Four teenage friends spend the night in a carnival funhouse and are stalked by a deformed man in a Frankenstein mask.
The Funhouse (also released as Carnival of Terror) is a 1981 American horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Larry Block and starring Elizabeth Berridge, Kevin Conway, William Finley, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, and Sylvia Miles. The film's plot concerns four teenagers who become trapped in a dark ride at a local carnival and are stalked by a deformed killer inside.
Up until The Funhouse, Tobe Hooper had only come pretty close to recapturing the relentless and ruthlessly nightmarish feel of the classic that catapulted him to fame, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Funhouse goes back to Hooper's roots, trading in the gore for playing with your nerves like Jimmy Page playing guitar. Traveling carnivals have always had a sinister, menacing undertone to them - that's part of what makes them so attractive - and Hooper, with a smart assist from Larry Block's script, takes that queasy unease and turns it up to '11', so that when the true horror is revealed, it's intensified that much more.
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| Pay to get in. PRAY to get out. |
Four friends on a double date and decide to hole up in the Funhouse of a traveling carnival just outside of town way past closing time, just for kicks. It's a weird place that gives off a freaky vibe, but they don't come to realize just how freaky, until they see something that puts all of their lives in danger, and realize to their horror that not all the freaks in the show are fake...or at all "fun".
An endless amount has been written about Tobe Hopper's fall from grace. Much like a soccer player that scored thirty goals in his first season and just one in the next, the downhill slope for the quality of his work was stark and unrelenting. The Spielberg collaboration on Poltergeist was supposed to launch Hooper as a Hollywood suspense maestro that would rival Hitchcock and Kubrick. Unfortunately the movie started a slope to mediocrity from which his career has never recovered. Generally movie fans look back on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the only truly outstanding feature in his catalogue. This record is somewhat inaccurate, because despite the inferiority of the majority of his later work, Funhouse is a decent feature that deserves further recognition.
Why Tobe Hooper never became the horror maestro that so many predicted is a mystery. Funhouse proves however that there is more to his catalogue than a Chainsaw Massacre in Texas. By far one of the best of the early eighties slashers, this entry deserves to be highly regarded.
It's an entertaining film. The funhouse robots are pretty rad, and the monster is badass. The kills could have been a little more gory...but the one where they accidentally axe their friend is great! There's a nice amount of tension in that final scene too.
The freak is played by Wayne Doba who is passionate in his portrayal and extremely credible. Plus the make-up is hideous and memorable. I also liked the depiction of the monster's relationship with his dad, the Funhouse Barker played by Kevin Conway. All-around outstanding job on this front.
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| If he wasn't bullied in school, he should have been. |
Hooper also spends far too much time on following Joey as he mooches around the carnival. Since Joey has no particular involvement in the plight of the teens, his inclusion is redundant and best left on the cutting room floor. Joey is the stupid kid brother and I was hoping the freak would kill his annoying ass. If he wasn't bullied in school he should have been.
Overall, you have to give Tobe Hooper credit for this one. It's stylish, imaginative, and held my attention the whole way through. "The Funhouse" is different, but it's one of the more memorable horror films to come from the '80s decade. It may not be an all-time classic like Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Poltergeist", but it's surely one of his better films overall. Definitely recommended if you are a fan of Hooper, or enjoy a good old slasher flick.
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| Something is alive in the funhouse...something that has the form of a human, but not the face...something that feeds off the flesh and blood of young innocents... |
Trivia:
Dean R. Koontz wrote a novelization of the screenplay under the pseudonym Owen West. The book contains a lot of backstory added by Koontz. Because of this, and the fact that the book was released before the movie due to a delay in post production, it is often mistaken that the movie is based on the book, but the book is in fact based on the movie.
Director Tobe Hooper was at one point nearly struck by a flying cog but was saved by an extra who broke their arm in the process.
Steven Spielberg asked Tobe Hooper to direct E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) but he turned it down because he was busy on this movie. However Hooper and Spielberg would work together on Poltergeist (1982).
The girls in the tent were local strippers from Miami, Florida.
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| Something is alive in the funhouse...something that, tonight, will turn the funhouse into a carnival of terror! |
An accident occurred during filming when a carnival ride carrying several passengers was left on for about twenty minutes to half an hour. The ride, one which has several octopus arms that spin around with rotating carriages, normally only runs for about four minutes per joyride. Thrillseekers vomited and yelled out real screams as the ride continued way past its end time. When stopped, the riders could not walk and were somewhat twisted in their musculature. An ambulance was called but no one was seriously injured.
The original plan was to have makeup effects artist Rick Baker play the monster, before director Tobe Hooper caught a performance by mime Wayne Doba, who subsequently landed the role.
Tobe Hooper re-used some of the film's props when he directed the music video for Billy Idol: Dancing with Myself (1983).
Some of the props in Joey's bedroom were owned by Shari Lewis of "Lamb Chop" fame (such as the winking ventriloquist dummy) and were obtainable because co-executive producer Mace Neufeld was a friend of hers.
According to actor Kevin Conway, director Tobe Hooper was a huge "Coke-head" during production of this film. Hooper allegedly consumed a minimum of 12 cans of Coca-Cola a day.
During production, director Tobe Hooper acquired a number of antique, clockwork and mechanical old toys which had been used as props in this movie.
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| Look....yo mama is sitting up there. |
The monster was played by Wayne Doba, a professional tap dancer and former mime making his film debut. His only other major film role for many years was Octavio the Clown in Scarface (1983), also shot in the Miami area.
Actor Kevin Conway agreed to be in the movie on the condition that he get to play all three barkers.
The title for the film's French release is 'Massacres dans le train fantôme', meaning 'Massacres on the Ghost Train'.
It was director Tobe Hooper's idea to shoot the film in anamorphic Panavision.
Director Tobe Hooper was bitten by a brown recluse spider during filming.
Reshoots of scenes took four days due to lost film footage which had got caught up in a local teamster war. Director Tobe Hooper has said that the filming of this movie in Miami / Florida occurred during the Scarface (1983) era.
The title for the film's Brazilian release is 'Pague para Entrar, Reze para Sair', which translates to the movie's tagline 'Pay to get in, pray to get out'.
The animatronic fat lady laughing at the end of the film is a reference to the phrase "It ain't over till the fat lady sings".
The opening sequence was filmed after principal shooting on the movie had already wrapped.
The industrial crane used for crane shots on this movie could elevate higher than the ferris-wheel seen in the amusement park. The crane was gigantic. It had three sections which could each extend fifty feet. The film's D.O.P. wanted to have one on every movie he worked on.
In a interview on the DVD, director Tobe Hooper said that the mask worn by one of the creatures was a Frankenstein mask. Hooper said that this was selected because the Universal Studios owned the image copyright for it from their Frankenstein (1931) horror film classic
Director Tobe Hooper made this film between his other horror movies Salem's Lot (1979) and Poltergeist (1982).
A two-headed cow and also one with a cleft palate are seen in this movie.
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| Yeah I'm a cow with a cleft palate. Fuck you. |
According to Tobe Hooper, actress Sylvia Miles jokingly asked "Did I just throw my career away" after filming the sex scene with the film's freak/monster
Cooper Huckabee was 30 years old when he played a teen in this film.
The movie The Last House on Dead End Street (1973) made just a few years earlier had 'The Fun House' as an alternate title.
The film received the cover photo and main story in Fangoria #11
The film was unsuccessfully prosecuted as a video nasty in the UK a few years after its release. Some commentators have questioned its attempted banning, given that the film is fairly tame in comparison to other entries on the list, leading some to suggest it was mistakenly chosen instead of the infamous Last House on Dead End Street, which was released under an alternative title The Fun House and oddly did not appear on the list. It was released uncut on VHS in 1987 and later on DVD in 1999.
Actress Elizabeth Berridge received an 'introducing' credit even though she had previously appeared in Natural Enemies (1979).
The script was purchased by Universal Pictures, who were looking to produce a teen-aimed horror film after the success of Paramount's Friday the 13th (1980).
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| Frankenstein wants pussy. Ugggggggh |
