The Funhouse

Lore & Background

A Universal Pictures production, The Funhouse was director Hooper's first major studio film after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Eaten Alive (1976). Its producers were inspired to produce a successful teenage-themed horror film following the major financial success of Paramount's slasher Friday the 13th (1980). Though the film is set in Iowa, principal photography took place on backlots at Norin Studios in Miami, Florida. Hooper was stylistically influenced by Nightmare Alley (1947), a film noir also set in a traveling carnival.

In Their Own Story

The air stank of popcorn and rot. I stepped through the grinning clown mouth, my Beretta heavy in my hand. The mirrors showed me a thousand Max Paines, each one a little more broken than the last. A laugh track echoed from nowhere, tinny and wrong. I shot a grinning dummy, and it exploded into a cloud of red confetti. Somewhere, Horne was watching. I could feel her eyes in every distorted reflection. The Funhouse wasn't a place—it was a fever dream. And I was the only one who could wake up.

Reader's Guide

The film's plot involves teenagers Amy, Buzz, Liz, and Richie who spend the night in a dark ride called 'The Funhouse' at a carnival. They witness the ride assistant, a masked man, murder a fortune teller. The barker Conrad Straker and his deformed son Gunther stalk and kill the teens one by one. The sole survivor, Amy, emerges at dawn as the animatronic fat lady laughs mockingly.

Did You Know?

• The film was an independent production acquired by Universal Pictures and released theatrically in the United States on March 13, 1981.
• A novelization of the film by Dean Koontz was released prior to its release, with Koontz using the pseudonym Owen West.
• The opening scene parodies the opening sequence of Halloween (1978) and the shower scene in Psycho (1960).
• The film was shot on the backlots of Ivan Tors Studios in Miami, Florida, over approximately ten weeks beginning in March 1980 on a budget of $3.7 million.