The Funhouse. 1981. USA. Directed by Tobe Hooper. Written by Lawrence J. Block. With Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, William Finley, Kevin Conway. 35mm. 96 min.
After failing to produce a successful follow-up to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with the raunchy,
Southern Gothic–horror excess of Eaten Alive (1979), Hooper’s first feature of the 1980s proved he could direct with classical formality in a more audience-friendly suburban setting. In The Funhouse, the four small-town American teens who dare to spend the night in a traveling carnival’s house of horrors are a familiar mix of the naïve and the delinquent destined for slaughter. With an opening nod to Alfred Hitchcock, Hooper’s contribution to the period’s slasher film cycle is rife with references to horror film culture and is, as admirer Quentin Tarantino observed, “cynical, tawdry, and downright nasty [in] tone.” In the best tradition of memorable horror films, Hooper’s most sympathetic character is his damaged human “monster,” who appropriately wears an ill-fitting Frankenstein mask.