The Funhouse Massacre isn’t Funny or Scary But it is Bloody

Who’s in the mood for an indie horror film? This week I’m reviewing Andy Palmer’s comedy horror The Funhouse Massacre. I’m a sucker for horror-comedies and decided to give this one a shot. After all, what could be better than a horror film with comedy and hefty helping of gore that takes place on Halloween night?

The film opens on Robert Englund, who plays a warden for a secret psychiatric hospital for serial killers. One day, the warden decides to allow a journalist (who clearly isn’t a journalist) in the hospital to tour the facility. This so-called journalist is wearing an awful wig and goes by the name Ms. Quinn. Unfortunately for the warden, things turn sour because Ms. Quinn is actually the daughter of a mass murderer cult leader known as Mental Manny. Ms. Quinn is on the premises for the sole purpose of freeing her father along with Dr. Suave, Animal the Cannibal, and Rocco the giant Clown.

We then meet the 20-something-year-old staff members of a local diner who are preparing to close up early so they can enjoy the opening night of Macon County Funhouse. The townsfolk are unaware that the attraction’s real employees already met a terrible fate at the hands of the serial killers we met earlier.

Each of the rooms in the funhouse is actually decorated with real corpses and blood splatter. There are paying customers who want to experience a true fright and they start dying one by one. Although these gruesome deaths are happening left and right, no one seems to care. People assume the brutality is a set up and the bodies are dummies/actors.

Sheriff’s Deputy Doyle is at the local police station while all these murders are taking place. He’s received some Halloween prank calls and due to that, he discounts the validity of the real ones. Once the Sheriff gets involved and finds out that there are actual murders going on at the funhouse, she decides to go there to save any survivors and put a stop to the gore.

The majority of the film takes place inside the funhouse, hence the name “The Funhouse Massacre“. Although this film is billed as a horror-comedy, I didn’t find it funny. There’s plenty of gore on display and it looks awesome, especially since this is a low-budget film. But that’s simply not enough to save it from itself.

The Funhouse Massacre‘s characters aren’t memorable nor are they unique. They’re just your typical teenage horror movie stereotypes; the sexually generous girl, the jock, the shy girl, the nice guy and so on. On a positive note, I really enjoyed seeing Robert Englund, although he was literally only in the film for 15 minutes.

There really isn’t anything particularly memorable about The Funhouse Massacre. I’m not sure if the writers trying to pay homage to films like Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse or if they just ran out of ideas.

Overall, I wasn’t too crazy about The Funhouse Massacre. On the other hand, for die-hard horror comedy fans, the attempts at humor and the brutal death scenes might be enough to sustain your interest. The Funhouse Massacre is now available on DVD.

WICKED RATING: [usr=3]
Title: The Funhouse Massacre
Director: Andy Palmer
Writer: Ben Begley
Stars: Robert Englund, Jere Burns, Scottie Thompson
Release: 2015
Studio/ Production Co: Petri Entertainment
Budget: Unknown
Language: English
Length: 90 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Comedy, Horror