Welcome to the BMZ — a region where movie oddities of all sorts reside. Hollywood’s graveyard, where the vast majority of major movie stars have skeletons buried they would rather not recall or reveal. But remember this: one person’s embarrassing cinematic skeleton is also another person’s buried treasure. And if you have a fondness for the offbeat, the preposterous or the outlandish, then this is where you will find them… in the Bizarre Movie Zone.
The link for this group is amusement parks. Yes, each of the following films is set in, has scenes involving or else climaxes at an amusement park.
Gorilla at Large (1954) ✪ ✪
The wackiest of all amusement park movies may be this all-star color programmer which was originally shot and released in 3-D. When a murder occurs at a rather shady amusement park, suspicion falls on the title primate… but the angry ape isn’t the only character with murder on its mind. Cameron Mitchell and sexy Anne Bancroft are circus performers, perfecting their trapeze act under the brutish ownership of Raymond Burr, who is Bancroft’s very jealous husband. Once the murders begin, the cops investigate, led by detective Lee J. Cobb, while security is maintained by inquisitive but doltish policeman Lee Marvin.
It’s amazing to find this high caliber of a cast trying to breathe life into such a kooky concept movie, but the film is surprisingly involving. It’s fast paced and very watchable; Bancroft is quite fetching as the woman who incites lust in both man and beast.
Rollercoaster (1977) ✪ ✪
The best of all amusement park movies should have been this action-drama, constructed as it is around the idea that a deeply disturbed maniac is sabotaging the country’s famous roller coasters until he is paid a large ransom to stop. Another big-name cast helps keep the rather poorly staged action moving: George Segal, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Timothy Bottoms, Harry Guardino, Susan Strasberg, Dorothy Tristan, and, in their film debuts, Craig Wasson, Steve Guttenberg and… Helen Hunt!
1977 audiences got to sit through this in Sensurround, the vibration-causing process Universal used to best advantage in Earthquake and Midway. The roller coaster scenes are vertiginous but since few of the coasters are well and truly wrecked in spectacular fashion, the movie wastes its greatest opportunities. Its drama is tepid and its stars give generally stilted performances. The climax is abrupt and poorly staged as well.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) ✪ ✪
Now regarded as a solid cult film, Killer Klowns From Outer Space blends circus satire with grotesque horror and dumb comedy. When the title characters begin wreaking havoc in a small town, the local teenagers fight back… in an ice cream truck! I have to admit that this crazy movie is genuinely original and inventive. But I hate clowns, so I have a built-in antipathy toward this sort of adventure.
It emulates The Blob in its vision of teenagers fighting back against an alien menace (and the adult population which will not heed their warnings). It is colorfully designed and filmed with neat ideas — the popcorn guns, exploding big red noses, klown footprints on the ceiling of the jail. But in the end, it’s still about clowns. And I hate clowns.
The Funhouse (1981) ✪ ✪
Four teenagers visit an amusement park and decide to hide out overnight in the funhouse, where they witness a murder and soon become further prey for the deformed killer, who wears a grotesque Frankenstein mask. Tobe Hooper directed this amusing and disquieting horror film which takes place almost entirely in the amusement park the teens visit. While it isn’t his best work, it’s actually a pretty creepy little film.
The Fury (1978) ✪ ½
When this was first released I thought it was really cool because the roller coaster kill scene was filmed at an indoor amusement park called Old Chicago, where I used to hang out fairly frequently. It was a weird place — an indoor shopping mall surrounding a seedy kind of amusement area with rather tame rides and arcade games. It didn’t last very long, but it was a neat idea.
I saw this movie again for my Brian De Palma article last year and was shocked to see how much it had dated. The Old Chicago scene is abrupt and not believable at all, though it does attempt to be spectacular. And at the end, John Cassavetes’ head explodes in slow motion, seen from seven different angles. It’s bizarre, all right.