People are voting emotionally.

Best movie of this year hands down!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Before watching the movie, I read some reviews on IMDB (who were mostly bad) and decided to watch the trailer. It was cool, it had a 'fun' vibe, so I gave it a chance. The movie was bad though. A bit too much 'American horror movie" (sex, teens, drinking, someone who doesn't want to go, but does because of peer pressure,...), an irritating clumsy and dumb deputy, fake looking wounds (a big, new scar in the face that doesn't bleed a drip?), etc.The 6 crazies were quite cool and really scary, but that's about all of it.

Hey now. I'm supposed to visit my first "Haunted Funhouse" (actually 10 of them) next weekend at Kings Island in Ohio…and after watching this, I don't think so.Not that this movie was the scariest film I've seen, but the concept and some of the execution was enough for me to probably sit that visit out. The very basic of the plot here is that "five or six" mental patients are set free on Halloween night and they take over a Halloween Funhouse where they proceed to slaughter countless participants while we have a group of young adult friends plus a hilariously understaffed police force we follow and care about living through this {insert title here.}The movie is probably 50/50 lite comedy and extreme gory horror and likewise, 50% of the humor works and 50% of the horror works. Luckily the positive parts are worth the entire attraction. I did find myself laughing out loud at times and freaked completely out during other scenes.Of course, that leaves the missing 50% on both sides. Some of the jokes fell flat and some of the kills were so outrageously unrealistic, it couldn't be taken remotely seriously. Too bad, because they had something here. A place people could get slaughtered in front of others and no one would be the wiser. In fact, they relished in it. At least, in this scenario. I rarely say this about a movie I just watched and came out less than a year ago: REMAKE THIS MOVIE. If you've seen this, can you possibly imagine if this was played straight without any comedy or the many attempts at homages to the slasher subgenre? (Oh, and for the record, most of those also fell flat and the John Carpenter's Halloween-Theme music never fit. Sorry Mr. Composer…you were just a Con-poser.)If this movie was a straight up massacre horror in which people were offed in a Halloween Funhouse where you're supposed to be scared, but still make it out in one piece, it would probably kill at the box office, pardon the pun. Sure, I did enjoy the humor at times and the light tones did make me a little less jumpy, but if they remade this movie in dead seriousness, I probably wouldn't sleep for days.Eh. Here, nor there. It's a thoroughly gory ride that, thankfully never crosses the line since we're supposed to be having a fun time. Amateurish at times – definitely had a direct-to-Chiller-Network feel – it never excels to "real movie" status and yet, it's definitely a passable horror-comedy.Just too bad said "comedy" was really bad at times. The movie Scream this was not, but a distant cousin you can freely visit once in a while.***Final thoughts: Day 5 Movie in the Can! I'm watching a NEW-2-ME horror movie every day of October 2016 and this one I've wanted to see for a while now. Originally, I thought this was a remake to the original 1981 movie: The Funhouse, which I finally saw a year or so ago. That 35-year- old movie did not live up to my expectations, so I was hoping this new version would.NOTE: it is NOT a remake. Just both are horror films involving funhouses. Oh and one more final thought: who the hell opens their Halloween funhouse ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT? NO ONE DOES. Ours, here in Arizona, open a month prior and run every week until Halloween. I've never been to one, as I previously stated (until next weekend…maybe) but from what I'm told, the lines are extremely long and each sells out night after night during October…so why the hell would anyone open one, like they did in this movie, on the last night of the fright-season? Inconceivable!

Okay, so it's not a work of art. But you know what? That's fine because it's not trying to be. In a few words it's basically just "Cheesy Gory Fun". That's it. And on that level, it succeeds tremendously. And guess what? It's actually pretty damn funny. It's not trying to be a serious or even scary horror film. So get that thought out of your head. It's cheesy, low-budget horror with some pretty great effects work by Robert Kurtzman (Wishmaster, 1/3 of K.N.B. EFX Group) and a really strong ensemble cast, with some notable cult icons thrown in like Robert England, Clint Howard and Courtney Gains to name a few. I didn't know what to expect going in, but ultimately this surprised us with how fun, gory, cheesy, and funny it was. And it's also surprisingly well made for a small film.

How could anyone resist a title like 'The Funhouse Massacre'? Often films like this with an intriguing title turn out to be absolute duds, that can't come close to living up to their name. 'The Funhouse Massacre' is one of the better efforts I've seen at actually achieving it. For an almost unheard of film the quality is surprisingly high. Director Andy Palmer delivers a very high quality product. The camera-angles are smooth, the violence is plentiful and well-executed and the acting is of an above average standard - particularly for the horror genre.Mixing comedy with horror is becoming more and more common, as the horror movie genre itself sadly becomes increasingly stale. I personally don't love the mix and feel it takes away any tension the movie is trying to create. 'The Funhouse Massacre' has a heavy element of comedy to it. It's done reasonably well for the most part and there are actually a few genuine laughs here and there. Did the film need it though? I'm undecided on this. On one hand it's trying to say it doesn't want to take itself too seriously, but on the other hand it's actually good enough that it could have worked as pure horror. Some will love it and others will find it ruins the experience. It's impossible to please everyone at the end of the day, but I just hope they pleased more people with this decision than they ruined it for. There's a lot of fun to be had here and a nice little twist near the end to keep things interesting. All in all a good little effort