The Funhouse (1981)

Directed by Tober Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Largo Woodruff, and Miles Chapin

Review written by: Joshua Bozeman on April 16, 2003 @ 5:35 A.M. CT.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! This is a complete summary of the entire film's events. There are a number of spoilers.

The Funhouse isn't the best horror has to offer from the 80's, but it isn't the worst either. It's the story of 2 young couples who are going on a double date to the carnival that has arrived in town. The kids decide to spend the night in the funhouse, where everything starts to go wrong. We first meet Amy (in her bathroom taking a shower) where her brother sneaks up on her with a mask and fake knife, stabbing her after he quickly pulls open the shower curtain. She screams at him and he runs away. This scene is creepy in that we see the POV of the 'killer,' and we think sudden danger is upon the girl. Then again, it was the start of the movie, so you kind of knew it had to be someone playing a prank. The really creepy thing about this scene (to me) is the fact that the little brother plays the prank on fully nude sister in shower! He slowly pushes the plastic knife into her below her stomach. Rather odd stuff.

Amy gets out of the shower and is getting ready for a date with a new guy she met...Buzz. Her parents don't seem to like him, because he's probably a rebel, and he works at a "filling station." She assures them that Buzz is alright, and she promises not to go to the carnival (which is exactly where she IS going), because her dad mentions two murders that happened with the same carnival in a nearby town. Amy goes out to the car to meet Buzz, and she tells him that she wants to go to a movie...she sorta promised her father she wouldn't go to the carnival. He basically says she's being silly and not to worry about her old man...what does he know. This starts the tension between the two, but it soon dies down after they pick up the other couple, and Buzz takes a second in the carnival parking lot to apologize.

The other couple, Richie and Liz, seems to be somewhat wild. Richie spends the entire drive over to the carnival smoking weed in the backseat. The characters overall are a total disappointment. They really aren't characters but total stereotypes of characters. You could care less what happens to them, because we really don't ever get to know them, and the dialogue is pretty weak, so we don't get a feeling of who they are at all. Richie's character is clearly meant to shed some comedic light on the entire story, but I don't think it works very well. Buzz is the tough mysterious guy who you really don't know if you should trust (I sound like Swingers!), and Liz is sort of the bimbo of the group. She's blonde...that says a lot. (No offense, ladies!) Amy is the most innocent of the bunch, but it's obvious that she's trying to be as bad as the rest of the group. The story is pretty much centered around Amy.

We see that Amy's little brother (the shower perv) sneaks out of the house and walks to the carnival to enjoy the place himself. He sees his sister and friends, but keeps away from them.

Anyhow...they spend a few hours at the carnival. Playing games, riding rides, and getting their fortune told (until the fortune teller lady makes them leave for laughing at her "act." She screams she'll break all the bones in their "fucking" body if they come back.) They see some oddities, including a deformed human boy in a jar. This much of the movie is pretty boring for the most part. It helps to set everything up, but I think it drags out a bit too long, and some scenes seem repetitive. We keep seeing the barker for the funhouse, and Amy seems to be somewhat attracted to the idea of going in. The group is ready to call it a night, but Richie comes up with a great idea- spend the night in the funhouse. It doesn't take much to convince the girls, and they all agree that's what they're gonna do. Both girls call their parents and say they are spending the night at the other girl's house. Things are set. The whole idea of spending the night in the funhouse seems silly to me. I've never heard of anyone doing that before, and it certainly doesn't sound very fun...or safe!

They go into the funhouse, and they end up getting out of the cars that drive you thru the ride. Amy's little brother watches as they go in and don't come out. He hides in the carnival to see what is going on. The two couples are making out when they hear a noise. Why would you stay the night in the funhouse and make out? I don't get it. I guess it's better than nothing, huh? They go to check out the noise, and below them, thru some wooden slats on the floor, they see a room. The guy who was pushing people into the funhouse (wearing a frankenstein mask all the while) is down there with the fortune teller, and they are bargaining over something. We find out that he is paying her $100 for sex...He refuses to take his mask off, which should be a warning to all of us, and he "finishes" before the woman even gets undressed. He gets upset, because she wants to keep the money, so he ends up killing her. The group witnesses this and are completey terrified...tho, they soon decide to go down and check out the body themselves. This is just silly if you ask me. We see an old guy who works at the carnival come into the room a bit later (after the kids leave) with his son (frankenstien), where he scolds him for killing "again." This time you killed one of your own! It's okay to kill the locals, he says, but to kill a family member is a no-no. He hits his son and starts screaming at him. They see all of this as well (from above), and Richie ends up dropping the lighter he was carrying around thru the floor boards, causing the father to look down to see what fell. He knows someone is in the funhouse, and he knows he has to get rid of them because of the murder they witnessed. This is when the chase starts.

They spend time trying to find a way out of the locked (from the inside) funhouse...having no luck, trying to outwit what turns out to be a hideously deformed monster of a man (frankenstein without his mask!) He kills them off one by one until Amy is left. Before his demise, Buzz kills off father, and Amy ends up killing Frankenstein. The only interesting death is that of Richie who is pulled up by a noose that wraps around his neck out of nowhere (silly again!)...but, he ends up going thru a thing in the ceiling...and soon after, we see someone coming up to the group in the funhouse car...it gets closer and closer, and Buzz (holding a huge axe he got from the ride) smashes it down on the head of the 'bad' guy, who turns out to be Richie. That was pretty cool...even tho it looked really cheesy. The other deaths are pretty much run of the mill (Liz is attacked by Frank and Buzz is killed off camera.)

Amy's little brother ends up getting caught by father, and his parents are called to pick him up. You think that they might kill him too, but they don't. They let him go to his parents who arrive soon after. He is staring at the funhouse, but says nothing to his parents...Amy sees them and tries to scream, but her sounds are drowned out by a huge fan.

Anyhow...the final scene with Amy and Frank is pretty boring...and Frank seems to be able to take way too much pain. He gets stabbed in the back by Liz, but it doesn't seem to bother him much...then, Amy kills him (so we think), yet he comes back for a second, and final, death. The character is pretty scary, being hideously deformed (no offense to the hideously deformed who might be reading this!), but overall the mood of the film doesn't work. There is one jump- out- of- your- seat scare, but the rest drags on too long and too little happens. The lighting is nice (from what I read on the DVD menus) most of the lighting was natural light...and inside the funhouse, most of it was lit only by flashlight. This works well to set the mood somewhat...but, as I said, in the end it doesn't work out too well. The characters, as I mentioned, are too flat to care about, and we really don't get to know them at all. They seem to be poorly written, and some of their dialogue is just downright dumb. The whole carnival atmosphere is cheesy- from the weird fortune teller lady to the crazy father to the deformed frankenstein lookalike son. You have to laugh at some of this, because it seems to be trying way too hard. The direction by Hooper seems to be pretty standard...nothing really stands out in my mind, and the acting overall is sub par at best. Amy probably does the best job, tho her "scared" isn't top notch or anywhere near it.

The Funhouse is entertaining, but it contains a number of weak points that bring it down. There are scenes that drag on too long, and there isn't enough 'scare' to make it great. With better characters and some sharper writing...along with some editing of longer, dull scenes, The Funhouse would have been greatly improved. It works as a decent 80's horror movie, but it's far from being great.