These horror comedies will make you scream more than laugh
Horror and comedy seem like an unlikely duo, but the two genres actually work about the same. Both aim to elicit a visceral reaction from audiences, relying on timing and tension to be effective. It's all about build-up, then release. In comedy, it's a laugh at the end of a bit, and in horror, it's getting the audience to jump after a scare. Put the two together, and it can be a non-stop roller coaster of entertainment and thrills.
Horror comedies give audiences the unique experience of laughing in the face of fear, but more often than not, the comedy outweighs the horror. Few horror comedies manage to actually be scary, but some movies are the exception to the rule. They might make viewers laugh occasionally, but that's only when they're not screaming.
10/10
Freaky Is A Slasher Film With A Twist
Freaky is a movie with a premise so simple it's genius — it's Freaky Friday meets Friday the 13th. Through some magical hokum, a teenage girl and a cruel serial killer swap bodies, and chaos ensues. It's a fun and thrilling genre mashup that actually works really well.
This is largely due to the film's director, Christopher Landon, who is no stranger to horror comedies, having previously directed Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and Happy Death Day. While the film takes full advantage of its silly premise, it also never loses sight that it's a slasher film filled with tons of suspenseful gory deaths that horror fans will love.
9/10
Slither Takes Body Horror To The Extreme
Before James Gunn helmed some of the biggest comic book movies of all time, he made his directorial debut with Slither, an icky sci-fi horror that's littered with his trademark humor. The film stars Michael Rooker as a man whose body is taken over by an alien parasite that transforms him into a grotesque tentacled monster and tries to infect the town.
With Slither, Gunn takes body horror to the next level and offers up some of the most gut-churning scenes in recent memory. It must've been too gross for the masses because it flopped at the box office despite being praised by critics. This is disappointing because Slither is genuinely a good movie — if viewers can stomach it.
8/10
The Cabin In The Woods Is A Meta Horror Comedy That Works
The Cabin In The Woods starts like any typical horror film: a group of college students heads to a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere for a weekend getaway before being attacked by monsters. However, this horror movie comes with a pretty big twist as it's revealed that all the activity is being controlled by an underground facility.
It's with this meta approach that The Cabin In The Woods is able to really deconstruct and mock the horror genre to great comedic effect. But it's still filled with a good amount of suspense and blood-filled horror that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
7/10
Teeth Puts A Fresh Feminist Spin On Horror Comedies
Admittedly, Teeth is not for everyone. The film centers around Dawn, a god-fearing leader of a Christian abstinence group who discovers that she has a strange condition called "vagina dentata," which derives from a folk tale in which a women's vagina has teeth. Like the folk tale, the movie is meant to be a cautionary tale to discourage sexual assault.
While Teeth isn't afraid to shy away from its silly premise, it also isn't afraid to shy away from being extremely graphic. It's a feminist film that isn't afraid to draw some blood. Dawn uses her condition as a weapon to empower herself against would-be abusers, which means the mutilation of the male genitalia.
6/10
Get Out Is A Satire Disguised As A Horror
Get Out follows a young black man, Chris, who meets his white girlfriend, Rose's, parents for the first time and uncovers a dark secret about the family. While the film certainly fits into more than one genre, it works best as a horror, and part of what makes it so scary is that its characters feel so realistic — like Rose's dad who, tries to prove his "liberalism" by telling Chris he would have voted for Obama for a third term.
Writer-director Jordan Peele perfectly meshes together sociopolitical commentary with classic horror movie tropes, and the result is genuinely terrifying. Get Out set a new standard for horror films and established Peele as one of today's greatest working horror movie directors.
5/10
Evil Dead 2 Is A Cult Classic
Evil Dead 2 functions as a sort-of sequel/remake of the original Evil Dead. Bruce Campbell returns as Ash and must fight off an army of evil spirits again. While the first film plays like a straight-up horror that, for the most part, takes itself seriously, the second leans more into the absurd comedic realm. Still, it has enough gore to satisfy hardcore horror fans.
There's very little one could say about Evil Dead 2 that hasn't been said already. The movie is a certified cult classic and a midnight-showing favorite. It's the perfect film for the Halloween season; it'll make viewers scream, laugh, and scream some more.
4/10
Housebound Flips The Haunted House Movie On Its Head
Housebound is a movie that is criminally underrated and overlooked. The film perfectly executes a relatively simple premise — someone on house arrest in a haunted house. Similar to The Cabin in the Woods, the movie deconstructs classic horror tropes and uses them to crack jokes. But then, it hits the audience with an assault of twists and turns that leave a chilling effect.
Housebound is a very well-crafted film that uses horror to elevate its comedy and vice versa. It's a movie that keeps audiences on their toes by playing with genre expectations in the best way possible. It's the unique horror comedy that truly delivers on both fronts.
3/10
Shaun Of The Dead Is One Of The Greatest Zombie Films Ever Made
Perhaps the most iconic horror comedy in recent memory, Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead completely reinvented the zombie genre. The film follows co-writer Simon Pegg as the titular Shaun, a depressed salesman who tries to win back his girlfriend during a zombie apocalypse.
At the heart of Shaun of the Dead is a social commentary on the zombie-like lives of the working class that's filled with tons of sight gags and witty dialogue. But all of that is masked under an authentic guts-and-gore zombie flick filled with heartbreaking deaths. Shaun of the Dead somehow manages to be one of the greatest horror movies and horror spoofs at the same time.
2/10
An American Werewolf In London Is The Perfect Balance Of Horror & Comedy
Having directed Animal House and The Blues Brothers, John Landis is a director more known for his comedies. But in 1981, the filmmaker transformed the werewolf genre with the genre-bending horror-comedy classic An American Werewolf in London. The film follows a pair of American tourists who are attacked by a wolf; one dies and turns into a ghost, and the other is cursed to become a werewolf by the next full moon.
What really made An American Werewolf in London stand apart from other horror films was the incredible Oscar-winning make-up effects of Rick Baker that still hold all these years later. Watching David transform into a werewolf is just as gruesome and cringe-inducing as ever. It's a classic for a reason.
1/10
Scream Reinvented The Horror Genre
Only Wes Craven could make a slasher film that satirizes all the tropes and clichés of the slasher genre, which he helped create, and it becomes a classic. Scream is a self-aware horror movie that follows a group of teens who are slowly picked off by a masked killer known as Ghostface. The movie helped reinvent the horror genre and spawned many sequels and countless imitations.
What makes Scream so effective is that it fully embraces the clichés that it mocks. The characters understand how horror movies work and use that to their advantage, but so does the killer. It's smart, funny, well-executed, and most of all, it's scary as hell.
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