Universal Pictures released The Funhouse on 13 March 1981.
Critics wanted Tobe Hooper to become a great mainstream director after he burst on the scene. There is a history of this. George Lucas made THX 1138 only to go on and make big budget films. More recently, Sam Raimi has done the same. But thankfully, Tobe Hooper disappointed those critics!
After The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Hooper made Eaten Alive. It’s a fantastic film but critics hated it. The problem was not the quality of the film. The problem was that he made the film at all. After all, shouldn’t he be making a big-budget space opera? Or a big-budget superhero film?!
Hooper next made The Funhouse. Critics didn’t hate it quite as much. But critics had figured out that he was never going to make the kind of films they wanted. But it was hardly fair. The critics pretended that they had liked Chain Saw. But they didn’t! They showed grudging respect for the production but they did not like the film.
All this led to Poltergeist. At long last, Tobe Hooper got a big budget. Their reaction? It was all Steven Spielberg!
Of all Tobe Hooper’s films, I like The Funhouse the most. This is surprising. I am not keen on teenagers as protagonists. But these teens seem more real to me. They aren’t the usual idiots who populate slasher films. But here, before the horror starts, it’s fun to hang out with the group as they go around the carnival.
Chain Saw is a masterpiece. But it obscures the rest of Tobe Hooper’s work. And I get it. Eaten Alive is dreary. Spontaneous Combustion is bizarre, Crocodile is generic, and Night Terrors is just bad. But The Funhouse? It’s pure fun. And everyone who enjoys even a little horror will enjoy it!
The Funhouse (1981) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
