THE FUNHOUSE - Have always had a soft spot for 'The Funhouse', which was, I think, Tobe Hooper's first theatrical release for a major studio? He did it before 'Poltergeist', anyway. I like how 'The Funhouse' just kind of meanders around for a bit without doing very much at all. We get standard issue set up – four teens, off to a carnival. A carnival with a bad rep - “not that one where those kids turned up dead two years ago, like?” Don't go there dudes! Especially, don't have this harebrained idea about sneakily spending the night there when all the sensible people have gone home! Surely this is all grist to some slasher's awful mill? Surely only that slightly virginal girl will survive? Yep, but 'The Funhouse' is a bit different. Back to that meandering. The kids wander around the carnival, taking in the two headed cows, the knackered foetuses in jars, the sinister barkers who all look descended from the same bad gene. They argue, smoke doobies, get freaked out by the odd mannequin. I can imagine some fans twiddling their thumbs for the first forty odd minutes. I didn't, though. I was hypnotised by the rancid atmosphere of the carnival, the garish colours, the messed up dummies which all seemed to have a life of their own. Yeah, 'hypnotised' is probably the word. Because even though the build up's very slow, it's never distracting, never a drag, more like a drift downriver in a boat on a summer's day, where you're lulled into a state of blissed out calm which however does become increasingly ominous because it's uhm, actually a slasher movie after all. By the time we get round to the twisted father / deformed son duo and a bit of killing, it all seems a bit secondary to the overwhelming presence of the fairground itself, which is surely the lead character in all of this. To go at it again – I love all those freaky dummies! I think Tobe must've at least checked out 'Tourist Trap'. No supernatural schtick implied in this one, but they're all very characterful. I especially dug that killer Kong head with the mouth which opened up onto a green lit scene of people running in terror. With all the coloured gel lighting on show, I'm guessing Bava / Argento must've been in the mix as well, somewhere (this possible influence goes back to 'Death Trap' as well, though). Anyway, 'The Funhouse' – I really like it, many others do not, but for me it has that early eighties horror magic and, yeah, lots of weird dummies.
 |