Those expecting another Chainsaw Massacre or indeed yet another Halloween clone will be in for a severe disappointment - yet The Funhouse is entirely successful in what it endeavors and carves out a little niche for itself within the annals of modern horror -- not as a masterpiece perhaps, but as a serious contender.

The film has plenty going for it, right from the wonderfully, creepy, atmospheric title sequence one gets down to some heavy homage before settling down to business. The local carnival has rolled into town and our young heroine tricks her parents (shades of Last House on the Left) and end up at the seedy Carnival with some amorous friends.

All is not quite what it seems at the Carnival and our young bunch get caught up in a murderously deadly game of cat and mouse due to their recklessness and insensitivity. There's a lot more layers to this horror flic than what at first seems the case, its just can't by by accident that this movie touches numerous relevant issues along the way, amongst them voyeurism, trust, the disintegration of the family unit.

This is clearly yet another criminally overlooked minor horror masterwork. Not unscary either, with its occasional leap-out-of-your-seats shock or two along the way and a screen monster as hideous as any and a effectively creepy music score maintaining a sinister aura.

Oozes creepiness, the tackiness and danger that is sort of inherent of such traveling freak shows.