvia Miles and William Finley add color in bit parts as carnival workers. Director Tobe Hooper delivers an exciting finale and works in the occasional inspired stylistic flourish along the way: the best of these is the tongue-in-cheek opening sequence, which manages lampoon key moments from Psycho and Halloween at the same time. Ultimately, The Funhouse is too uneven to qualify for classic status but remains of interest to genre fans for its periodic flashes of inspiration. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Kevin Conway - The Barker; William Finley - Marco The Magnificent; Wayne Doba - The Monster; Shawn Carson - Joey Harper; Frank Grimes - Voyeur; Shawn McAllister; Sid Raymond - M.C.; Frank Schuller - Poker Player; David Carson - Geek; Herb Robins - Carnival Manager; Peter Conrad - Midget; Jack McDermott - Harper; Sandy Mielke - Garbage Collector; Sonia Zomina - Bag Lady; Allison Caine
Credit
Jose Duarte - Art Director, Fern Champion - Casting, Pamela Basker - Casting, Norman Cohen - First Assistant Director, Tobe Hooper - Director, Jack Hofstra - Editor, John Beal - Composer (Music Score), Mort Rabinowitz - Production Designer, Andrew Laszlo - Cinematographer, Mark L. Lester - Producer, Mace Neufeld - Producer, Derek Power - Producer, Steven Bernhardt - Producer, Tom Coll - Set Designer, Rick Baker - Special Effects, Lawrence Block - Screenwriter
Against her father's orders, teenage girl Amy goes to a sleazy traveling carnival with her new boyfriend Buzz, her best friend Liz, and Liz's boyfriend Richie. Amy's father has forbidden her going to the carnival because a couple of Girl Scouts were found murdered at its previous set-up. At the carnival, the four teens smoke marijuana. They peep into a 21-and-over strip show. They heckle Madame Zena the Fortune Teller, visit a freaks-of-nature exhibit, and view a magic show.
They telephone their parents and lie to them so they can spend the night in the carnival's funhouse - actually a darkride - after it closes. Then they notice the Funhouse Barker's assistant - a man in a Frankenstein suit who never speaks - making out with a lingerie-clad Madame Zena. She demands a hundred dollars from "Frankenstein," and when he ejaculates prematurely, she refuses to "go all the way" as agreed. When she won't give back the money, "Frankenstein" attacks and strangles her. After witnessing this, the four teenagers attempt to leave the funhouse, but find that it is locked. Richie also steals money from the steel strongbox from which "Frankenstein" had retrieved the money for Madame Zena. The kids have to hide again when the Funhouse Barker, Conrad Straker, returns and sees what "Frankenstein" - his son Gunther - has done to Madame Zena. After giving Gunther a violent reprimanding, Conrad decides that they'll place Madame Zena's body to make it look as though she was killed by "the locals." Conrad then discovers that all of the money from his strongbox is missing. He believes Gunther has taken it and tortures him, eventually taking off his Frankenstein mask. Gunther's face is gruesomely deformed, with sharp protruding teeth and ruby-red eyes.
Startled, Richie drops his cigarette lighter, which lands near Conrad and Gunther. Conrad notices and realizes they are not alone, and that someone has likely witnessed Gunther's killing of Madame Zena. The witnesses will have to be found, slain, and buried as surreptitiously as possible. Conrad and Gunther were also the ones who had murdered the Girl Scouts for tripping over their secret; had word gotten out, Gunther would have been lynched and butchered (like his mother), or put on display in the freak exhibition (like his late younger brother Tad). After killing Richie with a noose, actually a funhouse prop, Gunther captures Liz with a trapdoor. Liz tries to lure Gunther into a trap with promises of sex, but when she stabs Gunther he attacks her, stabbing her to death with his sharpened finger nails. Conrad tries to shoot Amy, but Buzz jumps him for his snubnosed revolver and shot Conrad dead. Then Gunther attacks Buzz for the gun while Amy runs for it. Gunther gets hold of the revolver and shoots Buzz dead. Gunther chases Amy into a room filled with hydraulic machinery and tries to kill her with a crowbar, but hits the fusebox and electrocutes himself. He comes after Amy again, but is caught between two gears and tries to drag her in, as well. Amy tears herself free as Gunther is crushed to death. At dawn, Amy exits the funhouse. An animated fat lady laughs uproariously as Amy - her clothes ripped, her makeup running, her shoes gone - proceeds to walk home.
The Funhouse opened in 814 theaters in the United States on March 13, 1981, and earned $2,765,456 in the opening weekend and grossed $7,886,857 in total. Film critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Sun-Times liked the film and gave it a positive review. [1]
Composer John Beal's score was praised by critics, and the soundtrack CD later became a collector's item.[2][3]
A novelization of the screenplay was written by Dean Koontz, under the pseudonym Owen West. As the film production took longer than expected, the book was released before the film.
Remake
In 2009, filmmaker Eli Roth revealed in an interview with Fangoria that a remake of The Funhouse is in development. Roth intends for the remake to be gorier than the original. [4]
References
^ Interview with Gene Siskel in Fangoria #15 (1981)
