PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The Funhouse is one of my top horror movies, and that’s because it combines two of my favorite things… the campiness and life of a carnival and gooooooore. Released on March 13, 1981, this slasher classic packs a wallop of both.
Teenager Amy (Elizabeth Berridge: Results 2015), her boyfriend, Buzz (Cooper Huckabee: True Blood TV series), friend Liz (Largo Woodruff (The Ladies Club 1986), and Liz’s boyfriend, Richie (Miles Chapin: The People Vs. Larry Flynt 1996), head out to enjoy a night of debauchery at a traveling carnival with a bit of an infamous rep, and find “freak of nature” animals, creepy magic shows, eerie fortune tellers, and plenty of fun midway rides. Amongst the action, there is a funhouse with a twist, as the carnies advertise it as full of terror. A man dressed as Frankenstein awaits to push your cart inside the entrance doors.
The four decide to take their antics even further and spend the night inside of it. Everything seems fine at first but as the night goes on and the carnies are settling in for the evening, the teenagers witness a murder by one of the workers. Their plan to escape becomes foiled when one of them gets a little too big for his britches and decides to steal the nightly earnings of the funhouse as well. Don’t piss off a carny, especially if they’re leaving town the next morning and have nothing to lose!
To make matters a bit more complicated, Amy’s younger, horror-loving brother has been following them around all night. He watches the kids enter the funhouse and then not leave. Fortunately for him, he gets discovered and his parents arrive to pick him up. Due to a threat given to him from an earlier terrifying prank played on Amy, he does not tell them she is still inside the funhouse.
The Funhouse also stars Shawn Carson (Something Wicked This Way Comes 1983) as Amy’s prankster brother, Wayne Doba as The Frankenstein (Scarface 1983), and Kevin Conway as the deep-voiced, fear-inducing funhouse barker who is also Frankenstein’s father (Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace 1996).
The Funhouse was directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974, Poltergeist 1982) and contains the same grainy, grotesque imagery the aforementioned classic horror films are known for. The Funhouse would signify Hooper’s first major studio production as it was released by Universal , who purchased the script trying to duplicate Paramount’s success with teenage slasher flick, Friday The 13th.
The Funhouse grossed $7.8 million in the U.S. and opened to mixed reviews. Attempts to ban the film in the U.K were unsuccessful and The Funhouse was released on VHS in 1987. As of 2011, you could find the film on Blu-ray with a bunch of cool special features, but only in the U.K. Trust me, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, it is one to seek out. If you can find a copy, buy it now!
The Funhouse satisfies all of my horror cravings because it is well acted, the plotline is great, and it has that tongue-in-cheek raunchiness that can only be found in a film from this era. Classic. The whole movie is anxiety-inducing as we watch the characters picked off one by one. My favorite scene, besides the one which opens the film and puts me on the edge of my seat right away, is the final battle between the murderer and Amy. Someone is killed in a few different and creative ways, and it’s fantastic to watch!
Do clowns creep you out? Are two-headed cows a thing of your nightmares (even if you feel a bit bad for them)? Are you eager to hear a face-painted magician give a rundown on the history of Vlad the Impaler? Do you enjoy the whirlwind excitement of spinning midway rides and the familial lifestyle of carnies? The Funhouse might be just your movie! You will wiggle and dance your way through your nightmares after this one!
