1994 wasn’t exactly a great time for the slasher movie, although I am saying that with the knowledge that someone might immediately inform me of one or two great titles I have simply forgotten about while figuring out the best way to open this review. Funny Man isn’t just a slasher movie though. It’s a British slasher movie. And it’s a British slasher movie that gives viewers a new slasher “icon” in the shape of the titular character, a killer who looks like a demonic jester and has the patter of an old-fashioned working club comic.
Christopher Lee plays a character who loses a house to Max Taylor (Benny Young) in a game of cards. Don’t get excited by the appearance of Lee though. His screentime totals up to about a minute or so, which makes it clear that the film-makers had the star for about half a day. Anyway, the Taylor family move into the house and soon find themselves in the middle of some major strangeness. They are unaware of the Funny Man (played by Tim James), but he is always ready to have fun with anyone who enters his territory. Thankfully, more people are due to arrive, in the shape of Max’s brother (Johnny, played by Matthew Devitt) and a motley mix of individuals accompanying him on his journey, which means more deaths can be planned.
Amazing as it might seem, this isn’t the only feature film from writer-director Simon Sprackling. It is his first film though, and suffers from the flaws that many directorial debuts can have. The 93-minute runtime drags in places, there’s misplaced confidence in the central idea (although there are moments when the oddness of the lead character actually works in a way that is both amusing and horrifying), and the acting style throughout is majorly over the top, almost pantomime at times.
I don’t want to spend much time being too harsh on the cast. Most of them do what is asked of them, whether it’s pretending to be a Scooby Doo character (Thelma Fudd, played by Rhona Cameron, someone I used to enjoy for her stand up comedy), being a pretty useless human psychic (Pauline Black), or getting themselves lured in by the least convincing “pop up” strip club ever (Chris Walker). The majority of the film rests on the shoulders of James, who really strives to embody a mix of Jim Bowen and Freddy Krueger (or maybe the Leprechaun), and it IS fun to watch him move from delivering his patter to viewers, breaking the fourth wall a number of times, to acting bored and bemused by the stupidity of his victims. He cannot do enough to save the film entirely, but fair play on him for doing as good a job as he does.
There’s an admirable attempt here to do something quite unique, something very British and very surreal at times, but it sadly doesn’t work. There should have been some more background or details throughout, a bigger world and story for the Funny Man, and perhaps an even quicker move into the more bonkers atmosphere. You do get some good gore gags though, and it’s a hard one to forget.
Oh, and there’s now extra horror added to the third act when you see the Funny Man dressed up in a way that is meant to emulate Jimmy Savile. I bet Sprackling didn’t realise just how terrifying that one gag would become.
3/10
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