The Funhouse

Despite all the cinematic thievery and homage, The Funhouse manages to stand on its own as an eerie, slow-brewing slasher that builds quite a bit of effective tension and dread leading into the more generic final act.

Hooper doesn’t entirely escape the rote business of semi-regular mutilations and impalings, but The Funhouse succeeds in updating a monster from the Universal pantheon and setting it loose in the type of traveling death trap that’s been haunting small towns forever.

It's rare that any film follows through its chosen themes with such attention to detail, much less leavening the package with a truly anarchic blend of black humour.

Mr. Hooper almost persuades us that he is up to more than just gore, creepiness and trauma.

Devotees of director Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be particularly disappointed with the almost total lack of shocks and mayhem.

While certainly not as interesting or accomplished as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Funhouse is a cut above the average slasher film.

The Funhouse begins with a lamely facetious reprise of the shower sequence from Psycho and slides steadily downhill there. [18 Mar 1981, p.B4]

A good popcorn horror. I sat there and ate food whilst this scary movie took me on a hellish night. The main girl is pretty and the main monster hideous. It works really well. The early parts of the movie seemed a little dull in places and there weren't enough killings but it was gruesome with some shocks.

The Funhouse displays solid practical effects, excellent sets and some decent acting to present its carnival horror, but its drudging pace and dull execution makes the wait in line not worth the ride.

The Funhouse (1981) Sinopsis: En un carnaval, cuatro adolescentes son perseguidos por un monstruo al pasar la noche en la "la casa del terror". Opinión: Sabiendo que esta película está dirigida por el mismo que dirigió La Masacre de Texas (1974) y Poltergeist (1982) mis expectativas aquí eran un poco mas altas por sobre la media y me llevé una tremenda decepción. De acuerdo a lo que acabo de ver, siento que quisieron mezclar el terror psicológico con el slasher, en lo personal aquí esa combinación no da un buen resultado, ya que tiene demasiado relleno innecesario, dura 95 minutos y las cosas recién empiezan a tomar forma después de los 60 minutos, dejando atrás contenido olvidable que no aporta absolutamente nada, pudo haber sido el segmento de alguna antología, así se habría aprovechado mejor el contenido que realmente vale un poco la pena, en fin, no fue lo que esperaba, no me gustó. No todo es malo, ya que la banda sonora acompaña bien los pocos momentos que valen la pena y la producción y dirección están a la altura de lo que Tobe Hooper hizo en las películas que mencioné previamente, nada más que decir, decepción total. Valoración: 1.5 de 5

Such a waste of time. The first half of the runtime involves the main characters enjoying a carnival. No story at all. It's just them running around having fun. It's so stupid.