Funland

Let me just say that clowns creep me out. They always have. This is probably why I thought that the 1987 film Funland was a horror movie when I watched it back in my teens. With all of the talk of creepy clowns roaming neighborhoods lately, I thought I'd go back and revisit this film. Here's my thoughts.

First off, Funland isn't really horror film. It attempts to be more of a black comedy. When an owner, William Windom, of an amusement park is rubbed out by the mafia, an already unhinged clown, David L. Lander, that's been with the park for a along time is forced to the sidelines when the new owners bring in a seasoned actor to take his place. This pushes him over the edge and he's out for revenge.

I guess the reason I remember this being a horror film is that it has kind of a creepy vibe to it. The production value is really cheap and Landers, who will always be known as Squiggy on Laverne And Shirley, turns in a kind of scary performance. He is really good in it. Plus the marketing was geared towards the horror crowd. Just check out the poster at the bottom.

I guess I should have seen the humor, especially with the cast, which also includes Bruce Mahler, from Police Academy and tv's Fridays, in a straight man role, and SNL alum Jan Hooks.

Another clue is that the movie was cowritten by former SNL scribes, plus the cowriters of Wayne's World, The Brady Bunch Movie, and creators of tv's Third Rock From The Sun, Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner. Here's the problem they have, and probably the main reason I didn't see the humor when I was younger. They have a hard time balancing between black comedy and sophomoric humor. The low brow humor in this fails and I think if the film focused more on the darkside it would have been more successful.

That being said, I did enjoy revisiting this movie and it's not a total wash.

It's available on dvd.