a review of 恐怖欢乐屋

HOOPTOBER OCHO NIGHT TWELVE & 2021 CULT MOVIE CHALLENGE WEEK 40: TOBE HOOPER WEEK Another one that I had a lot of fun with, in spite of a few quibbles with the overall shagginess of the movie. I was waiting for the little brother to be a much more important piece of the overall narrative (especially given that he's introduced as a potential budding killer in the Norman Bates/Michael Myers mold) so seeing him exit the movie at the 2/3rds point felt like a missed opportunity. As it is though, Hooper gets to show off his aptitude for sketching psychopaths living on the fringes of society, and he definitely captures in documentarian detail the slightly illicit feeling of a traveling carnival from when I was a kid around the same time. The monster makeup for this one is also extremely fun and oogy, and has a really effective reveal after being hidden under a silly Frankenstein mask for most of the runtime.