Movie Review: The Funhouse (1981)

The movie stars Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin, Cooper Huckabee and Wayne Doba.

My youngest daughter had an open house at her dance school yesterday evening and, by the time we got home, it was already getting a little late. However, since my wife and I had not had dinner yet, we ended up sitting on the couch and watching this film.

When I came across this on one of our movie channels, I thought, at least from the description, it would be an entertaining horror movie. Unfortunately, the film never fully lived up to expectations.

The movie does have some things going for it as far as the background location goes. The carnival they attended was actually pretty creepy, especially since there were a wide variety of background characters that, while ultimately harmless, helped to add to the dark atmosphere.

And, to be fair, the main monster (Doba) was pretty scary looking. I especially loved how the movie set up his appearance by having the carnival include an animal freak show (complete with two-headed cow, etc.).

I think my biggest problem with this horror film is the movie seems like it is almost over before anything actually happens. There are multiple scenes involving gratuitous nudity before the first murder even occurs and, by the time the action started, I was actually finding myself getting a bit bored.

In fact, the scariest thing in the first half of this movie had to be Amy's (Berridge) younger brother, Joey (Carson). That kid's horror movie obsession, combined with his apparent obsession with his older sister (he unabashedly walks in on her while she's taking a shower) actually made him creepier than the main bad guy. As a result, I honestly was a little disappointed when he turned out to have a somewhat limited role.

The movie had quite a bit of potential because of the creepy carnival setting. However, because the film takes too long to get to the real action, it never reaches a point where it is overly memorable. It is, at best, an average horror film.

My Grade: C