This low-budget horror film about teenagers trapped in a carnival funhouse with a freakish monster is pretty standard stuff. Director Tobe Hooper manages a few shocks and includes some typically peculiar supporting characters, but this film is less entertaining than either of his previous excursions into such territory. Not as scary as (1974) nor as bizarre as (1976), may as well have been directed by an anonymous hack as one of the foremost names in the genre. The movie tie-in novel, penned by "Dean R. Koontz" under the pseudonym "Owen West," is actually far more frightening than the film on which it was based.