Everyone needs an escape from time to time. A place apart from reality, where the strange whisper with the miraculous, and cheap trinkets are bartered with greasy denizens of the night. What better place to set a horror film than the carnival, where the potential for mystery awaits around every crimson tent and distorted mirror? If you’re so inclined, step right up and buy a ticket to The Funhouse (1981), the late Tobe Hooper’s wonderful tribute to the seedy shadowed world of carnies, caramel apples, and Universal monsters.
Released in March by Universal, The Funhouse underperformed at the box office, but critics (including Gene Siskel) admired it for focusing on suspense and thrills rather than gruesome mayhem. In a landscape littered with severed limbs and phallically inclined urban legends, Mr. Hooper used his genius to once again showcase the underbelly of the American psyche, this time with a major studio’s dollars.
Released in March by Universal, The Funhouse underperformed at the box office, but critics (including Gene Siskel) admired it for focusing on suspense and thrills rather than gruesome mayhem. In a landscape littered with severed limbs and phallically inclined urban legends, Mr. Hooper used his genius to once again showcase the underbelly of the American psyche, this time with a major studio’s dollars.
- 9/2/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
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