The Funhouse: Tobe Hooper's underrated slasher deserves another look

Tobe Hooper is chiefly remembered for two films: 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the blockbuster Poltergeist. Released on March 13, 1981, The Funhouse came between them and follows four teens who visit a traveling carnival with an unsavory reputation after two young girls died in a previous town it visited.

They ignore a warning from Amy’s father, decide to spend the night in the funhouse and witness the murder of a fortune teller by a young, intellectually disabled man in a Frankenstein mask; when his father arrives he scolds him, the teens are discovered, and the movie becomes a race through the ride.

Several elements of the film age poorly in 2026. The main antagonist is presented as a monstrous, handicapped person and the film treats his medical conditions without much humanity or nuance.

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