The Funhouse Massacre, Hell Fest, And Blood Fest (Scary Movies That Are Less Theme Parks... And More Scream Parks)

We could not take too much of a break for horror podcasts and trauma exploration, so we are back at it again on Nick Nack Goes To The Movies.  This time we are talking a super niche sub-genre of horror movies of those that take place almost exclusively at either a fair or carnival.  Blood Fest, Hell Fest, and The Funhouse Massacre all have this setting, but go in different directions with the homework assignment.  Some go for scares, some go for meta-analysis (not unlike the Scream franchise), but all are a fun time.  So grab some cotton candy, popcorn, or Cookie Dough bites, and get lost in a super social distant safe film marathon at a carnival of horrors.  And yes, you may learn a thing or two along the way and have some free therapy and grow to be the best version of yourself after one of these films.  If you have a movie I haven't come across yet in this super specific setting, let me know and we can see how they stack up to this list I have generated.  And yes, if you haven't already, I talk a ton about the Scream movie franchise and TV series so this is your sign to watch both.  But let me know on social media at either @NickNackMovies or @NickNack_IC on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok.  The most super or most interesting takes in the Nick Nack Mail Bag will be shared on next week's episode!  Also, how good was that The Suicide Squad Trailer?

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S2E12

-Intro/Jingle

-Come one and come all to Nick Nack Goes to the Movies, the one stop shop for all things movie, tv, and pop culture.  After a few super hero episodes, and a many more in the near future, I felt it was time once again to dive into something spooky.  What in question might seem a bit niche but having seen a few of these recently, I wanted to talk about horror movies that happen at carnivals or fair’s, think like the six flags fright fest.  I can’t say I have ever actually been to one of those, but imagine going to one of those for some rides, fun scares, and maybe some hotdogs or whatever.  But instead you get genuine terror and you may not even make it out alive, wow, wild right?  Well in my recent hunting for a new scare, I saw not one, not two, but three movies just like this.  Blood Fest, Hell Fest, and the Funhouse Massacre seem to all have this setting but take different directions with it.  I know many scary movies have a carnival or fair, It Chapter 2 had a side story at one of these, but these movies have a main focus in these areas, some go for scares, some go for meta-analysis (not unlike the Scream franchise), but all are a fun time.  So strap in as we dive into these 3 frightful fun films and think of a different time when going to an amusement park with tons of people didn’t seem like the scariest thing out there, damn you COVID-19!

-The Funhouse Massacre (Amazon Prime)

- Of the three movies being talked about here, this is the only one I have never seen.  This is also the only one that I can’t say I really know anyone in it from their other works.  I have obviously heard of Robert Endlund (the original Fredy), even though the nightmare on elm franchise still hasn’t really spoken to me just yet, but it is all on HBO Max, so sometime.  I gotta imagine it is close if I am already watching, or starting, The Exorcist franchise, something I never thought I would want to do.  This movie already is the strangest of the lot with the main plot being a ton of killers are freed and brought to a theme park that has their specific styles of killing so they can run about and do the dirty deed and have a grand ‘ol time doing it.

-I am not gonna lie, this movie starts with brief and incredibly generic whos-who of a killer clown, a taxidermy guy, a religious zealot, a cannibal cook, and a dentist?  The dentist one is the strangest somehow, this is a cheesy like bad movie, his character name is dr. suave and animal the cannibal, just like, you know what you are getting with a movie called the funhouse massacre.

-We get so quickly introduced to the tropes and not the characters that I don’t really care about anyone.  The Funhouse Massacre doe have this dentist killer guy that has me mad curious and reminds me of the little shop of horrors I am your dentist song guy played by steve martin.  I mean his vignette was taking something jackhammer sized and doing “airquote dentist work” with it.  Who goes to a dentist appointment in the middle of nowhere with 1 person working, this defies logic, but still it’s the best part of this movie.

-The non-serial killer people are once again briefly met, and I really don’t care about anyone here, once again.  This ocean’s 13 freddy vs. Jason level of bad horror is like, a really bad setup for a really bad movie.

-There is something kind of funny about the park actors being taken out by their real serial killer counterparts, and the gore at moments is good, a bit over the top gross, but good enough nonetheless.  This really is the inmates take over the asylum, but unsuspecting folks are walking into this literal deathtrap.  

-I think my biggest issue/question with this movie is, how.  Most of the even staff is still working, the main 6 actors are replaced by the real killers, and the boss is missing.  In the other movies, the setup makes a bit more sense, which is saying something.  One locks everyone in and the whole park staff is in on killing people, and the other is one killer is hidden among the whole park staff as a random guy.  This half and half, especially with so many bigger figures at the top, it kind of makes sense, but only kind of at best.  But having the park goers be a part of all the violent and think it is part of the act is a trope that will never get old.  Leaving all the dead park goer bodies lying there and not really being suspicious at all is a pretty wild time.  Like thank goodness they lock everyone in, but something about it being not one and not all but something in between just doesn’t feel the same.  This is clearly not trying to be actually scary, more so a bit gross and very dumb, they might say it was funny, I just say dumb.

-The thing about this movie, is unless you are going alone or with one more person, eventually you may wonder where your group keeps disappearing to or might recognize a few of these dead bodies just lying around.  They do an okay job with the kills as they go, but this movie is barely watchable.

-The cop subplot is barely a thing, but having one dumb cop of the pair trying to save the day, that is the route they went with this.

-Also, having them talk about an electric fence the whole time, but it never actually being a thing, the amount of times people touched a fence with an electric sign but there never being a sign, that is like wild right?

-There is a fun reveal of the main cop being related to the evil preacher guy, but it is so short lived and not developed that once again, like the rest of this movie, it really doesn’t matter…at all.  Even though they do have two fun fake out kill at the very end right as someone does a I can’t believe I made it line or the final girl ride away in the ambulance.  Either way, bad movie and off to a bad start.

-Blood Fest (Amazon Prime)

- Next up combines the scares of real killers, based on horror genres, and makes it the entire premise of a park.  Everyone is in on it and it leans hard into horror meta humor as well as just ridiculousness.  Two of our leads should be know to most of our listeners.  Robbie Kay (peter pan from once upon a time as well as one of the main leads from the heroes reborn series, which has a bad rep but really missed out not having Zachary quinto, milo Ventimiglia, and hayden panetierre.  And all of our super hero listeners should know of Jacob batalon as spidermans best friend in the MCU, Ned.  Speaking of the MCU, Heroes, and just sper heroes in general.  Zachary Levi, who I can’t wait to watch in the Shazam sequel, had a brief role in the MCU, and was a part of that heroes reborn movie, has a brief cameo as himself here too.  Also, apparently, he is playing kurt warner in a movie soon, so that is something.

-Off the bat, this movie gives me not Scream vibes, but you feel the tendrils of that franchise in this 2018 film.  A kid who loves horror movies, something traumatic happens to his mom while they are watching one Halloween night, and his dad saves him.  The trauma from this event impacts the two men differently and it is super interesting, one takes the media causes violence and does not want his family to be a part of it anymore, and one of them finds some solace in the fact that movies are fake and they are a way to escape the harsh violence in the real world, that he had a first-hand experience with at a young age, the thought that you can find comfort in the back of the ambulance with that final girl, almost a direct quote from the scream tv series.

-There is a fun weird sort of levity here that is in Scream, and some of the Friday the 13th movies as well, but it would not be caught dead in the conjuring or exorcist films.  I actually think this is a pretty funny and poignant movie, especially with the setup.  And the way they throw the rules of horror around and make a ton of pop culture reterences, it is so my cup of tea.

-Also these two leads do kind of remind me of the peter parker ned friendship and while tom Holland is sensational as spider man, I feel like Robbie kay would have done a great job to boot

-Also you have to wonder if all the red balloons coming from the fest are a reference to it, there are clearly enough Jason, Hannibal, and more references to make the best of horror fans excited.

-The themes and tropes from the last frightful fest film are here too, but somehow the setup here just feels a little more organic, the dentist office one, like what is that.  I would rather have zombie, vampire, and axe wielding masked person than a taxidermist and a dentist.  And having the park doors locked as part of the gimmick makes sense, you really have all these horror fans locked in the middle of nowhere, like a lighthearted and more violent hunger games setup, especially with it all being filmed for some sort of movie directors twisted vision.  The movie in the movie things is a hoot, but when watching this movie, and his editing/directing scenes, there is no world where the movie inside this movie would ever make sense.

-All of the crazy groups of different killers in his movie, it feels like the end of a cabin in the woods with all the scares in the world just meshing together for a chaotic…dare I say Monster mash… has there ever been a more iconic Halloween tune?  I am sure the debate will rage on for eons, asking if the monster mash or the ghostbusters theme song is better.

-The beginning of this movie with a fun keynote speech that almost immediately devolves into a locked in masked murder spree.  For the most part the special effects are pretty good, some of the blood splatter and body part things aren’t good, but for the most part, it is good enough

-But once Blood Fest gets into listing the rules, talking about fake out jump scares to actually having one right after to cell phone signals dying being cliché in and of itself, and the errors of investigating a strange noise, I love it all.  It really makes me want to rewatch the film series and show, especially to get ready to the new Scream with most of our favorites back at it again and Jack Quaid coming off his success in The Boys also on Amazon Prime!

-Gosh the fun they have of having someone yell about a scary thing not existing, them waiting for the repercussions of that, like in the movies, then it happening right after, man what a blast.  

-They do actually do a pretty good job at explaining through the movies, it doesn’t make real world sense, but it makes enough sense in this world.  Yes the zombies are dead people, but they use electrodes to make them move around and they are controlled by gamers who have no idea what they are playing.

-Side note, having Zack Levi as himself talking about his Flynn Rider Tangled role and dying soon after, beautiful. 

-This movie is not dumb in the same way that funhouse massacre is, and some moments are actually really nice.  The whole arc of our main character Dax meeting his favorite horror actor Roger Hink-lee, he goes from hating the movies he was in, showing his cowardice, classic movie trope, to slowly bonding with him number one fan, getting to act out a dramatic role as the father of his horror character (showing his amazing acting chops in the process), and just serve as a father figure who has a bit of interest in horror that Dax’s father never would.  All before sacrificing himself to save some kids he barely knew, it is a fun and fulfilling arc

-Also one more actor fun fact, his dad, played by tate Donovan, was actually the voice actor for Hercules, I knew there was something I recognized about him.

-There is also a pretty fun subplot about Dax’s best friend, Krill, trying to lose his virginity, something that is a big no-no in the genre.  He almost falls prey to a vampire lady at first but his virginity saves him, and his whole arc is finding that special someone, until it all happens on a whim and his non-virgin self ends up back with that vampire, and unfortunately, he can’t make it through if he is not a virgin, those are the rules after all.

-Side not, I have said it once, and I will say it again, I don’t love anything Saw related and that torture trap homage scene, it is not my bag.

-Gosh, I love Dax’s explanation of how horror movies helped him cope with trauma, knowing at the end of it, it is all fake, and when the lights come back on, everything is still okay.  And there is some nice message about death being all around you, and trying to make the most of your life while you are living it, damn we are back to deep therapy lessons here on the horror podcast, giving you your dose of deep life chats.  Health and wellness charts on apple podcasts here we come.

-I said it before, the combining of genres only marginally works sometimes, especially if that is a huge part of the movie, this movie has clowns combining with zombies on accident, just like that amazing cabin in the woods end, and yes, a not so subtle Jurassic park life finds a way line is always appreciated!

-If nothing else, the big surprise end of Dax’s dad and sister being a part of the Hell Fest setup.  His dad’s whole setup of making the horror fest a true tragedy and use it to galvanize the media to stop making horror movies, it is a pretty fun and unique enough setting for a setup.  Using media to stop another form of media, it’s something that is always kind of relevant.  

-Seeing the master plan of one guy using the real life horror to make a horror movie and the other to end it, it is a fun setup.  Not sure how much I love the end with his dad dying, the movie guy seemingly dying, and his sister who has become numb to all the killing pops off the roof to come back in the sequel.  In general I do quite like this movie more than I expected to, and it’s quirky fun take on horror and the genre as a whole is a fun romp.

-Hell Fest (Netflix)

- It’s actually wild that Blood Fest and Hell Fest came out in the same year, and while different, had a ton of similarities.  Much like when Olympus has Fallen and White House Down both came out in 2013, you sometimes forget which one is which unless you are a diehard fan of one or the other.  Here, I think you can like and appreciate both Fest films, but Know what you are getting here is a much more atypical stalker slasher movie that has some charm and fun, but very much goes much harder on scares and gore and less meta-analysis or subversive genre fare with attempting to explain zombies and vampires existing without actually existing.  Hell Fest doesn’t have a ton of name brand actors, most have Hell Fest as one of the movies they are known for, I am sure you will recognize one from your previous watching history, for me it was Bex Taylor-Klaus from Arrow, The Killing, and my favorite thing to watch on Netflix, Scream the TV Series.  

-This was actually the first of the 3 of these I saw, and I reminded me a ton of booking my way through the haunted house at Universal in Burbank, gosh the Cali days, what a rush, it feels like another lifetime ago.

-But that is probably the biggest fear of these, going and being scared, and then something actually happening and not knowing what is real and what is fake that is the question all these movies ask in this super niche sub-genre.  Yes this stuff is explored in our last film Blood Fest, but instead of making this a really deep story with major ties to our killer and the victims, it is all a bit random, and impersonal, a killer is gonna kill, run around the park leaving dead bodies everywhere, and remain mostly anonymous throughout the evening.  

-This is where I like this setup a ton, hiding dead bodies as part of the scenery to the park, the same issue of eventually recognizing them all if it is done enough, and if you are a big ass group that doesn’t split up, nothing bad will happen obviously.  But being a spooky movie, drinking and sex and many other distractions exist to break up our group of teens, this is very much a classic slasher that could have been made in the 80’s or 90’s.  There is nothing wrong being random or a bit more generic, those movies are still fun, and your big bad masked killer doesn’t need to be second cousins twice removed related to the final girl of our tale.  It can just be some random guy walking around a scary park in a scary generic mask killing people because, why not.

-Also, while not a main character, they somehow always find a way to get Tony Todd into more and more scary movies.  The original Candy Man from 1992, was in The Final Destination Franchise, Scream the TV Series, and he will reprise his Candy Man role in the 2021 spiritual sequel.

-But to this movie, unlike some large group plot, a ton of people are just actors, you aren’t like locked in here, and a ton of people will and do make it out alive, there is only one average person killer, this ain’t the terminator so most people are gonna make it through the night, if only they followed those rules, no sex, no drinking or drugs, and don’t say I’ll be right back, or ask whose there?

-It is random to a degree, but I will say I feel like our killers MO has something to do with targeting/scaring/killing those who don’t seem to actually be scared by the horror fest.

-I will always wonder why people are so cool in these movies seeing the killing and assuming it is part of the act or show, like is someone is alive and going up until they aren’t and if it looks to real, like get out of there now!

-Our cast of teens is fine and all, but they are just a bit too generic minus Bex, who has fun cool unique hair and plays the same horror fan you have come to expect, same as in Scream, otherwise everyone is a bit too generic, which while not bad, even the generic Friday The 13th and Halloween movies have some super memorable, even if they are one dimensional and flat archetypes such as Mitch the Stoner and who could forget the amazing dance moves of Crispin Glover, and that one time Kevin Bacon was in the first one, if you have never seen or didn’t know that, check it out ASAP!
 -While a ton of the kills are nothing wild, and don’t play too well with the fun setting they have, using a strength game mallet to ring the bell on someone’s skull, classic amusement park moment, and that was a hoot.  Sadly that is like one of the first kills you see, and it is the first of our group to get offed.  

-While this isn’t the funniest or scariest or most clever movie, one moment I thought was amazing, was our leads stalker was stuck in a spooky version of the tunnel of love by herself with that stalker and when they come out into the public eye, it looks pretty compromising that this is actually a crazy stalker, the whole mask and costume is simple enough but matches other park employees, that killer really planned this whole thing, not the who is being killed, but at least the logistics are on point.

-I guess the one big thing they had to add was a version of this talking to the cops saying something is wrong but not being believed since it is Halloween or something else that would lead to this kind of thing existing.

-But the most memorable scene, has to be the guillotine scene, with Bex in the scary predicament.  It starts with a big fake scare scene wondering if the guillotine was real, it was not, followed up by it totally being real, after one swing they fake you out again with it not being the killing blow, while it would have been nice to see that as a part of the final turn to chaos, there is something fun about her running around for help, which is something they joked about when others did it, assuming this was just make believe and part of the theater of the park.  

-Unfortunately, from here it drags on a bit and is a bit more generic of a person stalking two people through a horror maze, it’s fine, just a bit generic.  It goes how you expect, well 2 people survive instead of one, and the killer is still alive in the end after being left for dead, classic.

-But the post credit end fake out moment is, while not particularly explaining anything, a fun moment. The killer comes to his house and has a ton of mask and souvenirs from the kill fest, getting home scott-free, not the first rodeo here.  But the wildest part has to be that he is a dad and has a daughter that he brings fun stuffed animals and such to after he goes and murders people.  It makes you just say, WHATTTTT???  It is neat, but not some ground breaking thing.  But on to another nick nack movies list!!!

-List, Ranking Carnival Horror Movies

3. The Funhouse Massacre

            2. Hell Fest

            1. Blood Fest

-wrap and call to action

- This was a bit of a less timely episode, but when I saw a few of these, and found out that this was a fairly existing sub-genre of movies, I feel like I had to get an episode out there, I knew it was calling to me.  So let me know if you have seen any scary movies taking place at a carnival I haven’t touched on here and I can take a watch and see how it stacks up to these three.  Hit me up on social at either Nick Nack Movies or Nick Nack underscore IC on Twitter, Instagram, or Tik Tok.  Well that’s all for me, so cheers, and until next time cinephiles.