THE FUNHOUSE MASSACRE
(director: Andy Palmer; screenwriters: Ben Begley/from a story by Begley & Renee Dorian; cinematographer: Filip Vandewal; editor: Andy Palmer; music: Chad Reymann; cast: Mars Crain (Rocco the Clown), Clint Howard (The Taxidermist), Sebastian Siegel (Dr. Suave), E.E. Bell (Animal the Cannibal), Jere Burns (Mental Manny), Scottie Thompson (Sheriff Kate), Matt Angel (Morgan), Chasty Ballesteros (Christina), Candice De Visser (Dollface / Ms. Quinn),Courtney Gaines (Dennis), Erick Chavarria (Gerardo), Renee Dorian (Laurie), Ben Begley (Deputy Doyle), Sterling Sulieman (Jason), Robert Englund (Warden Kane), Mikey Reid (Mikey), Leigh Parker (Randall), Robert Peters (Dave), Carlos Alazraqui (Bob); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Warner Davis; Petri Entertainment; 2015)
“It deftly handles all the horror pic clichés and the performers are a trip to watch.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An above average indie horror-comedy directed by Andy Palmer (“Badlands of Kain”). It’s based on a story by Ben Begley and Renee Dorian. In the 14-minute prologue, the Freddy Krueger originator Robert Englund appears in a cameo. He’s the warden for a secret prison for the criminally insane. On Halloween eve, the goth journalist Ms. Quinn (Candice De Visser) visits the prison. It turns out she’s the daughter of the incarcerated mass-murderer loony prison leader Mental Manny (Jere Burns). The visitor allows not only dad to escape but all the dangerous insane convicts, as she dispatches the warden and the guards. The other notorious escapees include Animal the Cannibal (E.E. Bell), Dr. Suave (Sebastian Siegel), the Taxidermist (Clint Howard) and Rocco the Clown (Mars Crain). At the opening night of the Macon County Funhouse (parts of the film were shot at Haunted Scream Park’s Land of Illusion in Middletown, Ohio), the theater actors at the Funhouse have been violently replaced by the real escaped criminal lunatics. Soon some paying customers are slaughtered, but it goes mostly unnoticed. Everyone assumes that the violence is part of the act, and calls to the police are dismissed as Halloween pranks.Story writers Begley and Dorian have starring roles, the former as a bumbling cop and the latter as one of a party of mocking visitor hipsters to the haunted house.Things are fun, lively and well-staged. It deftly handles all the horror pic clichés and the performers are a trip to watch.
REVIEWED ON 5/27/2016 GRADE: B+ https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/