Funny Man

Plot synopsis:
When Max Taylor (Benny Young) wins the ancestral home of Callum Chance (Christopher Lee) in a game of poker, little does he realise that the game is far from over. After moving into the ancestral home with his family the nightmare begins after Max spins a wheel of chance, (a wheel with four parts, two saying win, and two saying lose). It lands upon lose, and this awakens a demonic creature that lives in the soil of the ancestral home. Soon, one by one, Max's family are murdered by this strange creature known as the Funny Man (Tim James), a Mr Punch-like jester with a varied and imaginative repertoire of homicidal techniques and a highly irreverent sense of humour. This sense of humour is shared with the audience. He is the only character that addresses the audience directly, as in a pantomime. He kills off Max's wife and both kids in gruesome yet humorous ways. Max's son being the 1st, after walking around a pillar in circles playing with Funny Man, he stops and is killed off screen. After, Funny Man changes his voice to sound like Max's son and talk Max's wife while looking at her through a key hole, he is then seen dragging the child's body away and telling the audience "when hosting a party, it's always good to put the little ones down first.". Max's wife is beaten to death with a club after failing to escape an endless room. Max's daughter is killed while playing a Gameboy after Funny Man hooks jumper cables up to her head, electrocuting her to death to the point where she catches fire. Meanwhile, Max's brother, Johnny Taylor (Matthew Devitt), is on his way to the mansion with a bunch of hitchhikers who will be lucky to survive the night. Among the hitchhikers is a voodoo woman (Pauline Black) who after using tarot cards later learns about the awakening of the Funny Man. At first, after arriving at the ancestral home, everything seems fine. But the Funny Man has made his targets, and his evil game has begun. It soon becomes a Scooby-Doo Rock'n'Roll madhouse with bizarre scenes, gruesome kills and lots of humorous moments. "Just remember, there's no rest for the wicked."

Tags: paranormal, psychedelic, comedy, cult, violence

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
If there's one thing I've learned from reading the other reviews around here, it's definitely that "Funny Man" is the type of film that you either praise into the heavens or hate with a passion; there doesn't appear to be a middle way.
It's a cheesy and low-budgeted 90's horror movie about an ugly jester killing off uninteresting characters whilst firing off lousy and wannabe clever one-liners, so it's fairly safe to say there's absolutely nothing specific "to get" here.
"Funny Man" is probably the most atypical British horror movie I've seen.
The Funny Man is the Joker from the pack, a demon out to get Max, his family and friends once and for all it's payback time.This movie is a tongue in cheek cult horror/comedy made on a shoe-string budget.
If you like the Monty Python variety of British comedy, and the Nightmare on Elm Street type of horror, you should check this movie out.
Overall, an amusing horror film, made me laugh more than a few times..
Deeply unpleasant to watch, not because it is brutal or shocking, but just because the characters don't fail to annoy at any time in the film, particularly the Funny Man himself and it just drags on and on.
Not in the least bit funny, this comedy horror was, although it breaks my heart to say it, made in Britain, and, although it pains my very soul to admit it, stars Christopher Lee. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Poor old Lee, we can't blame him for appearing in these things though; everyone needs to make a living, after all.The "plot" is a retread of a typical American slasher film of the 1980s, with a group of people in a mansion being bumped off by a psycho killer dressed as 'Punch' from Punch and Judy who offers us the worst one-liners you will ever hear in the history of comedy.
The opening scene is actually quite good, where Lee is engaged in a card game and loses everything to a joker in the pack ("You're a funny man, but I've met funnier" is his simple reply).
The whole victims die by some ironic means of death somehow appropriate to whatever personality traits they have displayed (Usually just the one, as with most movies of this ilk the characters are completely one dimensional) shtick was old a long time before this film was made.
The funny man the films half arsed British attempt at a Freddy Kruger type character is pretty lame and none of his jokes are remotely funny.With type of movie the individual scenes can sometimes be amusing even if there is only enough plot to provide a pretext for a series of killings (This film doesn't even go that far, stuff just happens) but they are all so badly staged, nonsensical and at times incoherent that they are hard to sit through.
Some of the stuff in the movie, like the bits with the Jamaican voodoo woman, or whatever the hell she was supposed to be, going underneath he house were almost entertaining in a WTF kind of way but again it was all so tediously protracted and badly staged that I was just waiting for it to end.I like to watch bad horror movies and whimsical over the top humour, which I gather this movie was trying for but this movie was a train wreck.
"Funny Man" is one of the worst films I have ever seen.
Also, and some puzzling for a film with such a title, "Funny Man" actually has nothing funny, unless you are quirky enough for laughing at people having atrocious deaths for no valid reasons.
The Funny Man himself is annoying and I often thought he was the one in the film really deserving to die.
Don't buy, don't rent, don't watch "Funny Man".
A little prelude, some friends and I were wandering around the video store, spotted this movie, and picked it up, thinking it would be one of the "so bad it's funny" sort of movies that the horror genre is famous for.
"Funny Man" is most likely an abhorrent oddity to the more serious & 'intelligent' horror fan amongst the audience and pretty much a fun ride to those who enjoy a loose horror cannon with blood fodder every now and then.
Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance that feels much like just a narrator's part in the wraparound story of some B-horror anthology film.
Because, well, "Funny Man" is a British nonsensical B-horror flick made with enthusiasm, a fair amount of creativity and perfectly acceptable little rippings-off left & right.
I finally got the pleasure of viewing FunnyMan after missing my chance on VHS years ago, I have to say I was very pleased with this little known gem.A word of advice before viewing the film, don't go into it expecting serious horror and gore, you wont find it, But if you want to watch a fun and "funny" film then by all means check it out, the original short in the extras is worth the ten bucks alone.
Some people it seems just take life far too seriously.This film is meant to be fun.....hence the title!Dont go expecting a deep psychological horror,just take it for what it is-an hour and a half of slapstick humour with some gore thrown in for good measure!When I first saw this film back in 95 i lent the video to my friends and everyone loved it-a perfect film for parties and drinking beer too!Life is short as it is so lighten up you people who slagged this film off and learn to enjoy yourselves!10/10.
The funny man makes no sense, and is extremely violent for no reason.
This film will help you decide what it is, exactly, that you like/dislike about movies.
Funny Man. I saw this film many years ago, 1994/5 I think, and have been looking to purchase it ever since.
If you have it, let me know.As a film, it was "whacky-lad-horror-humour".
The 'Funnyman' is basically a jester-demon with a Lancastrian accent, which turns into Welsh at various points in the film, who likes to kill people via hilarious (?) pranks in his big scary house.
By the time you've finished watching this film, you can't help but say the word "Sorted", accompanied by a thumb-up..
The film was always intended as a horror movie that celebrated laddish humour and it is maybe this that undid it.
It is interesting that practically the only good Brit horror since The Wicker Man and Don't Look Now is Hellraiser (now some 15 years old) + the work of Phillip Ridley.
I was good enough to give Simon and his motley crew a grounding at Tollcross Community Centre in Edinburgh to make the trailer for a spoof Bond movie, "A view to a Shandy", in the 1980s, which turned out to be a load of rubbish like this film.
The Police Sergeant in "Doctors" actually got a line from another character, "You are a 'funny man'".
As long as you get the original UK uncut VHS version this film it is a treat for those who appreciate a very typically British sense of humour.The film presents us with at least 8 loathsome stereotypes who are humorously dispatched by our anti-hero Funnyman.In the full version of the film (not available in the US as I found to my cost when I ordered the DVD from some place in Chicago) the violent scenes are a campy gore fest accompanied by suitably humorous music, in the cutting down of those scenes for the US market much of the humour is lost to the cutting room floor.Unfortunately it seems that the authorities responsible for censoring movies in the US find the humour a little TOO violent for American Sensibilities (Something that I am sure many Americans would disagree with had they been given the opportunity to see this film in its entirety).This is a cult movie of the first order, not everybody's taste in comedy (which is what gives it its cult movie status) but certainly a movie that is unworthy of deletion and unworthy of the philistine cutting room in the US censors office.Like the comment on the VHS and DVD cover of Funnyman says "He's cheeky and he's cruel" and sometimes cruelty is involved in humour to deny that is to deny humour of which this film is Jammed packed full from the very simple humour of slapstick to the more cerebral humour of irony, farce and parody.If you are going to venture a rental or a buy, make sure that you go for the uncut / uncensored version it is infinitely more funny.This is a film that works well if you are familiar with Britain and British culture, if you don't know who Jimmy Saville is or are so out of touch with Britain that you think any of the accents employed by the characters were "Cockney" (Which none of them were) then clearly you will not understand the gags or parodies and can be forgiven for your lack of appreciation for them.Additional Background Information of Interest:Whether or not Simon Sprackling based the Funny Man character on an old English legend is not known but people who view this film should be aware that there was a real life funny man counterpart in history, his name was "Thomas Skelton" (Tom Fool) and he was the Jester and Sheriff to the Pennington family.Legend has it that Thomas would often be seen sitting at a tree on the roadway waiting for travellers to go by, he would then engage them in conversation and decide whether or not he liked them, the unfortunate travellers that Tom decided he didn't like he directed towards the local marshes and quicksands where they would meet their grizzly fates.Thomas Skelton (Tom Fool) died around 1600 and gave the phrase "Tomfoolery" to the English language even being cited as the inspiration behind the Jester in Shakespeares King Lear.Today Mucaster Castle in Cumbria claims to be the home of Thomas's Ghost who is apparently every bit as mischievous today as he always was.I would rather like to think that the inspiration for Funny Man came from this ancient legend than from some Hollywood garbage, something others unfamiliar with the legend might find hard to believe, but life did exist before Hollywood and Hollywood is NOT the ONLY source of inspiration to those with access to other cultural sources.Thomas Skelton was the original Psychotic Jester predating "Freddie Krugger" by a mere 400+ years and predating the USA by a mere 200..
Once a leading man in horror films, Lee rarely pops up for more than 5 minutes in most of his appearances in the 90's.
The basic story is a guy wins a house of an old man (Christoper Sauromon Lee) in game a cards which just happens to be haunted by a northern jester demon called the Funnyman, He kills people and makes smart comments about it the end.
Funny Man is a movie that is totally different in every way.
The script for Funny Man is a strange one & I don't quite know what to make of it, there's little in the way of story & it has a habit of switching tone from straight horror to comedy to slapstick to deadpan humour to downright crudeness & it's frankly weird at times & there's even enough time for it to be a musical as well but I thought it all came together rather well to create an enjoyable comedy horror that never takes itself seriously, it moves along like a rocket so it's never dull or boring & I actually found it quietly amusing at times although I think you will need a slightly twisted sense of humour to get the most out of it, I'm not sure what that says about me...
The best way I can describe Funny Man is to liken it to a comedy sketch show where the Funny Man creates little mini films within the overall film to dispatch his victims in a ironic & gory way, yeah I'd call it the first horror orientated comedy sketch film that I've seen & for what it is & what it tries to be I found it good fun & good entertainment.Director Sprackling does a good job, I don't think I've seen another film quite like it.
The Funny Man (who lives in a place called Sod's Law, nice touch) looks like an ugly Jester although he occasionally changes outfits & he regularly turns to the camera & 'talks' to the audience a bit like a stand up comedian.
For about two lines of dialogue.I was surprised about how much I liked Funny Man, it has a certain style & originality.
Not everything works, not everything is funny in it but it certainly gets points for effort & enthusiasm, not bad at all & if you like your horror light & mixed with laughs then you could do a hell of a lot worse than Funny Man you really could....
Totally British and perfect for a night in with a load of beer.I don't understand all the negative reviews but whatever-I enjoyed it and everyone i know who watched it thought it was great too!If you want serious horror then there is plenty of choice out there.Nothing wrong with having a laugh whilst the characters get bumped off in very original ways-Where else do you see a Jester dancing around whilst electrocuting,stabbing eyes with stilettos and as for what he does in the van-Hilarious stuff!In some ways it reminds me of Revenge Of Billy The Kid-another British horror comedy.Perhaps the humour doesn't translate that well overseas .Just wish the proposed follow up had been made but sadly we just get Friday the 13th part 54 etc........Now lets have a long overdue DVD release-my VHS copy is getting worn out!Sorted!.
Funny Man the Harlequin from the deep bowels of the earth, waiting for his calling in this exceedingly surreal fantasy horror of the B-movie genre.
Simon Sprackling, both director and writer of this very British movie, has a humour that delivers wit and slapstick that is all very bizarre and horrific, and English.Shock and startle, this is what Funny Man does best, and with his touch of poetic justice, he delivers a blend of fiery retribution and with his fearsome and disturbing looks.
Its no wonder really, as the cinematography, by Tom Ingle, is both interesting and along with Simon Sprackling's script and overall direction of macabre horror makes Funny Man seriously horrific and at the same time funny, man..
The "story" (and I use that term loosely) is about a man who looses at a game of cards (one of my favorite horror actors Christopher Lee) and his house in the process.
I did like the Funny Man character and the guy playing him did a good job but this movie was just so random in parts that even that could not help.In the end this movie is just a plain and simple miss.
The movie is not a total bag of crap but you better be really desperate for entertainment or have some kind of Joker Fetish to really pick this movie over all the other fine horror films that are out there.
If the movie focused a little more on the Funny Man's back-story, the movie would have had a much more interesting sub-plot.