Horror in the ‘50s tended to lean towards the sci-fi end of the spectrum. And why wouldn’t it? This was the atomic age, and hiding under your school desk during a bomb drill (the safest place to be!) was scarier than any monster Hollywood could muster. So as a form of social moralizing (or an excuse to display giant, mutated lizards on screen), filmmakers merged the fear of nuclear annihilation with the need for entertainment. Most filmmakers, that is. Paul Landres’ The Vampire (1957) is a deliberate ride through the (mostly) human condition, small in scope but surprisingly big on emotion. Just don’t expect any vampires, radioactive, sparkly, or otherwise.
What you do get is a story much closer to Stevenson than Stoker, a simple riff on Jekyll and Hyde shot through a cautionary tale about America’s then growing concern with pill poppin’. The Vampire is more concerned...
What you do get is a story much closer to Stevenson than Stoker, a simple riff on Jekyll and Hyde shot through a cautionary tale about America’s then growing concern with pill poppin’. The Vampire is more concerned...
- 6/25/2016
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Coleen Gray in 'The Sleeping City' with Richard Conte. Coleen Gray after Fox: B Westerns and films noirs (See previous post: “Coleen Gray Actress: From Red River to Film Noir 'Good Girls'.”) Regarding the demise of her Fox career (the year after her divorce from Rod Amateau), Coleen Gray would recall for Confessions of a Scream Queen author Matt Beckoff: I thought that was the end of the world and that I was a total failure. I was a mass of insecurity and depended on agents. … Whether it was an 'A' picture or a 'B' picture didn't bother me. It could be a Western movie, a sci-fi film. A job was a job. You did the best with the script that you had. Fox had dropped Gray at a time of dramatic upheavals in the American film industry: fast-dwindling box office receipts as a result of competition from television,...
- 10/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Review by Chris Wright, MoreHorror.com
“The Funhouse” (1981)
Directed By: Tobe Hooper
Written By: Larry Block
Starring: Elizabeth Berridge (Amy Harper), Shawn Carson (Joe Harper), Jeanne Austin (Mrs. Harper), Jack McDermott (Mr. Harper), Cooper Huckabee (Buzz), Largo Woodruff (Liz), Miles Chapin (Richie),Sylvia Miles (Madame Zena), David Carson (Geek), Sonia Zomina (Big Lady), Kevin Conway (Carnival Barber), Herb Robins (Carnival Manager), Mona Agar (Strip Show Dancer), Wayne Doba (The Monster), William Finley (Marco the Magnificent)
With Tobe Hooper having many popular films in his directing filmography, The Funhouse falls by the way-side on being familiar in horror. I enjoyed this early Hooper movie a lot. It takes many of the various slasher elements and adds the right mix of camp and bloodshed for a delicate treat for viewers. Opening up at a limited scope of theaters, it had a respectable opening in 1981. It is available on all media formats; it...
“The Funhouse” (1981)
Directed By: Tobe Hooper
Written By: Larry Block
Starring: Elizabeth Berridge (Amy Harper), Shawn Carson (Joe Harper), Jeanne Austin (Mrs. Harper), Jack McDermott (Mr. Harper), Cooper Huckabee (Buzz), Largo Woodruff (Liz), Miles Chapin (Richie),Sylvia Miles (Madame Zena), David Carson (Geek), Sonia Zomina (Big Lady), Kevin Conway (Carnival Barber), Herb Robins (Carnival Manager), Mona Agar (Strip Show Dancer), Wayne Doba (The Monster), William Finley (Marco the Magnificent)
With Tobe Hooper having many popular films in his directing filmography, The Funhouse falls by the way-side on being familiar in horror. I enjoyed this early Hooper movie a lot. It takes many of the various slasher elements and adds the right mix of camp and bloodshed for a delicate treat for viewers. Opening up at a limited scope of theaters, it had a respectable opening in 1981. It is available on all media formats; it...
- 1/11/2013
- by admin
- MoreHorror
The definition of a slasher film varies depending on who you ask, but in general, it contains several specific traits that feed into the genre’s formula. Author Vera Dika rather strictly defines the sub-genre in her book Games of Terror by only including films made between 1978 and 1984. In other words, she saw it as a movement. When someone describes Brick, they don’t define it as a noir, but instead neo-noir . In other words, it’s a modern motion picture that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in those from the 1940s and 1950s. So does one consider Scream a slasher film or a neo-slasher, or simply put, a modern slasher?
Some consider Thirteen Women to be the earliest slasher – released all the way back in 1932. Personally I think that is rubbish. Thirteen Women is more like Desperate Housewives on sedatives.
Some consider Thirteen Women to be the earliest slasher – released all the way back in 1932. Personally I think that is rubbish. Thirteen Women is more like Desperate Housewives on sedatives.
- 10/29/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Much like the dark rides in carnivals and amusement parks of our youth, Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse, is a slow, yet creepy film, and an intriguing thematic sequel of sorts to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
The simple story takes place over a single night when a double date between Amy and Liz (Elizabeth Berridge and Largo Woodruff) and their respective beaus Buzz and Richie (Cooper Huckabee and Miles Chapin) turns into a nightmare when they become trapped inside the funhouse at the local carnival.
Berridge, the film’s lead, is a likeable actress. She epitomizes “the girl next door” and acts as the conscience of the audience at times, never wanting to bow to the pressure of her friends. Woodruff as the “bad girl” is a nice counter to Berridge’s squeaky-clean character. Although the two are so different, it’s easy to see why Amy likes Liz as Woodruff plays her.
The simple story takes place over a single night when a double date between Amy and Liz (Elizabeth Berridge and Largo Woodruff) and their respective beaus Buzz and Richie (Cooper Huckabee and Miles Chapin) turns into a nightmare when they become trapped inside the funhouse at the local carnival.
Berridge, the film’s lead, is a likeable actress. She epitomizes “the girl next door” and acts as the conscience of the audience at times, never wanting to bow to the pressure of her friends. Woodruff as the “bad girl” is a nice counter to Berridge’s squeaky-clean character. Although the two are so different, it’s easy to see why Amy likes Liz as Woodruff plays her.
- 10/24/2012
- by Derek Botelho
- DailyDead
The Funhouse
Stars: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin, Jack McDermott, Cooper Huckabee, Kevin Conway | Written by Lawrence Block | Directed by Tobe Hooper
Tobe Hooper has had a very diverse career, and I say that with nary a blurb of hyperbole. For every The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you get Crocodile. I love the majority of his films because they give me the feeling of warm and fuzzy nostalgia. But, with The Funhouse which came out at the height of the slasher craze, he was still shaping his now wild career. And the film is drastically different from some of his other films, yet it still retains some of Hooper’s erraticism. There are crazed characters and most of the carnival folk feel very, very real. Hell, the carnival feels real, it’s like it may have visited your hometown. It’s also a great slow burn film, you get to...
Stars: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin, Jack McDermott, Cooper Huckabee, Kevin Conway | Written by Lawrence Block | Directed by Tobe Hooper
Tobe Hooper has had a very diverse career, and I say that with nary a blurb of hyperbole. For every The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you get Crocodile. I love the majority of his films because they give me the feeling of warm and fuzzy nostalgia. But, with The Funhouse which came out at the height of the slasher craze, he was still shaping his now wild career. And the film is drastically different from some of his other films, yet it still retains some of Hooper’s erraticism. There are crazed characters and most of the carnival folk feel very, very real. Hell, the carnival feels real, it’s like it may have visited your hometown. It’s also a great slow burn film, you get to...
- 10/16/2012
- by Nathan Smith
- Nerdly
Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse failed to make the impact his earlier Texas Chainsaw Massacre did on horror audiences, but still delivered a few solid shocks for viewers in 1981. Much like Chainsaw, it consists of twisted characters and fun-loving youngsters being brutalized by them. However, this time around carnival workers get a bad rap versus backwoods rednecks like in Hooper's 1974 spine-chiller. Seeing The Funhouse now on Blu-ray doesn't quite deliver the same jarring surprises it did thirty years ago. The horror genre has seen it all since then.
Amy (Elizabeth Berridge) goes against her father's (Jack McDermott) orders and accompanies high school rebel Buzz (Cooper Huckabee) and her two friends (Largo Woodruff and Miles Chapin) to a traveling carnival. Two kids were murdered the last time it was in town. On a dare, the four teens decide to stay overnight in the carnival's funhouse. They soon find themselves trying to...
Amy (Elizabeth Berridge) goes against her father's (Jack McDermott) orders and accompanies high school rebel Buzz (Cooper Huckabee) and her two friends (Largo Woodruff and Miles Chapin) to a traveling carnival. Two kids were murdered the last time it was in town. On a dare, the four teens decide to stay overnight in the carnival's funhouse. They soon find themselves trying to...
- 10/6/2012
- by feeds@themoviepool.com (Eric Shirey)
- Cinelinx
The Blu-ray and DVD arrival of The Scream Factory's release of Tobe Hooper's slasher classic The Funhouse is on the horizon and we have an inside look at what to expect once it gets here! Alive! Alive! Alive!
The Funhouse Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD
Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) pays affectionate tribute to various classic horror movies in this tale of two teenage couples who spend the night in a sleazy carnival funhouse.
On her first date with Buzz (Cooper Huckabee, True Blood), Amy (Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus) disobeys her father and goes to the carnival with Richie (Miles Chapin, Hair) and Liz (Largo Woodruff), but their first date may end up as their last. After witnessing a murder, the four terrified teens are trapped in the maze of the funhouse and stalked by a real monster, a horribly deformed killer who lurks among the...
The Funhouse Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD
Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) pays affectionate tribute to various classic horror movies in this tale of two teenage couples who spend the night in a sleazy carnival funhouse.
On her first date with Buzz (Cooper Huckabee, True Blood), Amy (Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus) disobeys her father and goes to the carnival with Richie (Miles Chapin, Hair) and Liz (Largo Woodruff), but their first date may end up as their last. After witnessing a murder, the four terrified teens are trapped in the maze of the funhouse and stalked by a real monster, a horribly deformed killer who lurks among the...
- 10/2/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Since the announcement of the Scream Factory line of Blu-rays and DVDs we've been foaming at the mouth with anticipation. We've got an update on one of their more anticipated packages The Funhouse! Read on for the skinny on what to expect!
The Funhouse Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD
Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) pays affectionate tribute to various classic horror movies in this tale of two teenage couples who spend the night in a sleazy carnival funhouse.
On her first date with Buzz (Cooper Huckabee, True Blood), Amy (Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus) disobeys her father and goes to the carnival with Richie (Miles Chapin, Hair) and Liz (Largo Woodruff), but their first date may end up as their last. After witnessing a murder, the four terrified teens are trapped in the maze of the funhouse and stalked by a real monster, a horribly deformed killer who...
The Funhouse Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD
Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) pays affectionate tribute to various classic horror movies in this tale of two teenage couples who spend the night in a sleazy carnival funhouse.
On her first date with Buzz (Cooper Huckabee, True Blood), Amy (Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus) disobeys her father and goes to the carnival with Richie (Miles Chapin, Hair) and Liz (Largo Woodruff), but their first date may end up as their last. After witnessing a murder, the four terrified teens are trapped in the maze of the funhouse and stalked by a real monster, a horribly deformed killer who...
- 8/8/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Shout! Factory officially announced The Funhouse as part of their Scream Factor lineup in early July, but we have now the full list of bonus features:
“Just in time for Halloween, dare you to hop on board for a gruesome good time and rediscover two enduring thrillers filled with edge-of-your seat suspense and terror when Scream Factory™ presents Terror Train Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD combo pack and The Fun House Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD on October 16, 2012. Both collector’s editions of Terror Train and The Fun House feature anamorphic widescreen presentation of the movie and a spectacular array of bonus content, including new interviews and commentaries, archival material, a collectible cover featuring newly rendered retro-style artwork, a reversible wrap with original theatrical key art and more! Terror Train Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD combo pack is priced to own $29.93; The Fun House Collector’s Edition Blu-ray has...
“Just in time for Halloween, dare you to hop on board for a gruesome good time and rediscover two enduring thrillers filled with edge-of-your seat suspense and terror when Scream Factory™ presents Terror Train Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD combo pack and The Fun House Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and DVD on October 16, 2012. Both collector’s editions of Terror Train and The Fun House feature anamorphic widescreen presentation of the movie and a spectacular array of bonus content, including new interviews and commentaries, archival material, a collectible cover featuring newly rendered retro-style artwork, a reversible wrap with original theatrical key art and more! Terror Train Collector’s Edition Blu-ray + DVD combo pack is priced to own $29.93; The Fun House Collector’s Edition Blu-ray has...
- 8/8/2012
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Contrary to popular belief, the soundtracks to movie trailers don't come from the film. Stephen Kelly learns the trade tricks from the composers whose job it is to make you care
They're the unsung heroes of Hollywood, those whose job it is to stop your heart, steal your breath and leave you gasping for more – and the chances are, you've barely given their work a second thought. For this is the world of trailer music: an industry few people know exists, producing scores heard every day by millions.
"People just assume that the music in the trailer is from the film," says the veteran TV and film composer John Beal, talking from his La home. "That was the case a long time ago, although the music was taken from other films instead. Back when I started, only the occasional trailer was actually scored. The process has changed a lot since then.
They're the unsung heroes of Hollywood, those whose job it is to stop your heart, steal your breath and leave you gasping for more – and the chances are, you've barely given their work a second thought. For this is the world of trailer music: an industry few people know exists, producing scores heard every day by millions.
"People just assume that the music in the trailer is from the film," says the veteran TV and film composer John Beal, talking from his La home. "That was the case a long time ago, although the music was taken from other films instead. Back when I started, only the occasional trailer was actually scored. The process has changed a lot since then.
- 8/25/2011
- by Stephen Kelly
- The Guardian - Film News
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