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The Funhouse: (John Beal) In the horror boom of the
early 1980's, the concept of non-bloody genre entry, one that uses
ambience and calculated jolts of action to scare audiences, became
popular with a younger generation of viewers. Despite the introduction
of slasher films at about the same time (led by the
Friday the
13th series), director Tobe Hooper took the long awaited concept of
carnival horror to new heights one year before he would stake his claim
to fame for Steven Spielberg's
Poltergeist. As funny as it may
seem when thinking back on that period of time, crazy carnival movies
with homicidal monsters lurking within weren't necessarily the same
recipe for stupidity that they became a few decades later. In fact,
Universal Studios commissioned then-anonymous author Dean Koontz to
write a novelization based on the screenplay for release before the
actual film hit the theatres. With over a million copies of the book
foreshadowing
The Funhouse sold off the shelves before the
cinematic release date, the appeal of the film was well established.
While the project did not receive the success hoped for at the time, the
feature film became somewhat of a cult phenomenon by the 2000's. It's
tale of four teenagers trapped in a traveling carnival funhouse with a
deranged, deformed, and masked killer, and the story is certainly not
forgiving to the youngsters. Combining a tiny bit of slash with a good
dose of monster and visual confusion, history has largely determined
that
The Funhouse is certainly less derivative than its purely
slashing siblings, and part of that strong, unique equation is due to
composer John Beal's memorable score. Known mostly for his work on the
television show "Happy Days" at the time, Beal would take the
opportunity to reintroduce the complex orchestrations of the classic
horror genre for
The Funhouse and help establish the versatility
that led him to become one of the kings of movie trailer scoring in the
decades to come (before libraries of generic muck replaced original
trailer music in the industry). Beal's involvement with this specific
sound continued with his subsequent work for the mini-series adaptation
of
Stephen King's It.
Indeed, Beal's return to traditional attention to high
class details in
The Funhouse makes it more timeless than the
film could ever be. For the largely symphonic score, the depth and range
of the performing group is surprisingly crisp, even with its somewhat
advanced age. Aggressive in his approach from the start to finish, Beal
makes no attempt to hide the element of suspense. After a wickedly
striking opening cue, during which an innocent flute is struck down by
orchestral hits and violin slashing of yesteryear, Beal continues to
tighten the score's grip as it progresses. A slightly waltz-like rhythm
(always appropriate for a carnival atmosphere) slowly churns in early
cues and eventually explodes with all of its ominous force realized in
the final two cues. The depth of the string section in the recording for
The Funhouse is a defining element, with lofty, full performances
of meandering, strangely melodic ideas weaving constantly throughout. A
heightened sense of unique orchestration is also present, with
non-traditional instrumental sounds employed to tingle your nerves. A
slight electronic presence in the bass region (typical to the era) is
employed but not relied upon. The score is edgy in its rhythmic
progressions, never hesitating to take the opportunity to reach a
cymbal-crashing crescendo when a monster is sighted on screen. A few
cliched slashes of strings owing form to Bernard Herrmann are forgivable
in
The Funhouse (as are some standard shrieks from the woodwinds)
because they are typically only one layer of horror upon many that Beal
constantly throws at the listener. The thematic structures are primitive
and not particularly memorable, though they are effective at their task,
and the score resists resorting to a blatant carousel organ-type of
rhythm until the last cue for the end credits. The propulsive nature of
the music, along with its surprising size and sound quality, make
The
Funhouse a much better than average effort in its genre. An
intelligent mixing and a balanced presentation on its album will thrill
any enthusiast of Christopher Young's equivalent efforts of force, and
the label that brought so much of Young's music to his collectors was
also responsible for
The Funhouse. While the 1998 album is a
promotional one rather than a normal Intrada Records product, the label
should be thanked for digging up and remastering this nearly forgotten
but refreshingly dynamic horror score.
**** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
