The Funhouse
Ugh, rubbish! How do you make a film set in a sideshow carnival so damn boring?! Sets itself up for a fall with an opening scene that not only references Psycho and Halloween, but features posters of classic Universal monsters! Unforgivable that nothing really happens for almost a whole hour, as our intrepid bunch of stock ‘kids’ wonder from tent to tent, in a series of bland encounters that have no bearing on the eventual story. Along with that, you have a subplot with one of the kids’ little brother on his own at the carnival, but again, that strand goes nowhere and ends with a whimper well before the climax. Not just poorly written too, I found it pretty inept on a filmmaking level too (was Tobe Hooper asleep?!). Seemed every other scene there was something to take me out of the film – shots that go on too long, characters set up for a jump scare that never comes, very forgettable kill sequences. Very difficult to find positives here.
Pieces
Once I’d got over the initial disappointment of Lovefilm not sending me the new Arrow release, I really enjoyed the film! The poster aint lying – “you don’t have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre!” Utter rubbish of course, but, unlike Funhouse, rubbish in all the right ways. This film is so damn entertaining, with quotably hilarious bad dialogue and acting, and a handful of solid gold WTF moments. My favourite: a potential victim is jump scared, not by the killer, but by a random passing ‘kung fu professor’ (no University campus is complete without one!), who proceeds to do kung fu on her till she knocks him over! Another bit that had me in stitches was the undercover cop’s calm and professional response to the latest killing: “BASTARD!!!!!.... BASTARD!!!!.... BASTARD!!!!!” On top of that, the kill sequences are actually very accomplished, and totally deliver with the squishy chainsaw-lopping effects. I can’t recommend this enough, the Arrow edition is definitely on my wish list.
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