q&A
poetry/antipoetry & exploitation movies
i watched most of this flick last night & the remaining 20 minutes today because i was in the mood for a gritty early 1980s slasher. instead, i found a kind of slasher that belies the tropes that were in development at the time of this movie's release. tobe hooper (Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974]) directed this film from a screenplay by larry block about four midwestern teens - two couples - who double-date to a traveling carnival. they decide to stay after closing & spend the night in the dark ride, the funhouse.
hooper really knows how create a tense, sweaty mise en scene. the carnival is gritty. hooper employed real carnies. i got flashbacks to when i was a lad going to similar traveling carnivals, & even the CA State Fair, in the 1970s with same attractions, like the Freaks of Nature, & the barkers who try to entice you inside their tents to see the freaks & wonders of the world.
even so, hooper enjoys his own inner monster kid. the final girl, amy, played by elizabeth berridge, has a younger brother with his bedroom decorated with horror & monster paraphernalia. even her parents are watching on TV, as she sits with them waiting for her boyfriend to take her to the carnival, Bride of Frankenstein [1935]. so it comes as no shock to find that the dark ride the kids sneak into is a melange of old-timey carnival tropes & horror movie things.
berridge does a fine job as the final girl, vulnerable, resilient, tough & lucky. the FX was overseen by FX maestro rick baker. the slasher is not a creature of fantasy or the supernatural. yet he is a monster. complete with a hideous visage & mien. as for the plot, it is well-constructed. the teens in peril seem to do what teens might really do in their predicament. this was hooper's first major studio movie after the success of the TV miniseries, based on stephen king's novel, Salem's Lot [1979].
the denouement might seem forced but after what we, & berridge, have been thru it might be best to let it go as it will. all in all, this is a worthy slasher that unsettles the viewer & recreates the genre just as the slasher genre was finding its feet. proof that tobe hooper is no mean director of my beloved genre of horror!