The Funhouse 4K 1981

Nah, how much I adore Toob Hooper after all... Yes, he's unfortunately making terrible thrash films now, yes, the success of 'Poltergeist' was once blamed on Steven 'I look silly without a beard, don't I? Spielberg, relegating Toob to the sidelines. But I'll tell you this - I love and respect Mr. Hooper's work as much as I do Mr. Spielberg's. After all, once upon a time Toob made really good movies.

For example, such as 'Funhouse' (the name I gave because this phrase is translated in different ways). And I love these movies with all my crazy heart. And not just like them, but you should at least be interested in them thanks to a good plot twist: a fortune-teller at the fair decided to serve a local freak, didn't serve him properly, didn't give him the money, he killed her, witnesses were found and now they have to be removed.

Another thing is that this plot begins, strictly speaking, about one minute from the fiftieth. Before that, we see a shade of a genre icon like 'Halloween', teenagers visiting rides and blowing pot, but not a single murder takes place. The movie swings along slowly, and that's not a good thing.

Thankfully, later, Hooper decides to rehabilitate himself, and quickly sends the youngsters to their deaths (almost all the murders are delicately left out, but there will be blood).

True, what Toob missed is the makeup artist. He looks like anything - an alien, a radioactive mutant, or even a cross between Siamese twins and Predator - but I can't believe that this drooling creature is a fairground freak. Yes, they don't look like regular people - but they're not that creepy either.

You can see the family instinct here better than in, say, Hooper's 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. Whereas there the members of the venerable family of madmen yelled at each other and almost beat each other with clubs, in Fanhouse Toob presents us with a touching picture of the main guy's adoptive father yelling at him first and then apologizing touchingly.

As such, there's little suspense here. But the teenagers running around the Funhouse looks good - some are just nervous, and some are shaking like chłodniks at every turn, afraid to see the maniac.

Ah yes, about the actors - I usually try not to touch this subject, safely comparing the slasher youth to the background, but the actors here aren't bad - both young and old - for example, the performer of the role of the Causeway Operator / Foster Dad.

In the end we have a good movie. Hooper is Hooper. If he made the maniac look a little less harsh and didn't smear mush all over the plate for more than forty minutes, this movie would not be worth the price.