Funny Man (1994) Reviews

• An outrageous English horror film with a difference

  Afracious2000-10-04

  Disregard the many negative reviews of this film below. It is actually an odd little hidden gem. The story is about a man who wins a card game against Christopher Lee, who then gives him his large old house. The man moves into the house with his family, and they soon discover a sinister jester who resides there, the Funnyman. This pesky little guy kills people in different ways; some of them are outrageously gory and over the top, and a little bit like Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead. The joker also speaks in a variety of British accents, and takes on different personas, such as a club owner, a footballer, and a few other weird guises. The film is low budget and very English, and may not appeal to overseas audiences; but it's a worthy effort considering its budget. If you want a horror film with comical gory scenes, dark humour, sprinkles of English silliness, and something different, check out the Funnyman. You might like it.

• Ignore the bad reviews- They're missing the point!

  kasimpeter-12006-05-28

  The heavy-handed criticism levelled at this film by certain reviewers is mostly irrelevant. This film has merit far-beyond being a simple Freddy Krueger rip-off and is not , i suspect, intended to be that scary. It's British humour of the highest order, and along with this comes the sad inevitability that it will alienate many international viewers. The direction and acting is, for the most part, spot-on, don't confuse this with the crude and meaningless no-talent b-movie drivel that has come to typify the genre. Sure, it's low budget, and it's certainly shallow in the plot department, but the film is all the more charming for such "shortcomings", with a brilliantly hilarious and understated script and production values which clearly display a labour of love on the filmmaker's part. I sincerely urge anyone who has a taste for British humour to investigate. If, like many of the critics here, you don't "get it", then you simply won't, but if you do, you will absolutely adore this film.

• Dismayingly bad

  Erewhon2001-06-25

  The makers of FUNNY MAN seem to have wanted to create a 100% English version of such wisecracking horror figures as Freddy Krueger, and the figure they've chosen seems on the mark: he's a living embodiment of a joker from a deck of cards. Other joker/jester images are scattered throughout the film. But the problems overwhelm the movie: to begin with, there's no story. A guy wins a house in a card game (why is the card game in the U.S.?) and moves into it. The Funny Man promptly erupts from the floor and starts killing the new arrivals, including some others who show up later on. But at no point is there even the slightest hint as to WHY this is going on. We never have any idea as to the Funny Man's motives, or the failings (if any) of the people he kills. There's a slight hint that all this is the delusions of an insane Christopher Lee -- but the madhouse scene is in exactly the same style as the rest of the film. The Funny Man isn't funny (though the makeup is impressive), and isn't even intelligible to most Americans much of the time. Effects are minimal (although there's one bit with a hand spreading wide that's unnerving -- and meaningless), but the photography and use of color are actually quite impressive. It's impossible to judge most of the performances, since the characters (if that's the word) are drawn so broadly that they're repellent caricatures from the moment we meet them. We not only don't give a damn if they die, we don't even know who the heck they ARE (or why they're dying). Reportedly, the movie was made as an effort to revive English horror, but this ponderous, pretentious mess, unfunny, confusing and inconclusive, wouldn't have revived anything. Some praise is due Christopher Lee for cooperating with this effort; it was an act of courage and generosity. Too bad it was for such a sorry end product.

• Worst Piece of CRAP ever.

  No_Nonsense2008-02-22

  I can't for the life of me understand what the heck the users who posted about this movie before me were on when they commented it. I bought this movie at a supermarket wholesale at about $1.50 (bundled with another crappy horror movie) and it was still one of the biggest waste of money I ever got tricked into! And to even think for a second that it was actually NOMINATED for any other award than "crappier film of the decade"... The story gives cliché a bad name. The dialog is so poor and so boring that "less worse" lines sound almost fine. The movie had such a low budget that they used the same room for most of the scenes, and I am pretty sure they decided to give all the money to hire actors to Christopher Lee, so that they had to ask the technicians to play the other parts. Furthermore, aside from the wife at the very beginning, all women roles are played by transvestites, which adds to the real ridicule of the film. The quality is overall very poor, and obviously they did not think of buying a few spots to make scenes clear for the viewer. The costumes look like they've been stolen from some poor bums, except from the black lady (???) who comes straight from "Hair". If you ever had the weird idea to watch this movie, just stop right now. This is for your own sake.

• Brilliant and Underated

  Fenris Fil2004-01-26

  I was suprised to see how low this film has rated. I guess it's been watched by a lot of people that either don't like horror at all or are too caught up in a particular genre to get this. It's very tounge in cheek, which many simple people won't get. However it has the distinction of being one of the few horror comedies around that is both funny and eerie/disturbing. The Thelma (from scoobie doo) character was hilarious, especially when she died, and I couldn't help but think of that when that awful Scoobie doo film came out. They should have hired the woman from funny man. The relation between Christopher Lee's character and the fates of those in the house reminded me a lot of Hammer Horror. But then you can probably drop Chris Lee into any cheap horror and immediately raise the standard. His minor involvement worked for me. Tim James was brilliant as the killer. His Yorkshire accent along with some of his lines had me convinved it was Shawn Bean right up until the end credits. He is the kind of movie bad guy that you could see spawning endless sequels, and while he may not be on the level of a Fred Krueger he's way above the level of a Chucky. The effects, the set and the sound track are all quite cheap, but you don't need a big budget to make a good movie and this demonstrates that.