- Director
- Tobe Hooper
- Year
- 1981
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 96 min
Also released as
- Carnival of Terror
- La casa de los horrores
- Das Kabinett des Schreckens
- The Funhouse - Il tunnel dell'orrore
- Massacres dans le train fantôme
- Kummitusjuna
- To tunnel tou tromou
- El carnaval del horror
- El carnaval del terror
- 'n afgrijselijk gebeuren
- Acidente no Luna Parque
- Смертельная забава
- Funhouse: Carnival of Terror
- Kuca straha
Filed under
The Funhouse
The Funhouse is a 1981 American creature feature directed by Tobe Hooper. It is one of the 72 films on the Director of Public Prosecutions' video nasties list, later dropped without a successful prosecution.
Hooper on a real budget with Rick Baker's monster. Nowhere near nasty enough to be on this list.
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A Universal picture that played British cinemas with a certificate, then appeared on a list of films liable to prosecution. The usual explanation is that somebody read the title and assumed.
Four teenagers hide in a carnival funhouse overnight and see something they should not. Hooper had a real budget for the first time and spends it on atmosphere: the carnival is filmed as a seedy place with a barker, a strip show and a two-headed cow, and forty minutes pass before anything happens.
Rick Baker designed the creature, which is revealed early and is more pitiable than frightening once you see what is under the Frankenstein mask.
It is a good film, and its presence on the DPP list tells you far more about the list than about it.
Banned, seized, prosecuted
DPP 72 · listed, then dropped
A Universal picture that had played British cinemas with a certificate. Its appearance on the list is usually put down to the title sounding like something else.
UK now Released uncut on video in 1987, rated 15 since 2007
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Canada
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Written about
- The video nasties panic, 1982 to 1984
How a gap in British licensing law produced a moral panic, a list of 72 films and two video executives in prison.
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