The Funhouse
Four teenagers spend the night inside a travelling carnival's funhouse and discover that the attraction conceals a real murderer. Tobe Hooper turns neon lights, carnival barkers and mechanical monsters into an eerie slow-burn slasher that feels far stranger than its reputation during the nasty panic suggests.
Film details
| Original / alt title | The Funhouse |
| Year | 1981 |
| Director | Tobe Hooper |
| Country | USA |
| Runtime | Approx. 91 min |
| Main cast | Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Kevin Conway |
UK status
Added to the DPP list but later dropped. Its inclusion has often been attributed to confusion with another film that had used a similar title.
Passed 18 uncut.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- The film was Hooper's first major studio feature after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Death Trap/Eaten Alive.
- Kevin Conway plays several different carnival-barker roles.
- The movie spends a long time establishing the carnival before becoming a slasher.
- Its attempted banning has often been linked to confusion with Last House on Dead End Street, which also circulated under a Fun House title.
- The current BBFC record lists the film at 15 rather than 18.
- The clown-in-the-box poster remains one of the most recognisable images in Hooper's career.
- Its reputation has improved markedly as audiences reassessed Hooper's visual style.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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