The Funhouse: Tobe Hooper’s underrated slasher deserves another look

Despite the fact that Tobe Hooper directed several films per decade throughout the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, he’s really only remembered for two of them. 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was his breakout hit, and it’s filled with such raw, gruesome visuals that it is widely credited with redefining what a horror movie could be. A few years later came Poltergeist, a blockbuster supernatural thriller that contains such a high level of directorial polish many believe it was really directed (or at least co-directed) by its producer/co-writer, Steven Spielberg.