Hold Me Tight: Callin' from Tobe Hooper's THE FUNHOUSE

"Hold Me Tight: Callin' from Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse"
by Hunter Bush



It wasn't until my second time watching Tobe Hooper's breakthrough horror flick - 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - that it dawned on me that it was nearly a perfect movie. Everything in it works to achieve its ends. In under 90 minutes, Hooper & co. had codified an entire subgenre of horror in such a way that the landscape would never be the same and also created a character in Leatherface (played by Gunnar Hansen) who, though slightly less prevalent in our cultural lexicon than his slasher cousins Freddy, Jason & Michael, is assuredly of their caliber.

That's when I decided I wanted to watch all of Hooper's flicks. I'd seen Poltergeist (though I wasn't at that time aware of the rumors surrounding it which would follow Hooper for the rest of his career) but I wanted to see more. Over the years I've checked a few off of my list, but The Funhouse eluded me. Until now.