The Funhouse (1981)

The film has plenty going for it, right from the wonderfully, creepy, atmospheric title sequence one gets down to some heavy homage before settling down to business. The local carnival has rolled into town and our young heroine tricks her parents (shades of Last House on the Left) and end up at the seedy Carnival with some amorous friends.

All is not quite what it seems at the Carnival and our young bunch get caught up in a murderously deadly game of cat and mouse due to their recklessness and insensitivity. There’s a lot more layers to this horror flick than what at first seems the case, it’s not by accident that this movie touches numerous relevant issues along the way, amongst them voyeurism, trust, the disintegration of the family unit.

This is clearly yet another criminally overlooked minor horror masterwork. Not unscary either, with its occasional leap-out-of-your-seats shock or two along the way and a screen monster as hideous as any and a effectively creepy music score maintaining a sinister aura.

Oozes creepiness, the tackiness and danger that is sort of inherent of such traveling freak shows.  The Carnival setting is perfection with The Laughing Lady looming over the area like some demented Statue of Liberty, watching approvingly, mockingly as the horrors unfold.  Sylvia Miles’s turn as the shady fortune teller is spot on and the lumbering dolt dressed in the Frankenstein monster turns out to be so much more than he threatens. 

The film oozes menace and an exquisite, slightly warped score by John Beal enhances the mood to perfection.  Tobe Hooper draws strong performances from an ensemble cast of unknowns with the odd veteran among them.  The stars of this show are undoubtedly the creature and the carnival itself. 

Memories of the film are deeply etched into the memory bank as it came out in the days when Times Square had a life and a soul of its own.  The film opened at The National Cinema on 44^th and Broadway, bang in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the theatre district of Manhattan.  The then notorious 42^nd street just stone’s throw away dominated by Porn and Grindhouse cinemas that flickered dubious fare 24 hours a day and barely.  The films of Bruce Lee and Russ Meyer still reigned supreme along with films featuring Marilyn Chambers and Linda Lovelace.  Seedy businesses featuring coin operated porn clips, head shops, dealers and wheelers and of course those who worked the streets looking for punters who cruised the area reeking with vice. 

Times Square in the early 80s was the seedy, grimy underbelly of Manhattan oozing character that shocked and delighted in equal measure.  Horror movies were staple in the area and in the wake of the post Halloween slasher boom, there were frequently a dozen horror movies playing within half a square mile.  The Funhouse opened at The National and I was there with my friend from Tobago for the early show as her Birthday treat!  She never again watched a movie with me after this experience though. 

I remember sitting right up front to be engulfed by the huge screen and receive maximum jolts from orchestrated scares that were prerequisite in horror movies of those days.  The cinema was eerily empty despite being the first show of its theatrical run but admittedly a 10am screening was not ideal for most of the populace of Times Square who would be drowsily be heading home after a night shift or partying too hard till they were about to drop.  As the late birds scurried home, some sanitation workers readied the area for another night of sleaze and debauchery. 

I have subsequently watched The Funhouse several times and it has continued to grow on me.  Currently I have the 4K version ready to watch.  I look forward to watching the film for perhaps the 7^th or 8^th time over the years with enjoyment levels increasing with every re-watching.  I was fortunate enough to shake the hand of its legendary director Tobe Hooper at a film festival at Sitges in the early 2000’s when he was about to screen his remake of The Toolbox Murders.  He never again reached the heights of his all-time classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre nor come close to the claustrophobic excellence of The Funhouse – two films that rank firmly among my favourite horror movies of all.  The Funhouse is far less celebrated but, in my view, deserves a far greater audience and appreciation then it received.