A psychotic redneck, who owns a dilapidated hotel in rural East Texas, kills various people who upset him or his business, and he feeds their bodies to a large crocodile that he keeps as a pet in the swamp beside his hotel.
A seemingly friendly farmer and his sister kidnap unsuspecting travelers and bury them alive, using them to create the "special meat" they are famous for.
A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.
A group of young friends stranded at a secluded roadside museum are stalked by a masked assailant who uses his telekenetic powers to control the attraction's mannequins.
A decades-old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine's Day turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer's order and people start turning up dead.
An unknown killer, clad in World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small New Jersey town bent on reliving a 35 year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual Spring Dance.
Director:
Joseph Zito
Stars:
Vicky Dawson,
Christopher Goutman,
Lawrence Tierney
Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion, where they are stalked by the monstrous survivor of a family massacre years earlier.
Director:
Tom DeSimone
Stars:
Linda Blair,
Vincent Van Patten,
Peter Barton
At the snobby Crawford Academy, Virginia's group of friends start to go missing years after horrible events that happened to her as a child around her birthday.
Director:
J. Lee Thompson
Stars:
Melissa Sue Anderson,
Glenn Ford,
Lawrence Dane
Three years after a prank that went terribly awry, the six college students responsible are targeted by a masked killer at a New Year's Eve party aboard a moving train.
Director:
Roger Spottiswoode
Stars:
Ben Johnson,
Jamie Lee Curtis,
Hart Bochner
A suspense horror film set in a small coastal town where, after a series of gory murders commited by mobs of townspeople against visiting tourists, the corpses begin to come back to life.
Director:
Gary Sherman
Stars:
James Farentino,
Melody Anderson,
Jack Albertson
The teenager Amy Harper dates Buzz Dawson for the first time and they go to the carnival with their friends Richie and Liz. They smoke grass and have good-time visiting the attractions including a side show with freak animals. The silly Richie suggests the group to spend the night in the Funhouse for fun. During the night, they witness the murder of the fortune teller Madame Zena by a man wearing a mask of Frankenstein from an opening in the ceiling of a room. They decide to leave the fun house but they find all the exits locked. Meanwhile Richie sneaks in the room and steals the money of the manager of the place. The masked man returns with his father and owner of the fun house to show the corpse of Madame Zena; when the man realizes that he had been robbed, he presses his son that removes the mask and shows his horrible face. Richie startles and drops his lighter in the room. The owner asks his freak son to chase the thieves and eyewitnesses in a night of terror for the teenagers.Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
On July 18, 2011 Arrow Video released a new Special Edition Blu-ray disc in the UK, with the following special features: an audio commentary with The Funhouse S/FX wizard Craig Reardon and Jeffrey Reddick (creator of the Final Destination series), an audio commentary with producer Derek Power and genre scholar Howard S. Berger, an audio commentary with Justin Kerswell, author of Teenage Wasteland and host of the slasher cinema website Hysteria Lives, and author Calum Waddell, Carnage at the Carnival: Tobe Hooper Remembers "The Funhouse" , Miles of Mayhem: Acting in Tobe's Funhouse with star Miles Chapin, A Trilogy of Terror: The Make-up Madness of Craig Reardon, in which the S/FX wizard recollects his collaborations with Tobe Hooper; Eaten Alive, Poltergeist and The Funhouse, Master Class of Horror: Mick Garris, in which the director of Sleepwalkers and the miniseries adaptation of The Shining reflects on the crimson-covered career of his longtime colleague Tobe Hooper, a live Q&A with Tobe Hooper from San Francisco, never-before-seen behind the scenes photographs from the collection of Craig Reardon, the film's trailer, a brand new transfer of the film in high definition (1080p), a four-panel reversible sleeve option with original and newly commissioned artwork, a double-sided fold-out artwork poster, and a collector's booklet featuring brand-new writing on the film by critic and author Kim Newman. January 30, 2012 also saw a UK release of The Funhouse by Arrowdrome DVD. Arrow Video released a Special Edition of The Funhouse on Blu-ray on 26 November, 2012. Universal Home Entertainment released the film to DVD in the US on September 7, 2004. Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray and DVD in October 2012 under their horror sub-label, Scream Factory. Universal also released The Funhouse in a four-film set, including Phantasm II, Sssssss, and The Serpent and the Rainbow. Also noted that Gunther was meant to appear in the Boogeymen: The Killer Compilation; however, Gunther did not make the list. He did appear in the TV commercials of Boogeymen. See more »
Goofs
Despite the funhouse being a portable carnival attraction, it has a basement. See more »
Quotes
Richie Atterbury:
When I was a kid, I once tried to spook my older brother by hiding in his closet. While I was waiting in there to jump out and scare him, a weird thought came into my head. What if he knew I was in there, and he was standing just outside the closet door, waiting to jump out and scare me?
Liz Duncan:
So, what happened?
Buzz Klemmet:
He locked you in, didn't he?
Richie Atterbury:
I waited for three hours till my parents came home and got me out. I was too scared to touch the doorknob. I... I wet my pants.
See more »
Alternate Versions
Although the 1987 UK CIC video release was uncut in terms of violence it ran around 3 minutes shorter than the cinema version, and the differences appeared to be some dialogue and narrative edits. It contained the scenes of reefer smoking which were missing from some later Film Four showings. See more »
A teenage girl sneaks off with three friends to a carnival even though her father warned her that there were issues with this sideshow the previous year. At first the four are having a great time but after witnessing a murder they become the hunted by a mutant.
Tobe Hooper's THE FUNHOUSE was released at a time when slashers were taking over the genre and if you look at the poster you'd think that this was going to be another but it's actually not. I think the film had a pretty negative reputation for quite sometime because people were going in expecting something that what they actually got. Technically speaking this is an extremely well-made film that manages to build up a rather nice atmosphere and it certainly has some interesting stuff going for it but there are still some flaws that keep it from being a good picture.
It's interesting that Hooper would go for a scare picture even though that's not what people were really wanting in 1981. The film manages to have some very good moments thanks in large part to Hooper giving it a very interesting atmosphere. You can certainly feel the carnival atmosphere as you watch the picture and the screenplay certainly gives us a lot of character development for the four leads. Another good thing the film has going for it is the cinematography and music score. Both of them perfectly capture the "shocks" of what the film has to offer. For the most part the performances are also good with Elizabeth Berridge making for a good lead and we get some nice support from Sylvia Miles and William Finley.
The film has its issues as I said and this includes the fact that nothing really happens until after the hour mark. I'm sure Hooper and company were wanting to build up the atmosphere as they did but I think they should have thrown in some sort of killing to keep people caught up in what's going on. Also, logically, you have to wonder about really being trapped in such a small space. This here is what really keeps the film from being better but there's still a lot to enjoy here. If you're looking for gore then you're going to be disappointed but THE FUNHOUSE is a nice little monster movie.
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The Funhouse (1981)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
A teenage girl sneaks off with three friends to a carnival even though her father warned her that there were issues with this sideshow the previous year. At first the four are having a great time but after witnessing a murder they become the hunted by a mutant.
Tobe Hooper's THE FUNHOUSE was released at a time when slashers were taking over the genre and if you look at the poster you'd think that this was going to be another but it's actually not. I think the film had a pretty negative reputation for quite sometime because people were going in expecting something that what they actually got. Technically speaking this is an extremely well-made film that manages to build up a rather nice atmosphere and it certainly has some interesting stuff going for it but there are still some flaws that keep it from being a good picture.
It's interesting that Hooper would go for a scare picture even though that's not what people were really wanting in 1981. The film manages to have some very good moments thanks in large part to Hooper giving it a very interesting atmosphere. You can certainly feel the carnival atmosphere as you watch the picture and the screenplay certainly gives us a lot of character development for the four leads. Another good thing the film has going for it is the cinematography and music score. Both of them perfectly capture the "shocks" of what the film has to offer. For the most part the performances are also good with Elizabeth Berridge making for a good lead and we get some nice support from Sylvia Miles and William Finley.
The film has its issues as I said and this includes the fact that nothing really happens until after the hour mark. I'm sure Hooper and company were wanting to build up the atmosphere as they did but I think they should have thrown in some sort of killing to keep people caught up in what's going on. Also, logically, you have to wonder about really being trapped in such a small space. This here is what really keeps the film from being better but there's still a lot to enjoy here. If you're looking for gore then you're going to be disappointed but THE FUNHOUSE is a nice little monster movie.