A review coming up for this just as soon as I take off this Frankenstein mask…

Two couples on a double date head off to the Carnival. When there they witness a murder, and are trapped in by the Carnival owner and his mask wearing son. Hilarity ensues.

The Funhouse is one third of a great film, and sadly that third comes right at the start. The film has a great premise, some believable kids and oozes atmosphere but it all amounts to nothing once we get to some standard slasher tropes later on.

Like yesterday’s film, this is something that really could’ve only existed in the 80’s. There’s a stark sexual nature to it that you couldn’t get away with these days, in fact I’m not entirely sure you could get away with it then, but it seemed to come out of time period where people just weren’t looking. All that would go on to change of course, but there’s something to be admired about a film that shows teens as they mostly are. It isn’t the comical horniness of any number of slashers, but something slightly more real than that.

Tobe Hooper made one good film in his career, and he’s never lived up to it since. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a remarkable, unsettling film. It’s also a great example of what Hooper could do with atmosphere. He could tap right into ‘real’ and for that film he made that house exist. Every dust filled corner of it.

So all in all a disappointment, but an interesting one at least.

Up next: The craziest film I’ve ever seen.