The Funhouse (1981) on Netflix
Against her father's wishes, Amy Harper visits a traveling carnival with her new boyfriend Buzz and her friends Liz and Richie. The four stay the night in the funhouse dark ride.
- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb5.9/1018,670 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
Amy Harper goes to a traveling carnival that has pulled into her small Iowa town, against her parents' wishes and in the company of Buzz, the boy she has begun dating, her friend Liz, and Liz's boyfriend Richie. The four look around the attractions: a strip show, a magic act, a fortune teller named Madame Zena and an exhibit of freak animals. Richie dares the group to hide inside the Funhouse, a dark ride, and spend the night there after the carnival closes. From their hiding place they watch a masked worker kill Zena. When they try to leave, every exit is locked, and the carnival moves on in the morning.
Cast
- Jeanne Austinas Mrs. Harper
- Sonia Zominaas Bag Lady
- Ralph Morinoas Truck Driver (as Ralph Marino)
- Herb Robinsas Carnival Manager
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Funhouse (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Funhouse was unsuccessfully prosecuted as a video nasty in the United Kingdom although the BBFC had already passed it for cinema exhibition with an X certificate; some commentators suggest it was mistakenly chosen instead of Last House on Dead End Street, released under the alternative title The Fun House.
- The production originally intended to shoot on the Universal Studios lots but filmed on the east coast instead, because it could not obtain a waiver in California allowing child actor Shawn Carson, who played a significant role, to work overnight under child labor laws.
- The amusement rides and attractions in the film date from the 1940s and 1950s and were acquired from a defunct carnival in Akron, Ohio, and the "freakshow" animals, including one cow with a cleft palate and another with two heads, were real animals belonging to a traveling carnival.
- Tobe Hooper was praised for bringing style and suspense to what could have been a standard early-1980s blood and gore-focused horror film, and his work on The Funhouse was largely responsible for him getting the job of directing the original Poltergeist.
