I always love finding out when the stuff I enjoy is actually based on other literature—whether it’s a comic book, a traditional novel, a short story, or even a video game. My buddy Richie recently pointed out that an inordinate number of Daniel Day-Lewis movies are based on books, and honestly, I find that fascinating. Another thing that fascinates me is movie tie-in novels, those books released to coincide with a movie’s premiere. Sometimes they’re straightforward adaptations. Other times they get really weird because the writer got an early draft of the screenplay… or just said, “eff it.” Today, we’re looking at one of those: the novelization of the 1981 Tobe Hooper horror flick The Funhouse, written by Owen West – who, oh yeah, happens to be Dean Koontz. How do the book and movie treat the same story? Let’s pull an Uno reverse card and see what happened to this adaptation… of a movie… into a book.
The Movie
Tobe Hooper made quite the name for himself throughout the 1970s. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre wasn’t super profitable for those involved, thanks to mob-connected producers, but it helped kickstart the slasher boom and became one of the most influential horror movies ever. Then came Eaten Alive, which surprisingly isn’t a cannibal flick despite releasing during peak Italian cannibal-mania. Instead it’s this cool mix of Jaws and Texas Chainsaw. Hooper was replaced on 1979’s The Dark, but then he hit big with Salem’s Lot, the TV event that dominated ratings and earned serious critical praise. That success put him on the upswing. He was even offered E.T. by Steven Spielberg but had to turn it down because of The Funhouse. Imagine the alternate universe where E.T. is a Tobe Hooper movie…
The late ’70s and early ’80s were prime slasher territory thanks to Halloween changing the game in 1978. Yes, there were slashers before it, but like movies before Citizen Kane, they weren’t the first to be that. The studio, and even Wikipedia, really want The Funhouse to be a slasher, but if that’s what you expect, you’ll be disappointed. Larry J. Block wrote the script, Universal picked it up after seeing what horror was doing (especially Friday the 13th), and unfortunately Block never got another big movie made. Hooper, coming off the massive success of Salem’s Lot, was still on the rise and would later get Poltergeist from Spielberg, even though it still feels more Spielberg than Hooper.
Hooper’s career is nothing if not varied. He’s much more than Texas Chainsaw 1 and 2, and he loved the original 1947 Nightmare Alley, which inspired him to film something set in a carnival. The cast fits the early slasher mold: mostly folks who didn’t go on to huge careers but are perfectly solid here. Cooper Huckabee and Kevin Conway became great “that guy” actors, and Conway only signed on if he could play all three carnival barkers. The big exception: Oscar-nominated Sylvia Miles, who never gets talked about enough. Behind the camera? Hooper directing and Stan Winston creating the creature. That alone should earn the film more respect.
And then you have the novelization’s author: Owen West… also known as Dean Koontz.
The Book
This novelization sits at the intersection of a couple of fascinating literary phenomena. First: yes, it was written by Owen West, but that guy only had one other book to his name (The Mask, 1981). Because Owen West is also… Deanna Dwyer, K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Anthony North, John Hill, Aaron Wolf, David Axton, Brian Coffey, and Richard Page. In other words: all Dean Koontz.
Authors use pen names for a few reasons. Publishers often don’t want to flood the market with too many books by the same author at once. (It’s similar to how Konami used the “Ultra” label on NES games to get around Nintendo’s publishing limits.) Pen names also let authors experiment with genres without upsetting their fanbase. In Koontz’s case, since he tends to stay in similar genres, I suspect it was mostly the publisher wanting to space out releases and Koontz wanting to publish as much as possible.
Koontz based the book on Larry J. Block’s screenplay… and created something drastically different from what ended up on screen. The film was delayed to 1981, but since the book and movie were meant to release together, the book still hit shelves in 1980, leading some people to think the movie was based on the novel, not vice versa.
Fun fact: this was one of three books Koontz released in 1980. The Voice of the Night came out as Brian Coffey, and Whispers was released under Koontz’s real name. While The Funhouse is fondly remembered by fans, Whispers is generally credited as his first true bestseller. You can buy The Funhouse now with Koontz’s real name on the cover, and I suggest you check it out.
What Stays the Same?
Both the book and film follow Amy and her younger brother Joey, who end up at a carnival for different reasons. Joey sneaks out; Amy goes on a double date with her boyfriend Buzz and her friend Liz with her boyfriend Richie. There’s also Conrad, a carnival worker, and his son Gunther, a violent and difficult-to-control mutant.
The two couples end up trapped at the carnival overnight. Conrad and Gunther kill them off one by one. Liz, Richie, and Buzz all die. Conrad and Gunther also don’t survive. Gunther gets torn apart by machinery. Amy and Joey both make it out alive.
That’s… pretty much where the similarities end.
What’s Different?
Basically: everything. The similarities take up maybe 20% of the book. The novel is wildly different and much more ambitious.
Koontz starts by telling the story of Ellen, the mother of Amy and Joey. She’s barely present in the movie, but in the book she’s crucial. In the 1950s, Ellen falls in love with carnival barker Conrad, who’s also a Satanist intent on having her birth the Antichrist. She gives birth to an abnormal baby that tries to kill her, she kills it in self-defense, and flees the carnival. Conrad vows revenge. Later, Ellen has Amy and Joey but fears they may carry monstrous traits. This fear leads her to help Amy end her pregnancy, an enormous contrast to “virgin final girl” Amy in the movie.
Joey also gets a bigger role. In the movie he’s a bratty kid who spies on Amy and gets picked up by his parents halfway through. Book Joey tries running away to the carnival like his mom once did. Conrad suspects his identity, nearly kills him, and later captures him after a private investigator (not in the movie) confirms who he is.
Madam Zena, the fortune teller, is Gunther’s mother in the book. In the film, she’s killed by Gunther during performance anxiety… definitely not his mom.
In the book, Conrad intentionally lures the teens. In the movie, they just make the questionable choice to spend the night, witness something they shouldn’t, and suddenly become targets.
Overall, the novel has more backstory, more characters, and significantly gorier deaths: disembowelings, limbs ripped off, the works. The movie? Much more toned down.
Legacy
I have a hard time fully enjoying The Funhouse movie. It isn’t what it was advertised to be, and it doesn’t quite match the status of its director. I like Tobe Hooper a lot, but The Funhouse just falls flat for me.
The book, though? The book is unhinged in the best possible way. It fleshes out so much that the movie glosses over that you could legitimately stretch it into a limited series. Mike Flanagan, call someone.
What we got was a book based on a screenplay for a movie that it absolutely laps. Koontz himself said The Funhouse movie did nothing for his book, and he’s right. Give the story a spin. Put the “fun” back in Funhouse.
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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