Fun House (2019)

Directed by: Jason William Lee | 106 minutes | horror | Actors: Valter Skarsgård, Khamisa Wilsher, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Christopher Gerard, Karolina Benefield, Amanda Howells, Mathias Retamal, Dayleigh Nelson, Jerome Velinsky, Kylee Bush, Debs Howard, Bradley Duffy, Michael MacKinnon, Dave Peniuk, Ben Heidi, Scotty Mac , Aron Olaf Johnson, Sean Scott, Behtash Fazlalic

Eight third-rate celebrities gather in a remote house to participate in the reality show Funhouse. They are all people with no real talents who have become especially famous through modern social media. The participants are not allowed to leave the house under any circumstances. The eventual winner of the show will receive a royal top prize of five million dollars. In each round, the participant with the fewest votes is challenged to complete an assignment. Initially, everything goes as usual and the reality stars joke, drink and bicker happily. However, after the first round of voting, their fate takes a sinister turn and the fallen stars realize they are involved in a chilling game of life and death.

The opening scene of ‘Funhouse’ already reveals that the makers of this film do not shy away from explicitly showing a pretty gruesome killing spree. After a fairly flat intermezzo, which gives the viewer ample opportunity to get acquainted with the not very interesting main characters, the blood flows freely in the not so entertaining ‘pleasure house’. The rapidly unfolding story undeniably has similarities with the Saw films, although the killer in ‘Funhouse’ is even more sadistic and cruel than Jigsaw. In front of the participants, the executioner presents himself as an animated panda, a figure who appears on the screen when a new assignment presents itself. Despite the clear similarities with ‘Saw’, ‘Funhouse’ still has a face of its own. Because of the fast pace, the film never loses much momentum.

In addition to the pure horror element, ‘Funhouse’ also contains a socially critical message. It targets both the modern influencers who hold sway on social media and the public that consumes reality shows and meaningless vlogs with such greedy ease. The participants in the Funhouse show are, except for two or three people, superficial and attention-seeking types who are very easy to manipulate. And the viewers (including children) unabashedly feast on the deadly tests and torture to which the participants are subjected, assuming that it all won’t be real.

‘Funhouse’ is certainly not a film that brings a lot of new things under the sun. The horror print uses a tried and tested recipe, but works it out well enough to develop into enjoyable viewing for fans of the heavier horror.