Hello and welcome back to Friday Frights Review. Tonight's special feature is, in my opinion, an underrated classic called Funhouse Massacre. I watched this movie a couple of weekends ago, as well as some other movies, while skimming through Amazon Prime video. They have free movies for people who pay for that service. At first I thought it was going to be a low budget film that was more cringy than scary. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised.Funhouse Massacre stars a slew of unknowns with special appearances by a couple of horror icons including Clint Howard, Courtney Gains, and Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Englund. Our story begins in a criminal asylum that houses the worst of the worst. Six of the deadliest killers that have ever lived reside here. The residents of the hospital include a cannibal chef, a human taxidermist, a sadistic dentist, a manipulative cult leader, and a giant clown. The sixth psycho comes in the form of a tiny clown girl who helps the other five escape the asylum. They decide to have some diabolical fun at the local fun house. It is Halloween, after all.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to a underdog character and his coworker friends. They all work at a diner in the middle of nowhere. All the tropes are met here, we have the lovable loser, the jock and his promiscuous girlfriend, the shy girl, and the oddly placed but still welcomed friend. They all decide to check out the new fun house in town. It's a small town and it is Halloween, everyone is going to be there. Little do they, or the rest of the town, know that EVERYONE is going to be there.
The party is jumping when our friends arrive to the fun house. There's costumes, games, gags, and carnival food abound and we can tell it is going to be a fun night. Our friends decide to hit the haunted house first. Little do they know that the criminals have taken over the house and are killing and adding people to the haunt. No one notices and all I can think is that this is great. These kids friends are going missing and instead of looking for them they are taking pictures for social media and thinking "Man, I really got my money's worth in this haunt". Eventually, one of the main kids goes missing and suddenly the characters connect the dots. With the help of some local law enforcement, the remaining main characters will try to escape this fun house in one piece.
That's where we are going to end that. Let me talk about the movie itself. First off, I thought it was going to be a piece of crap horror film. In fact, just based off of the movie cover alone I thought it was gonna be a review for Wednesday. I mean, just look at it. It's a giant, drooping clown face. It's silly. I was surprised to find that this movie was funny and scary all at once. It has that sort of Shawn of the Dead sort of humor and charm. The movie is self aware in an unaware way. The characters split up when the should stay together, they run the opposite direction of the one that would have freed them, they just make the obvious horror movie mistakes. The kicker of it all is that they know what they are doing. Many comments are made about the severity of the situation in a funny way that it makes the story truly enjoyable.There were times that I would be yelling for the characters to do the opposite of what they were doing. It was awesome. They eventually make it in the end, but it was a bumpy road.Next I want to talk about the characters. Specifically the law enforcement characters. There are only TWO cops in this little town that are on duty, even after there was a homicide earlier in the film. Secondly, the male cop is so "Deputy Dewy" esq that it is sick. I love it. He is more dumb in my opinion, but he is enthusiastic. The humor in this movie is so tongue and cheek that I can't get enough. Every character is so true to their trope that you feel happy when they break the stereotype. Its what you expect but not what you expect.
Finally, I think that this movie is more than what it seems and could have easily been worse. The dialog, characters, and story line could have easily been just another run of the mill story if it had not been for its sense of humor. This has all really taught me to stop judging the movie by its cover.
That's a wrap for today, friends. I urge you to give this one ago. I urge you to watch that movie you think looks like garbage, for that matter. You may be surprised. You can watch this movie on Amazon Prime, that's where I watched it. It is not on Netflix at the moment. You can also purchase this on YouTube, which is a cool little feature that they offer. You could find this in stores, I'm sure. If you have seen this then tell me what you thought. Do you love it, hate it, never heard of it before? Let me know your thoughts, I want to know. Leave a comment or like if you feel so inclined. Have a spooktacular weekend friends!
Comments
Post a Comment