The Funhouse (1981)

Director Tobe Hooper's sleazy, low-budget slasher-horror film came after his earlier works The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) (that was much more effective and scarier), and Salem's Lot (1979). After this film (a variant of TCM), Hooper went on to direct Poltergeist (1982), produced by Steven Spielberg. It came at a time in the early 1980s when a glut of similar films emerged following the success of Friday the 13th (1980) and Halloween (1978), including in the same year: My Bloody Valentine (1981), Deadly Blessing (1981), Happy Birthday to Me (1981), The Burning (1981), The Prowler (1981) and Hell Night (1981).

This basic and formulaic slasher-horror film - drenched in atmosphere about the dark underside of a traveling carnival - was described with a humorous tagline: "Pay to Get In, Pray to Get Out." A trailer description about the titular funhouse warned: "Something is alive in the funhouse. Something not alive like its father, something better dead. Something that has the form of a human, but not the face. Something that feeds off the flesh and blood of young innocents. Something that tonight will turn the funhouse into a carnival of terror."

• the opening sequence was filmed from the point of view of a heavy-breathing, masked intruder - [Note: The tongue-in-cheek sequence was an homage to both Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Carpenter's Halloween (1978).]
• in the bathroom scene, a killer approached into a bathroom where a nude, teenaged female was showering - the main virginal heroine Amy Harper (Elizabeth Berridge) - to stab her to death; as it turned out, the slasher was Amy's bratty younger 10 year-old brother Joey (Shawn Carson), a horror film aficionado, who was playing a prank on her with a long plastic retractable knife

Amy Harper (Elizabeth Berridge): Psycho-like Opening Shower Sequence

• two young double-dating couples were introduced - virginal Amy Harper (Elizabeth Berridge) and Amy's new boyfriend for a 'first date' Buzz Dawson (Cooper Huckabee), a hunky and muscular, dope-smoking gas station attendant, and Amy's best friend Liz Duncan (Largo Woodruff), with her geeky and irresponsible college student-boyfriend Richie Atterbury (Miles Chapin); the two couples were planning to attend the town's fair ground's carnival arnival
• Amy had not received the approval of her parents (Jack McDermott and Jeanne Austin) who warned her about dating blue collar workers: ("a guy who works in a filling station"), or attending the carnival with previous troubles (including a slaughter); to circumvent her parents' wishes, Amy lied twice - claiming she was going to the movies, and spending the night at friend Liz's house
• the two couples rebelliously attended the fair where they tried out carny games of skill and chance ("Hit-the-Bell"), viewed a sordid animals' 'freaks-of-nature' side show (with a two-headed cow), attended a magic show (with a low-rent Marko the Magnificent (William Finley)) with an under-appreciative audience, smoked marijuana, went on rides (such as the spinning Cobra), and visited fortune teller Madame Zena (Sylvia Miles) for Amy's palm reading; after heckling her by guffaws at her prophetic pronouncements, they were thrown out by the enraged Madame, speaking with a phony Rumanian accent: "Do not mock the stars, my friend...Out, out of here, you bad brats. I have performed in front of crowned heads of Europe. Don't come back, or I'll break every bone in your f--kin' bodies. Beat it!"

Freaks & Animals Sideshow Barker (Kevin Conway)	Strip Show Barker (Kevin Conway)	Funhouse Barker Conrad Straker (Kevin Conway)
Three Roles for Kevin Conway at the Carnival

• the two dating couples weren't aware that Amy's 10 year-old brother Joey had independently snuck out of the house and also attended the carnival
• they were also enticed by the Strip Show Barker (Kevin Conway) to attend an adults-only strip-show: "They wiggle and they dance; Six beautiful girls"; instead of paying, they snuck around the back where Buzz sliced a hole in the tent canvas to peep on the strippers
• another barker Conrad Straker (the third barker role for Kevin Conway) advertised the traveling Fairfield County carnival/fair's main attraction - the Funhouse - actually a fun-ride; the ride was decorated with a cackling fat lady, a pirate, a Chinese dragon, skeletons, bats and spiders: "Who will dare to face the challenge of the Funhouse? Who is brave? How about you, sir? Who is mad enough to enter that world of darkness? Terrified, terrified. You will scream with terror. You will beg for release, but there will be no escape. For there is no release from the Funhouse"
• the foursome decided to spend the night inside the carnival grounds after taking a ride; they watched from the ceiling above as the 'Frankenstein Monster' - the Funhouse ride's assistant, approached prostitute Madame Zena for sex and then prematurely ejaculated; she assured him: "Nothing to be ashamed of," but refused to refund back his $100 cash: ("A bargain is a bargain....It's not my fault that you can't control yourself"); the 'Monster' violently strangled and killed Madame Zena in a rage; and then the four teens found themselves locked inside the Funhouse
• after the Funhouse barker Conrad found Madame Zena's corpse, he realized that the "Frankenstein Monster" (who called him 'Father') had committed the crime; he decided to cover up the murder to protect him: "Wait a minute, I got it...We'll blame it on the locals. That's what we're gonna do. We'll just go and we'll dump her some place. Then we'll blame it on the goddamn locals"
• but then, Conrad became enraged when he saw his empty cash box and assumed that the 'Monster' had stolen everything, not just $100; (in the meantime, Richie had stolen the rest of the money from Conrad's strongbox); Conrad attacked the homicidal creature and ripped off his mask, revealing the hideous face of his own deformed, mutant and deviant son Gunther Twibunt (Wayne Doba)
• when unmasked by his father, Gunther's hideous face revealed that he was an albino with a cleft forehead, grotesque mouth with long sharp teeth, white, scraggly hair and bright-red bloody eyes. [Note: It was mentioned that Conrad had protected Gunther in the past in both Dallas and Memphis, where he had murdered two teen Girl Scouts.]
• at the same time, Conrad realized everything had been witnessed by someone above them - Richie's lighter dropped from his pocket through the ceiling opening, revealing the teens' whereabouts; Conrad and Gunther went on a rampage to find them, and Gunther was worked into a murderous frenzy (in exchange for a fishing trip or anything else he wanted)
• meanwhile, young Joey was shocked by the sight of Gunther and fled outside, where other carnival workers located him and found him lost and confused; they called his parents to come and pick him up; he was so traumatized by Gunther that he was unable to speak and explain about how his sister Amy and the others were still inside - in a real world of terror
• murders of the teens followed in rapid succession - often by props within the funhouse:
  • Conrad killed Liz's boyfriend Richie with a noose - via strangulation; he was also axed in the head
  • Liz was dropped through a trap-door in the fun-house, then threatened to be raped by Gunther in an air ventilation shaft (with a rotating fan); she attempted to entice him with an offer of sex: ("I know you like girls, I could be nice to you. You wouldn't have to pay me anything. I could make you feel good"), and then when he embraced her, she tried to stab him in the back but she only wounded him; he turned on her and stabbed her to death and pushed her face into the exhaust fan
  • both Amy and Buzz were confronted by Conrad holding a gun at the Funhouse's exit doors; when Amy asked Conrad why he was protecting his inhuman son, he replied: "I'm just protectin' my family...Oh hell, he ain't such a bad fella. He does get himself in all sorts of trouble, though, don't he? Anyway, blood is thicker than water. And I'm sure he's gonna be a real comfort to me in my old age"
  • as Buzz lunged at Conrad to fight with him and struggle for control of the gun, Conrad was backed up into a prop sword and impaled; Buzz also shot Conrad four times
  • Gunther dropped down from the ceiling, became incensed by the sight of the death of his father, grabbed Conrad's gun, and shot Buzz to death in the abdomen (off-screen)
• "Final Girl" Amy fled and was left to battle the drooling Gunther in a climactic showdown; she ran into a room where she found the corpse of her ravaged friend Liz; the monstrous Gunther broke through the door, but after pursuing Amy in the lower funhouse maintenance area, she defended herself by bludgeoning him with a crowbar; he became caught and hooked onto a track chain and was both electrocuted and crushed to death (and severed in two) between two giant machinery gears or cog-wheels that were rotating (part of the Funhouse ride mechanism underneath)

Amy - 'Final Girl' and The Sole Survivor

The Funhouse Fat Lady Singing - in Film's Conclusion

• as the film concluded at dawn with the carnival packing up to leave town, Amy emerged from the Funhouse ride as the animatronic fat lady perched at the entrance was laughing at her and mocking her - referencing the phrase: "It ain't over till the fat lady sings."