Arrow Video to Release Tobe Hooper's Funhouse on July 18th

Arrow Films is set to release another grindhouse, well "classic" doesn't seem right so I'm going to use the word "film" on Blu-ray and it has some swanky special features.  Some people think I was too hard on Tobe Hooper in my half-assed review of The Funhouse, but those people can eat a bag of dicks.  I'm just kidding!  I love you all.  You can read the review HERE if you're bored. 


The Funhouse (1981)

Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, Miles Chapin, Shawn Carson
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Duration: 95 mins

Overview: Something is alive in The Funhouse!

The carnival is a place for fun and laughter, but not for Amy and her friends. When their childish dare to stay all night in the spooky funhouse backfires, it leaves a trail of dismembered teenagers a mile long in Tobe Hooper’s classic video nasty era slasher.

Will anyone escape the clutches of the stumbling madman that stalks to sideshow? Is there no end to the carnival barkers chilling sadism? The only way to find out is ascend into the funhouse, where the games have no rules and the only prize on offer is a grisly demise.

Join us in The Funhouse. So much fun that you’ll never leave...Alive!

THIS BLU-RAY EDITION CONTAINS:
- Brand new transfer of the film in glorious High Definition (1080p)
- 4 panel reversible sleeve options with original and newly commissioned artwork
- Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
- Collector’s booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by critic and author Kim Newman.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Audio commentary with The Funhouse S/FX wizard Craig Reardon and Jeffrey Reddick (creator of The Final Destination series)
- Audio commentary with producer Derek Power and genre scholar Howard S. Berger
- Audio commentary with Justin Kerswell, author of ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and host of the slasher cinema website Hysteria Lives, and author Calum Waddell
- Carnage at the Carnival: Tobe Hooper Remembers ‘The Funhouse’
- Miles of Mayhem: Acting in Tobe’s Funhouse with star Miles Chapin
- A Trilogy of Terror: The Make-up Madness of Craig Reardon, the S/FX wizard recollects his collaborations with Tobe Hooper; ‘Eaten Alive’, ‘Poltergeist’ and ‘The Funhouse’
- Master Class of Horror: Mick Garris, the director of Sleepwalkers and The Shining reflects on the crimson-covered career of his longtime colleague Tobe Hooper
- Live Q&A with Tobe Hooper from San Francisco
- Never before seen behind the scenes photographs from the collection of Craig Reardon
- Trailer

Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 (16x9)
Optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired

Release Date:  18 July 2011

The Funhouse (1981): Pay to Get In, PRAY to Get Out.

The Funhouse

I'm not a huge Tobe Hooper fan.  I'm a fan, just not a huge one.  I think he's a talented guy and all but I don't see him as some kind of grindhouse god or anything, and other than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I don't think any of his films stand out as being amazing.  Saying that his later works don't quite live up to the majesty of Texas Chainsaw is a massive understatement because most of his other films have been absolute crap.  Compared to Texas Chainsaw or not, they are just horrible movies.  Poltergeist was a great film but I have a feeling Steven Spielberg had more to do with that than Tobe Hooper...

And now The Funhouse.  The plot is pretty simple.  Four teens or young adults or whatever the hell they are go on a double date to the carnival.  They wander around for a while and take in the sights when one of the guys has the brilliant idea to spend the night in the funhouse.  They sneak in and hide until the carnival shuts down for the night and then witness something horrifyingly awesome.  A disfigured monstrosity of a man pays the geriatric fortune teller for some sweet carny lovin', but things go wrong.  He finishes too soon and wants his money back.  She refuses and he kills her.  The freak's father realizes the teenagers are in the building and that they saw the whole thing, so the four of them are chased through the funhouse by the monster and his carny dad for the rest of the movie in a gruesome Scooby Doo kind of way.  That's more or less it.

Just another weekend at Grandma's.

The Funhouse is one of Tobe Hooper's better films, in my opinion.  It's genuinely creepy in parts and is worth seeing just for the sleazy, old school carnival atmosphere.  The pacing is sometimes off, but everything else seems to work in this film so I'm going to go ahead and give it a thumbs up.

Violence Rating:  3.5 out of 5
Booby Rating:  2.5 out of 5