The Funhouse, dir. Tobe Hooper (1981)

STEVE says:
Surprisingly, this is the first time I'd seen The Funhouse. It was released when I was 10, and I may have seen bits of it on HBO because I remembered the shower scene in the beginning, but I know I never got to see the whole movie until tonight.

Sadly, it leaves me questioning Tobe Hooper's contribution to the horror genre.

The Funhouse was slow-moving, nearly bloodless, had nothing in the way of scares, and only two scenes with anything approaching tension. This from the Texas Chain Saw guy? Shameful.

Chain Saw is a milestone, there's no argument there. But how much shite like Eaten Alive, The Funhouse, Invaders from Mars and The Mangler do we have to endure before we realize TCM was a fluke that fell into the right-place/right-time category? He's surely not getting any better with age, as his more recent contributions, Mortuary and Toolbox Murders, attest. And, in keeping true to form, he's apparently directing From a Buick 8, which was a shitty Stephen King novel that will no doubt translate into a shitty movie no matter who the director is. It's sad, really.

The only thing The Funhouse had going for it was its lead, Elizabeth Berridge (Stanzi from Amadeus) who was just cute as a button and not nearly nude enough for a teen-horror flick from this period.

1.5/5

NIKKI says:
Oh my god, this was shit. And I was so looking forward to it.

I don't know why I was so excited about this movie. Probably because I'd read the book as a teen, and remembered really liking it. That and I've had a thing about carnivals and circuses for a long time. A horror movie set at a carnival? Shouldn't they ALL be? But, man, this was terrible. I can't believe Tobe Hooper sees fit to rave about it, as he does in an interview on the DVD. How could you be proud of this? It was terrible. I found it exploitative, senseless, and, worst of all, boring. I don't remember a single jolt, a tiny thrill. Nothing. Just me sitting there waiting 'til the end.

And I don't even know why we waited -- we turned off Eaten Alive, another Tobe Hooper "masterpiece". I say masterpiece because this is the body of work that is supposed to put Hooper in the same league as Romero and Argento. But is he? With one good movie under his very questionable director's belt?

Steve said the other day that he wanted to watch some good movies that weren't depressing like Away From Her and The Bridge and Brokeback Mountain. Where are they? I'm starting to hate our project and movies in general.

1/5