The Funhouse Massacre (2015)

Six of the world's most notorious psychopaths escape from a local Asylum and proceed to unleash terror on the unsuspecting crowd of a Halloween Fun house. The themed mazes are inspired by their various reigns of terror, but the unsuspecting customers think that the all carnage is just part of the show.....The first twenty minutes of this film really entices the viewer into thinking that this will be something special. We have an iconic horror legend in the guise of Robert Englund, who's sole job is to introduce the killers in a Suicide Squad style, but without the elaborate music.As expected, once Englund has introduced the killers, he is no longer needed, the person whom he is showing the killers to, ends his screen time, and turns into a bargain basement Harley Quinn.The killers are interesting, but the main focus of the narrative is to concentrate on the gang of teens whom work in a diner who's only customer looks a lot like Stan Lee. Obviously this gang of teens love their pop culture, so we are submitted to lots of film references to keep the audience interested while the killers set up their 'fun house'.The problem is, the film doesn't focus on the most interesting part of the film, the killers, which could have made the film more of a 'House On haunted Hill (1999)' type exploitation flick, rather than your atypical teens in terror film.The teens are nothing more than your horror stereotypes, none of them have any likability about them, and as always, there is a good good cop, and the comic relief uneducated deputy who thinks he's something special.The scenes in the 'fun house' are quite good, and gore hounds will revel in the blood loss, but all the while, you can't help but will the killers to achieve their goal, and kill every annoying teen who goes into their house.So it's quite a good, if unoriginal concept, but if the focus of the narrative was primarily on the killers, rather than the annoying teens, this could have had cult written all over it.Shame...

Escaping from jail, several serial killers take up hiding in plain sight at a haunted house designed after their original criminal sprees and decide to torment the guests trapped inside, forcing those still alive to wonder how to stop them in order to escape the carnival alive.This one here was quite the fun and enjoyable slasher. There's a lot of solid work here with this one really managing to go for quite the fun amount of time here with this one really generating it's best scenes here because it's focus is on the number of maniacs on the loose. Putting the number at this high is quite a strong feat which is heralded along by the fact that the main location is a carnival funhouse that's based around their actual crimes for the unsuspecting and totally disbelieving locals. That really makes for the film to go through a rather original feature in the first half of the kids going through the set-ups unaware they're watching the actual killers recreating their crimes on victims as this is all assumed to be just an act with prosthetics and the various encounters here become all the more fun later on where their bodies are added to the attractions for the next round of contestants to witness which really adds to the deranged and demented atmosphere here. Those attractions, from the taxidermist cutting up the bodies to the dentist drilling into people, the deranged clown ripping people to pieces, the cannibal cutting up and devouring them and the female joker running around maniacally slicing up bodies all makes for the absolutely crazy and frenetic experience that makes for quite a great running time throughout here. The strong sense of action carries nicely into the final half here with this one moving along into the general freak-off out of the people realizing the actions are real and scoring plenty of fun here with the whole idea of the carnival getting massacred in quick-shot kills by their encounters with the killers running loose as there's a lot of fun brawls mixed into the action for a wholly enjoyable sense of fun throughout here that's made all the better with the final's fun use of realistic prosthetics for the gore effects here which is half the fun of these scenes alone which is yet another fun part to this one. These here all make this one quite a lot of fun and manage to hold it up over it's one main flaw. The one big issue with the film is the fact that there's a somewhat uneven pace throughout here that drags this one out, which is felt in the first half as it takes way too long to finally decide to go to the carnival in the first place as there's not a whole lot of worthwhile work done here to make them interesting in going to the show. This makes the film take a while to get going, and it's quite fun once it does but that takes a while. The bumbling deputy also isn't funny and became almost detrimental here in that it started pointing towards how he graduated from the academy his stumbling around was that bad, and these scenes here really affect the film as a whole.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a sex scene and drug use.

If you like a lot of cheese on your horror sandwiches then take a bite out of this little gem. It has everything you want in a horror film: humor, your basic characters (jock, stoner, nerd, etc...)and lots and lots of blood. The sets & characters are colorful especially the classroom scene with the dead students. Clint Howard, as always, is hilarious, this time as a taxidermist who takes a liking to people. There is a sadistic, psychotic dentist and a hot deranged woman child all dolled up with mass daddy issues. There is a great twist in the end which hints at a sequel. Grab some popcorn and some beer and leave your brain outside.

This one is definitely for horror fans as it focuses on gore and fun rather than actual scares. If you want to sit there and jump for ninety minutes rather than watch an actual story unfold then go watch Paranormal Activity. Instead this film focuses on creating a fun cast of villains, a decent enough set of 'heroes' and a great setting for them to square off in, although the title perhaps should be like 'House of Horrors' rather than 'Funhouse' as most of the premise revolves around people not taking the killings seriously since they are in a modern day house of horrors anyway.There are plenty of kills, although most involve knives or crushing rather than terribly creative deaths, but that almost adds to the film as for something so wacky and out-there, there is also a good amount of logical thought put into the situation as to how it all occurs. Most of usual questionable aspects of horror movies are answered for and played up, but not in an overt or laboured way. Overall this is a fun horror flick that fans will love. The only real issue is that the dialogue could have been more fun, but the overall plot and pacing of the movie make up for that and it is certainly an entertaining ride that ticks all the boxes and leaves room for a sequel should they so wish.