The Funhouse (1981) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 12, 1981

My memory of this film is that it seemed to take forever and a day to reach theaters and drive-ins near me. Even then, I failed in seeing it on the big screen. Because, by that time, I read the novelization by Owen West (Dean Koontz), which I had not cared for all that much.

It turns out that Dean Koontiz himself had not cared for it either and had taken some liberties with the script, in regards to backstory and motivation and so on and so forth. This would also be the only novelization that Koontz would ever write.

The film itself is not all that bad, really. Tobe Hooper's oh-so-unique brand of southern fried insanity pulses in just about every frame and, despite some effect moments of outlandish and over-the-top theatrical bombast, this movie really works well in its quieter, creepier moments. Of which there are quite a few.