Macabre…ish Horror Review: Funhouse

 

 

Funhouse, 2019 ‧ Horror ‧ 1h 46m

 

The movie opens with a woman beating someone to death at the direction of the man sitting at the desk, Nero Alexander (Jerome Velinsky) in an office, in a sprawling mansion. She has apparently been paid to do this after delivering a heart on a silver tray.

 

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Eight people (Ula Lamore {Karolina Benefield}, James Headstone Malone {Christopher Gerard}, Cat Zim {Amanda Howells}, Dex {Mathias Retamal}, Lonni Byrne {Khamisa Wilsher}, Nevin Eversmith {Dayleigh Nelson}, Ximena Torrez {Gigi Sail Guerero} and Kaspar Nordin {Valtar Skarsgård}), mostly online personalities and reality stars are taking part in a new and different kind of reality show.

 

They were drugged and awakened in a different location by a voice over an intercom summoning them to the common room. After being upset about how they got there, they come around. Curiously they haven’t seen a camera anywhere or met a producer or director but they are told they are streaming live globally and their host is a CGI panda named Furcas.

 

They will be filmed 24 hours a day and the global audience will vote.

 

Every three days the contestants with the fewest votes take part in a penalty game. The loser is out of the competition.

 

If the bottom two are tied or within 1% of each other, then they have to compete against each other in the penalty game.

They all receive a $100,000 entrance fee but it will be forfeited, if they try to leave the house. The grand prize, for the last one standing, is $5,000,000.00.

 

Welcome to Furcas’ House of Fun and in this house, anything goes. And by anything, they mean it. But the contestants do not find out until the first penalty challenge.

 

While they are all horrified and ready to go home, they are informed by Furcas that this is their home and only one of them will ever leave. And they are warned that if they refuse to participate or try to escape then a fate worse than what they just witnessed will befall them.

 

But Dex immediately tries to escape and shatters a large plate glass window, thinking he sees daylight on the other side but he’s wrong and forfeits his spot in the house. His exit is in a vat of acid.

 

Meanwhile, the whole world tries to decide if it is real and law enforcement tries to locate the contestants and the house.

 

For the housemates, the only thing they can do is play the game.

 

 

This movie is paced well and graphic. Good physical effects and very bloody and gory. There’s some nudity and adult scenes.