Quick story from the boring life of Jon Lickness, a.k.a. the Horror Nerd - just two hours ago, I had absolutely no friggin' clue what film I was going to induct this week. Every movie that came to mind had either already been covered, brought about a preemptive "meh" response, or your humble host just didn't feel like writing about it. Hell, I even conducted the dreaded Google "best horror movies" search for ideas...nothing. Having nowhere else to turn, the cabinet that houses my DVD collection - namely, the four-foot high staple of my possessions that makes everyone who opens it think I'm a serial killer - got opened. Lo and behold, this movie popped out - a movie that I forgot I even OWNED in the first place."The Funhouse" is noteworthy first and foremost because of its director, Tobe Hooper. He's a genre stalwart who appears at damn near every one of the Fangoria "Weekend of Horrors" conventions, where scores of nerds just like you and me descend, sometimes from hundreds of miles away, to rub elbows with the horror masters of yesteryear. His credits include this, "'Salem's Lot," "Poltergeist," "Eaten Alive"...and a little movie from the early '70s called "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." And don't confuse that movie with the remake that was unleashed on audiences in 2003. This was the GOOD one, the movie where Hooper boldly went where few film-makers had gone before and showed ugly events happening in such a dirty, grainy matter that it seemed for all the world like this was somebody's documentary. But I digress.
This particular film was released well after Hooper had already established his name as one of Hollywood's pre-eminent horrormeisters. It also came in 1981, when horror was as deeply immersed in slasher cinema as it would ever get. I hadn't been born yet, but I've seen a good deal of the horror movies from this era, and this was some time to be a horror fan. When "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" emerged from nowhere to do blockbuster business, a whole slew of film-makers followed suit, which resulted in ripoff after ripoff of those two primal classics. Seemingly every holiday had a different masked killer and cast of attractive, nubile teens - with one virginal girl to be the final survivor, of course. More than anything, these movies were FUN. A movie titled "The Funhouse" gives the impression that it will be done in the same spirit, and those making that assumption wouldn't be wrong. While some film critics see this film as a repudiation of slasher movies, I believe "The Funhouse" to be a creepy little yarn that's better-acted than the vast majority of like-styled films from the period. And it's got a killer unlike anything you've ever seen in these kinds of movies, but we'll get to that later.
As per usual, this review is spoiler-ific, so don't read further if that sort of thing is a big deal to you. Somehow, I doubt anyone cares.
Well, for starters, "The Funhouse" contains perhaps the best opening scene in cinema history. In a scene that's an homage/send-up of the "Halloween" origin, we see the action through first-person as an assailant dons a mask and grabs a knife. Meanwhile, in the next room, a beautiful young girl, played by Elizabeth Berridge of "Amadeus" fame, gets undressed to take a shower. The scene is complete with loving and long close-ups of Berridge's unbelievable cans. It's a cinematic masterpiece. Eventually, the figure in the mask attacks Berridge - named Amy - and is revealed to be her bratty younger brother, Joey (Shawn Carson), who for reasons untold prefers to scare the crap out of his sister while she's wet, nude, and slathering soap all over her massive funbags in the shower. So ends the best damn movie scene...there ever was.
As it turns out, Amy is showering to get ready for some early-'80s teen socializing. She's headed to the carnival for an evening of fun along with friend Liz (Largo Woodruff, who quite frankly has amazing acting chops for a movie in this style), new boyfriend Buzz (Cooper Huckabee), and Liz's dorky beau Richie (Miles Chapin). While there, Amy goes through the trials and tribulations of a first date with Buzz, while the quartet take part in some carnival activities. They ride rides, see a magic show, and listen to a very eerie carnie repeatedly chanting "Alive! Alive! Alive!" for approximately ten minutes. These opening chapters of "The Funhouse" are often criticized for dragging a bit, but really, I don't see what the problem is. The original "Friday the 13th" takes a good forty minutes until it gets to the evening of doom at camp blood, after all. While the characters in this movie aren't quite as likable as they are in that immortal slasher masterwork, these scenes serve their purpose - they get us on a first-name basis with the main cast and establish tones of menace at the carnival, especially considering that Amy's disapproving father warned her about murders that took place at this very same traveling caravan in a bordering town last year.
As the evening goes on, the kids begin breaking all of the cardinal "rules" of the slasher films that ruled the universe at the time of its 1981 release. They smoke dope, make fun of the carnival's fortune teller (disrespectful kids in these movies = murder fodder), and even sneak into one of the carnival's dark rides after hours for a good old-fashioned slasher movie makeout session (complete with another all-too-fleeting shot of Berridge's tits...did I mention she has a great rack)? While in here, Richie suggests that they spend the night inside the dark ride, and the other characters agree. Man, do these kids ever regret that decision.
While frolicking about inside the creepy ride, they accidentally witness a most disturbing scene. The ride's operator - a man in a Frankenstein costume who never says a word - pays the AFOREMENTIONED fortune teller $100 for sex. After the event results in less than satisfaction for Mr. Frankenstein, he murders the fortune teller in a brutal fury. As it turns out, the man in the costume is named Gunther Straker, and his father is the sideshow's barker (the "Alive! Alive!" guy), Conrad (Kevin Conway). If you've seen your fair share of slasher flicks from the '80s, you know the drill from here - Gunther's mask gets removed, the kids are discovered in the ride after hours, and the father-and-son murder duo begin offing these meddling kids. No minty freshness here.
What we have in this movie, though, is some weird villain in Gunther, and I'm not just talking about appearance. Yes, he's pretty weird-looking. Kind of like some hybrid bat-man (and not of the Bruce Wayne variety) with big protruding teeth and a face that looks like it's separated into two entirely different sections. But the true conundrum of Gunther, at least to this reporter, are his actions, and the subtle nuances that director Hooper gives his villain. Firstly, here we have a slasher villain paying for sex ion the genre where sex almost always invariably equal death. Secondly, when all the other teens are killed by various implements from within the ride's confines, and it becomes Gunther vs. Amy, as expected, there's all sorts of hints that poor Mr. Man-Bat is inherently SMITTEN with Amy. It's never said, but trust me, it's implied.
The movie's best attribute is the cast. The acting is top notch pretty much across the board, with Berridge showing off more than just her giant breasts (that's the last time, I promise) as very non-final girl-style final girl Amy. It's no wonder that she was cast in an Academy Award-winning film just three years later. This wasn't surprising to me, however - Hooper has always succeeded in finding actors who fit the script's characters like a glove, from Gunner Hansen as Leatherface himself to Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund chewing scenery and stealing the show in "Eaten Alive." Wayne Doba, who plays Gunther Straker, might not be on equal footing with those two luminaries, but he's a very effectiev villain, with a strange gait and weirdly emotional body language making the character stand out in your mind among the pack of like monstrous killers that roamed grindhouses back in the day.
Alright, time to wrap up this little dog and pony show. The theory that "The Funhouse" is a movie that actively dislikes other slasher movies is a theory that definitely has some credence, as the movie goes out of its way to feature a teen disobeying her parents, smoking pot, and ALMOST having sex as the eponymous "final girl" - along with that masterful opening scene calling memories of "Psycho." Viewed apart from that snide criticism, however, this is a movie with great atmosphere, well-played teens, and truly fascinating villains. Dean Koontz actually wrote the novel based on this film (under a pseudonym, of course), and at one point there was a prequel book in the works, explaining the backgrounds of Conrad and Gunther Straker and their murderous career that occurred before this film. Now that is one tome I would like to get my hands on.
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