With a title that is a mash-up of two Tobe Hooper horror classics—The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Funhouse—it's obvious from the start that The Funhouse Massacre isn't going to offer much in the way of originality: it's Halloween night, a group of lunatics have escaped from a high security mental asylum and are killing the patrons of a fun-house. Nope, not much new there! Still, at least the film never pretends to be anything other than a whole load of silly splattery fun, its tongue firmly in cheek as the psychopaths slash, chop, smash, slice and dice their way through the attraction's blissfully unaware customers, who believe that the killing is all part of the show—at least until it is their turn to die.
It takes a while to get to the really bloody stuff (the last act is where the best effects happen, including a couple of cool decapitations), but when it does, The Funhouse Massacre proves very enjoyable nonsense, each psycho having their own unique method of dispatching victims: Animal the Cannibal (E.E. Bell) eats them (obviously), demented dentist Dr. Suave (Sebastian Siegel) uses an unusually large drill to treat 'patients', The Taxidermist (Clint Howard) guts and stuffs people, Rocco the Clown (Mars Crain) uses a 'test your strength' hammer to crush heads, and The Stitch Face Killer sews shut the eyes and mouth. Meanwhile Mental Manny (Jere Burns) oversees the carnage, which features some surprisingly good gore effects (just checked the credits and Robert Kurtzman was involved, so maybe not so surprising after all).
