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The Funhouse
The Funhouse is a 1981 American slasher film directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Larry Block and starring Elizabeth Berridge, Kevin Conway, William Finley, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, Wayne Doba, and Sylvia Miles. The film's plot concerns four Midwestern teenagers who become trapped in a dark ride at a traveling carnival and are stalked by a mentally handicapped albino killer.
A Universal Pictures production, The Funhouse was director Hooper's first major studio film after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Eaten Alive (1976). Its producers were inspired to produce a successful teenage-themed horror film following the major financial success of Paramount's slasher Friday the 13th (1980). Though the film is set in Iowa, principal photography took place on backlots at Norin Studios in Miami, Florida.
Upon its release on March 13, 1981, The Funhouse was a commercial disappointment, but received mixed to positive reviews from critics with praise for its atmosphere, cinematography and Kevin Conway's performance but criticisms for its pacing and comparisons to Tobe Hooper's other works. Contemporary film scholars and critics have noted that the film continues Hooper's recurring theme of family as seen in his previous films.
A novelization of the film by Dean Koontz was released prior to its release, with Koontz using the pseudonym Owen West.
In small-town Iowa, a masked intruder attacks teenager Amy as she showers. The attacker turns out to be her younger brother Joey, a horror film fan, and his weapon is a fake rubber prop knife.
Against her father's wishes, Amy visits a sleazy traveling carnival with her new boyfriend Buzz, her best friend Liz, and Liz's irresponsible boyfriend Richie. At the carnival, the four teens smoke marijuana, peep into a 21-and-over strip show, heckle fortune teller Madame Zena, visit the freaks-of-nature exhibit, and view a magic show.
Richie dares the group to spend the night in "The Funhouse," which is a dark ride. After the carnival closes, the teenagers settle down inside the funhouse. Through a grate to a room below the attraction, the teenagers witness the ride assistant, a silent man in a Frankenstein's Monster mask, engaging Zena as a prostitute. He experiences premature ejaculation, but despite his request, Zena will not return her $100 fee; he then murders her in a violent rage.
The teenagers try to leave but find themselves locked inside the funhouse. As they attempt to escape, Richie secretly steals the money from the safe from which the masked assistant took Zena's fee. The funhouse's barker, Conrad Straker, discovers what his son Gunther Twibunt (the masked assistant) has done to Zena. Conrad also realizes that the money is missing. Thinking Gunther took it, he attacks him. Gunther's face is revealed to be gruesomely deformed via albinism and frontonasal dysplasia with sharp protruding teeth, long white thinning hair, red eyes, and a cleft running up the bridge of his nose.
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The Funhouse
The Funhouse is a 1981 American slasher film directed by Tobe Hooper, written by Larry Block and starring Elizabeth Berridge, Kevin Conway, William Finley, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, Wayne Doba, and Sylvia Miles. The film's plot concerns four Midwestern teenagers who become trapped in a dark ride at a traveling carnival and are stalked by a mentally handicapped albino killer.
A Universal Pictures production, The Funhouse was director Hooper's first major studio film after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Eaten Alive (1976). Its producers were inspired to produce a successful teenage-themed horror film following the major financial success of Paramount's slasher Friday the 13th (1980). Though the film is set in Iowa, principal photography took place on backlots at Norin Studios in Miami, Florida.
Upon its release on March 13, 1981, The Funhouse was a commercial disappointment, but received mixed to positive reviews from critics with praise for its atmosphere, cinematography and Kevin Conway's performance but criticisms for its pacing and comparisons to Tobe Hooper's other works. Contemporary film scholars and critics have noted that the film continues Hooper's recurring theme of family as seen in his previous films.
A novelization of the film by Dean Koontz was released prior to its release, with Koontz using the pseudonym Owen West.
In small-town Iowa, a masked intruder attacks teenager Amy as she showers. The attacker turns out to be her younger brother Joey, a horror film fan, and his weapon is a fake rubber prop knife.
Against her father's wishes, Amy visits a sleazy traveling carnival with her new boyfriend Buzz, her best friend Liz, and Liz's irresponsible boyfriend Richie. At the carnival, the four teens smoke marijuana, peep into a 21-and-over strip show, heckle fortune teller Madame Zena, visit the freaks-of-nature exhibit, and view a magic show.
Richie dares the group to spend the night in "The Funhouse," which is a dark ride. After the carnival closes, the teenagers settle down inside the funhouse. Through a grate to a room below the attraction, the teenagers witness the ride assistant, a silent man in a Frankenstein's Monster mask, engaging Zena as a prostitute. He experiences premature ejaculation, but despite his request, Zena will not return her $100 fee; he then murders her in a violent rage.
The teenagers try to leave but find themselves locked inside the funhouse. As they attempt to escape, Richie secretly steals the money from the safe from which the masked assistant took Zena's fee. The funhouse's barker, Conrad Straker, discovers what his son Gunther Twibunt (the masked assistant) has done to Zena. Conrad also realizes that the money is missing. Thinking Gunther took it, he attacks him. Gunther's face is revealed to be gruesomely deformed via albinism and frontonasal dysplasia with sharp protruding teeth, long white thinning hair, red eyes, and a cleft running up the bridge of his nose.