The Funhouse Massacre Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

The Funhouse Massacre Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson November 9, 2016

As its title indicates, The Funhouse Massacre takes its inspiration from Tobe Hooper's cult classic The Funhouse (1981) as well as a mishmash of other similarly themed horror films such as The Dentist (1996), Dark Ride (2006), The Fun Park (2007), and The Houses October Built (2014). Andy Palmer's horror-comedy opens ominously at the Statesville Mental Hospital where the shady reporter, Ms. Quinn (Candice De Visser), is visiting to do an investigative story on the half-dozen serial killers incarcerated in the asylum. Ms. Quinn meets the warden (Robert Englund) who gives the pseudo-journalist a guided tour through the peepholes of the institute's most infamous criminals. Like David Ayer does in this year's Suicide Squad, Palmer gives the cinema audience a backstory of each super-villain, albeit with more brevity and less flamboyance. We meet Animal the Cannibal (E.E. Bell), a renowned chef with a big appetite for his customers; Rocco the Clown (Mars Crain), an underground wrestler who gets carried away with the physical moves he imposes on his opponents in the ring; Dr. Suave (Sebastian Siegel), a notorious dentist known for inflicting great pain on his patients; the Taxidermist (Clint Howard), a sadistic, bird-stuffing expert; and Mental Manny (Jere Burns), a cult leader responsible for one of the largest mass suicides in history. Slyly and seductively, Ms. Quinn orchestrates an escape for the inmates. Morphing into Dollface, she leads the murderous rogues to the Macon County Funhouse.

Palmer also introduces us to a half-dozen teenagers who convene at a diner on Halloween night. They are eager to experience the presumably artificial spooks and goblins at the Funhouse but unbeknownst to them, they may be walking into a trap. The staged productions within the Land of Illusion Scream Park is based on the real crimes committed by Statesville's mental patients but the Park actors are completely unaware of what will hit them. Investigating the bloody trail that the escapees have left are straightlaced and ultra-serious Sheriff Kate (Scottie Thompson) and foolhardy Deputy Doyle (Ben Begley), who provides the picture with the most comic relief.

The Funhouse Massacre suffers terribly from a lack of clear direction and inconsistency in tone. It struggles to balance the moments of extreme terror with the scenes of dark comedy that lampoon the genre. It cannot decide if it aspires to be of the Scary Movie ilk or if it wants to be a straight-up horror picture with calculated moments of levity intended for laughs. The problem is that in the places where Palmer inserts sick humor that is meant to be appreciated by his niche audience turns out to be not that funny. Another fatal flaw is that Palmer drags out the second act so painfully long that none of the dumb teens grasp that the slicing and dicing of victims really happened and are not part of the show's spectacle. In the film, Generation Zers have become so desensitized to the sight of violence that they regard it as commonplace and are prone to capture it on their smartphones and post it to Instagram. Palmer also includes two over-the-top sex scenes with Christina (Chasty Ballesteros) and her boyfriend, the jock Jason (Sterling Sulieman), that come across aurally and visually as fake and not believable. The narrative jumps around too much and Palmer tries to incorporate additional stock characters. One subplot that attempts to tie three family members together is woefully underdeveloped.

It is great to have Robert Englund in the cast but his role is cut short and ultimately wasted. It amounts to essentially the same cameo role that fellow horror icon David Cronenberg occupied as Dr. Wimmer in Jason X (2001). Granted, Palmer concedes in one of the commentaries that he simply did not have the funds to keep Englund around. Budgetary restrictions aside, Englund's presence is sorely missed as he could have infused this lackluster plot with the energy it needed. I would choose Freddy over these six killers on any day.

The Funhouse Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Funhouse Massacre arrives on U.S. Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory's subsidiary, Scream Factory. The label presents the movie in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this AVC-encoded BD-50. This is a practically flawless transfer with no source defects evident in the video presentation. There is abundant saturation across the entire color palette with no bleeding evident. Contrast is outstanding with deep blacks. Scream adeptly handles Palmer's alternating lighting schemes of neon, low-key, and accented with aplomb. Skin tones appear natural with no manipulation present.

The Funhouse Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has provided English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo options. I mainly concentrated on the 5.1 mix, which did an above average job of delivering the acoustics. While the film has a wild cast of characters with different vocal expressions, the track lucidly picked up all the dialogue as I was reluctant to press the subtitles button. Much of the track seemed front-heavy and there was nice balance from the surrounds to ambience and noise. The surrounds exhibited some separation when there was a kill and f/x involving the victims. Surround channels were most active when reproducing seven of PUBLIC JONES' songs on the sound track. Ironically, the bitrate for the 2.0 track was nearly as high as the 5.1: 2166 kbps to 2214 kbps. The audio commentary, which is also on the DVD, is encoded nearly as high at 2091 kbps. Ideally, Scream could have given the 5.1 a more maxed out bitrate (3000-4000 kbps) and changed the DTS-HD MA stereo to a PCM 2.0 at the standard 1536 kbps. Also, it could have reduced the commentary to a lossy DD 2.0. As it stands, the 5.1 mix isn't as enveloping and immersive as it could have been. Scream has supplied optional English SDH.

The Funhouse Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Andy Palmer, Producer Warner Davis and Actors Clint Howard and Courtney Gains - a very chatty discussion headlined by director Palmer, who also received input from one of his producers and two of the actors. There is a lot of banter, guffaws, and even shouts as the quartet watch the film together. The track is predominately led by Palmer but the other participants weigh in with anecdotes and small observations.

• Popcorn Talk's Video Commentary with Director Andy Palmer and Co-writers/Co-stars Ben Begley and Renee Dorian (Blu-ray Only) - a "watchalong" Picture-in-Picture commentary with three of The Funhouse Massacre's principal filmmakers. As the movie plays, a small letterboxed image approximating 2.35 appears in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. We see Palmer, Begley, and Dorian wear headsets as they watch their picture along with us. Thankfully, Palmer does not simply repeat his remarks from his audio commentary and we also receive a lot of material from Begley. Dorian is tertiary in word contribution but she imparts quite a few tidbits about making the film.

• A Day on the Set (3:15, 1080p) - lighting equipment is being readied for the "classroom scene" run by Dollface.

• Production Diaries (5:36, 1080p) - behind-the-scenes footage of Palmer and his crew at work during the night shoot. Some actors talk to the camera and others are shown relaxing during breaks and also watching filmed scenes on the video monitors.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:21, 1080p) - trailer for The Funhouse Massacre presented in 2.35:1 with an accommodation for 16x9 playback. After the disc loads, there's also a preview for Scream Factory's Bite (1:26, 1080p).

The Funhouse Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had high hopes for The Funhouse Massacre but there are no memorable characters and the narrative never settles down to focus on a particular character or set of stories. Scream Factory has given this poor film a sterling image transfer and two very informative commentaries. The movie is not recommended but fans of Tobe Hooper may want to give it a RENTAL. If you're looking for a superior film that covers similar ground, my colleague Martin Liebman recommends The Final Girls (2015).