The Fun House (1973) on Netflix
Terry Hawkins leaves prison after a year on drug charges and sets out to shoot a real snuff film. He lines up financing and helpers, then takes over an abandoned college building.
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- Netflix2.5/5
- IMDb5.0/102,564 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
A year in prison on drug charges leaves Terry Hawkins with a grudge and a plan. He could not sell the stag films he made before, and he is sure audiences now want something more extreme, so he intends to make a real snuff film. An abandoned college building becomes the setting, and an unsuspecting film company headed by Steve Randall puts up the money. To help him he recruits a mixed group of men and women, some of them amateur filmmakers: Bill Drexel, who works behind a camera; Kathy and her friend Patricia, who have no training; and Ken, an old acquaintance who once acted in pornographic films.
Cast
- Ken Fisheras Ken Hardy(Dennis Crawford)
- Bill Schlageteras Bill Drexel(Lawrence Bornman)
- Kathy Curtinas Kathy Hughes(Janet Sorley)
- Pat Canestroas Patricia Kuhn(Elaine Norcross)
- Steve Sweetas Steve Randall(Alex Kregar)
- Edward E. Pixleyas Jim Palmer(Franklin Statz)
- Nancy Vroomanas Nancy Palmer(Barbara Amunsen)
- Suzie Neumeyeras Suzie Knowles(Geraldine Saunders)
- Paul M. Jensenas Blind Man(Paul Phillips)
- Ken Rouseas The Whipper(Ronald Cooper)
- Alan Cooperas Young Boy
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Fun House (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Roger Watkins later revealed he was an amphetamine addict while making the film, and that only $800 of its $3,000 budget was actually spent on making it, the remaining $2,200 was used to buy drugs.
- Roger Watkins wrote the screenplay after reading Ed Sanders's 1971 Charles Manson biography The Family. It began as a straightforward Manson family biopic before turning into a film about a disgruntled ex-convict who makes snuff movies with a group of degenerates.
- The film's release was delayed after one of its actresses sued Roger Watkins, fearing a nude scene would hurt her chances of succeeding as a Broadway actress.
- The film was never submitted to the BBFC, and its planned UK video release on the FLK label collapsed amid Video Nasties hysteria: only one batch of tapes was duplicated and never officially released, and the printed sleeves were destroyed. Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse (1981) was briefly considered a video nasty, possibly through confusion with Watkins' film.
- For over two decades after its release, no one knew who directed or appeared in the film because the credits used pseudonyms, fueling rumors that it came out of New York underground cinema and contained footage of real murders.
- Watkins shot the film in December 1972 inside Old Main, a derelict abandoned building on the SUNY Oneonta campus. That building was demolished in 1977.
- Through film department events at SUNY Oneonta, Watkins met his idol Otto Preminger, who liked him and gave him a Bolex camera. Watkins used that camera to shoot the film's simulated snuff footage.
