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. Other joker/jester images are scattered throughout the film.
But the problems overwhelm the movie: to begin with, there's no story. A guy wins a house in a card game (why is the card game in the U.S.?) and moves into it. The Funny Man promptly erupts from the floor and starts killing the new arrivals, including some others who show up later on. But at no point is there even the slightest hint as to WHY this is going on. We never have any idea as to the Funny Man's motives, or the failings (if any) of the people he kills. There's a slight hint that all this is the delusions of an insane Christopher Lee -- but the madhouse scene is in exactly the same style as the rest of the film.
The Funny Man isn't funny (though the makeup is impressive), and isn't even intelligible to most Americans much of the time. Effects are minimal (although there's one bit with a hand spreading wide that's unnerving -- and meaningless), but the photography and use of color are actually quite impressive. It's impossible to judge most of the performances, since the characters (if that's the word) are drawn so broadly that they're repellent caricatures from the moment we meet them. We not only don't give a damn if they die, we don't even know who the heck they ARE (or why they're dying).
Reportedly, the movie was made as an effort to revive English horror, but this ponderous, pretentious mess, unfunny, confusing and inconclusive, wouldn't have revived anything. Some praise is due Christopher Lee for cooperating with this effort; it was an act of courage and generosity. Too bad it was for such a sorry end product.
