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THE FUNHOUSE (1981) presented by Strange Brew
October 1 : 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
This film is presented by St. Louis’s long-running cult film series Strange Brew — winner of the 2025 A-List Award for Best Movie Night in St. Louis. Strange Brew programmer Jon Scorfina will provide an introduction.
Come one, come all, boils and ghouls, as Strange Brew kicks off spooky season at Arkadin Cinema with an exhilarating screening of Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse. Four teenagers from a small-town in Iowa attend a travelling carnival. Once at the carnival, the two teenage couples smoke marijuana, heckle a fortune teller, and sneak into a burlesque show. Eventually, they dare each other to spend the night at the carnival’s funhouse attraction, so they can have some after-hours hanky panky. Though the frisky teens soon discover they’re not alone in the funhouse, but locked in with an ominous monster trying to hunt them down.
After the surprise success of Friday the 13th in 1980, Universal Pictures wanted to fast track their own teenage horror film. They offered director Tobe Hooper the project, which was his first major studio film after the runaway success of his low-budget horror masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In The Funhouse, Hooper masterfully crafts an Americana take on the folktales of children that go missing at the traveling carnival, and the boy who cried wolf. He also continues his theme of the disintegration of the American family he started in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre through The Monster’s deranged relationship with his father. As an added bonus for horror fanatics, Hooper opens the film with a direct homage to the opening scene of 1978 slasher film Halloween, as well as the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Strange Brew will also present a Funhouse of Horrors pre-show when doors open at 6 pm.
Arkadin does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. However, we encourage researching titles to determine if a screening may contain content that could be upsetting to you. Please feel free to contact us for guidance on specific films. Information about content can also be found on Common Sense Media, IMDB and DoesTheDogDie.com, as well as through general internet searches.
Theater Policies
- All seats are first-come, first-served.
- The theater opens 30 minutes prior to showtime, except for “Happy Hour” events and pre-shows when the theater opens at the listed start time.
- All ages are welcome at Arkadin except for Drinkolas Cage events, which are restricted to 21+. We follow the MPAA rating guidelines for all other films.
- Tickets can be purchased using the BUY TICKETS link above. Upon ordering, you will receive a confirmation email from Square. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the show at the concession counter.
- If you’ve purchased advance tickets, when you arrive, please give your name at the concession counter to check in.
- Tickets are returnable by sending a request through the contact form located on our About Us page prior to showtime.
- When an event is sold out, we reserve the right to release open seats to customers on the waitlist. If you have a pre-purchased ticket and arrive late and there is no seat for you, your ticket will be refunded.
- All screenings are held in our indoor theater unless indicated otherwise in the event description above.
- Please respect your fellow movie-goers by remaining quiet and refraining from using your cell phone throughout the screening.