The Funhouse (1981)
Tobe Hooper Funhouse starts with a rather wonderful homage or perhaps a gentle ribbing of John CArpenters Halloween POV shot,which then ends up in Bates motel shower scene,but what's this a rubber knife,YIKES,yes nothing in Funhouse is what it seems.Our psychopathic killer is in fact that other monster the annoying sibling,partly trying to scare his sister,the other part I should imagine is trying to get a look at her naked. Shawn Carson as Joey Harper,is a horror movie buff,who represents the majority of its audience,unfortunately for Joey when he later comes across some real horror,a psycho who tries to give him a lift to the Funhouse and the Funhouse itself the jokes on him this time. Tobe Hooper carnival is full of low brow entertainment that makes your local travelling funfair in England look like Billy Smarts Circus,with its chubby middle aged strippers and its bloody magician Marco the Magnificent ,were shown the sweaty underbelly of America's travellers,(I wonder if they are demonised like are tabloids do here). And just to add fuel to the fire Kevin Conway plays about three different roles as Freak Show Barker/Strip Show Barker/Conrad Straker (The Funhouse Barker),which not so subtle implies that there may of been incest within the carnival fraternity due to the dangers of inbreeding,which is then hammered home by the fact that Conrad's son is a real monster behind his fantastic looking Frankenstein mask. Sylvia Miles as Madame Zena is a ghastly horrible character who tells peoples fortunes,but turns into a raving loony when her powers are ridiculed,Madame Zena has one of the most unfortunate deaths in movie history,murdered after wanking off a monster in a horror mask,.I think Tobe Hooper managed to make an original and decidedly creepy slasher movie (one with very little blood to boot),and the Funhouse itself which traps its four protagonist is just as much a character as the murderer. Poor old Tobe,every film he will make ,will get compared to Texas chainsaw Massacre,something I doubt he will ever top in his career.
