Eli Roth to Remake The Funhouse

Here’s another horror remake coming your way via our favorite “torture porn” director, Eli Roth. This year he’s spent the majority of his time promoting himself as an actor. He stars in the highly anticipated Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds, which will debut in theaters this August. There’s nothing wrong with a little diversity, but Roth definitely plans to return to his horror directing roots with his next couple of projects. According to Fangoria, Roth has his eye on remaking the 1981 Tobe Hooper film, The Funhouse.

Roth is apparently a huge fan of the original film, but feels that certain things could be improved upon. ”The Funhouse is a movie where the first half is brilliant—they set up these great characters—and then they pay off none of them.” With that being said he went on to confirm that he is currently in negotiations with Universal (why am I not surprised) to produce a remake. The director is very passionate about The Funhouse, and has a specific vision of how it should come across.

It should be about the kids getting killed in horrible ways, put in different contraptions in the funhouse and the final girl being strapped into the ride and sent into the tunnels to be confronted by terrifying tableaux of her dead friends. A smart remake could be so much fun. Kill the kids in fabulous ways and continually reuse the bodies by making them freaks in the freak museum, sew their eyes shut, waxworks… That’s the stuff I want to do in a remake of The Funhouse.”

Sounds like one of the overly abundant Saw films that we see every year. I’ve never seen the original Funhouse, so I don’t know what should or shouldn’t be changed. In the late seventies, early eighties there were a lot of campy B-grade films that became cult classics as time moved on. For me, The Funhouse wasn’t one of them but if he thinks he can pull off a “smart remake,” then go for it.

What do you think of Eli Roth remaking The Funhouse? Are you a fan of the original?