Filmed at Six Flags Over Georgia in Austell, Georgia, this is the kind of movie that I can't really figure out. Who is it for? What is it really all about? Is it a slasher, which it seems like from that poster? Is it a comedy? Is it even funny? It's a complete mess. But yet, I've watched it more than once.
It was written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, who would write for Saturday Night Live for six years before creating 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show, as well as the scripts for Coneheads, the two Wayne's World movies, Tommy Boy and The Brady Bunch Movie. We can forgive them for the Whoopi show, That '80s Show and this movie, right?
For this, they were joined by Michael A. Simpson. Who? Oh, you know, the guy who made the two Sleepaway Camp sequels, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland.
I mean, this is the kind of movie where the line, "I'm a graduate of State University. I also attended the David Lee Roth University where I studied rear projection," is the highlight. So just know what you're getting into.
So what is Funland? Well, it's a theme park owned by Angus Perry (William Windom, Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote) that used to be owned by its clown mascot Bruce Burger, who is really former accountant Niel Stickney (David Lander, Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley). And now that the mob has rubbed out Angus and taken over, Niel has gone completely out to lunch, seeing hallucinations of his dead boss and trying to kill the new owners.
There are a lot of comedy names in this, like Bruce Mahler, Robert Sacchi (yes, the Bogart cop from one of the strangest giallo you'll see, The French Sex Murders), Clark Brandon from Fast Food and Mr. Merlin, Michael McManus (who, like Mahler, did time in a Police Academy film), Mary Beth McDonough (one of the Waltons) and a very young Jan Hooks, who had worked with the Turners in Atlanta comedy (and got them on to SNL).
If you're looking for a movie where a demented clown slashes his way through a theme park, well, this is not it. But it's...something.
It was written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, who would write for Saturday Night Live for six years before creating 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show, as well as the scripts for Coneheads, the two Wayne's World movies, Tommy Boy and The Brady Bunch Movie. We can forgive them for the Whoopi show, That '80s Show and this movie, right?
For this, they were joined by Michael A. Simpson. Who? Oh, you know, the guy who made the two Sleepaway Camp sequels, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland.
I mean, this is the kind of movie where the line, "I'm a graduate of State University. I also attended the David Lee Roth University where I studied rear projection," is the highlight. So just know what you're getting into.
So what is Funland? Well, it's a theme park owned by Angus Perry (William Windom, Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote) that used to be owned by its clown mascot Bruce Burger, who is really former accountant Niel Stickney (David Lander, Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley). And now that the mob has rubbed out Angus and taken over, Niel has gone completely out to lunch, seeing hallucinations of his dead boss and trying to kill the new owners.
There are a lot of comedy names in this, like Bruce Mahler, Robert Sacchi (yes, the Bogart cop from one of the strangest giallo you'll see, The French Sex Murders), Clark Brandon from Fast Food and Mr. Merlin, Michael McManus (who, like Mahler, did time in a Police Academy film), Mary Beth McDonough (one of the Waltons) and a very young Jan Hooks, who had worked with the Turners in Atlanta comedy (and got them on to SNL).
If you're looking for a movie where a demented clown slashes his way through a theme park, well, this is not it. But it's...something.