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This article was originally published on October 17, 2022.
It has been updated with additional movies ahead of Halloween.
People say comedy and horror are intrinsically linked because they both go for a visceral reaction.
But horror-comedy succeeds often not just because the genres have similar aims but because death is kinda funny.
The failings of the human body are absurd, disgusting, and dumb.
That makes identifying the real genre spanners all the more difficult.
Some movies, likeScream,are horror movies with jokes.
Horror comedies tend to have an inherently absurd premise.
Killer clowns, zombie sheep, zombie romantic-comedy.
Its just using horror characters to tell jokes.
Nobody is imperiled nobody who is important to the plot anyway.
Neither horror-with-jokes or horror-colored-comedies make it onto this list.
That means noScary Movies,noHubie Halloween.
Its low-stakes horror, perfect for scaredy-cats and the easily bummed out.
A scared-shitless Lou Costello with his eyes bugging out is impervious to age.
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankensteinsees Dracula and the Wolfman battle over Frankensteins creature.
And poor Chick and Budd (Abbott and Costello, respectively) are caught in the middle.
They all used that same word:disturbing.
According toBruce Campbell,Rocky Horroralso kept many indie cinemas afloat through midnight screenings.
Thats commendable as hell.
Oh, and those people who were disturbed byRocky Horroras kids?
Theyre all gay now.
The unsettled byRocky Horror to hello LGBTQ community pipeline is strong.
She said a house that eats girls, and Obayashi replied Bet.
Its definitely about a house that eats girls, but beyond that?
The film is borderline plotless, just one weird thing happening after another.
And most of the actors were amateurs, giving the film almost the vibe of outsider art.
And is there any better joke delivered by a zombie than Send more paramedics?
Aliens have harvested an entire town for their fast-food consumption.
Again, cannot stress enough how gross this movie is.
Do not watch while eating.
These puppets be looking cah-razy.
Plus it has an incredibly crotchety performance byAnimal Houses John Vernon.
And killer shadow puppets!
The shadow eats some guys!
The two host a Halloween party at an abandoned funeral home, and would you believe it goes wrong?
Meta, goofy, and gross,Gremlins 2has it all.
TheKey & Peelesketchis right: They left no ideas on the cutting room floor in that flick.
Someone really went What if the Gremlins were more toyetic, and had one-note personalities that differentiated them?
That person deserves a dump truck full of money.G2is also so much sillier than its predecessor.
This is meta comedy before it got annoying.
And yet the threat of these killer little guys is still present.
PlusGremlins 2gave birth to one of thegreat movie-sequel characters: the Sexy Lady Gremlin.
A girlboss if there ever was one.
to do that, he has to pull off some of the dumbest kills in the franchise.
The film features cameos from Alice Cooper, Roseanne, Tom Arnold, and a midJump StreetJohnny Depp.
How can you be mad at that?
Sure,Buffy: the Vampire Slayeris better known in televised,problematic-in-hindsightform.
But theres still meat on the bone in this precursor.
The pre-TVBuffystars Kristy Swanson as the titular vampire slayer with Donald Sutherland as her watcher.
Buffy rejects the call to slayerdom only to wind up having to save her school at prom.
Okay, she saves the school by burning down the gym, but still.
Hillary Swank makes it out alive.
Black Sheep(1996)
No, not the Chris Farley vehicle.
ThisBlack Sheepis a New Zealand film about zombie sheep.
It sounds so dumb, and in many ways it is.
What really setsBlack Sheepapart from the zombie-movie fad of the early aughts is its use of practical effects.
Done by Weta Works,Black Sheepuses puppets for most of its infected ruminants.
Those werecats are scary!
Plus it has thebest original songof all theScooby-Doomovies (apologies to Hex Girls stans).
However, the alleged highway has yet to appear, so theyre really struggling financially.
Fox, plus the Offspring, credited as Themselves.
Anton offs his parents and his besties before figuring out whats going on.
The pageantry of a 90s teen comedy cannot be ignored.
Seed of Chucky(2004)
TheChilds Playmovies get dumber and gayer with every installment.
Just as God intended.Seed of Chuckybuilds on 1998sBride of Chuckys unhinged tone and Jennifer Tilly involvement.
That movie does have a doll-on-doll sex scene, but this movie hasRedman.
Seed of Chuckysees killer doll Chucky go Hollywood, as he uses Jennifer Tilly to reincarnate his girlfriend.
Tilly does double duty as both killer doll Tiffany and as an extremely unglamourous version of herself.
Theyre childish, sweet, and gory.
While the latter offerings go action and sci-fi,Shaunstarts the series off in pure horror.
The whole thing is funny, and even both audio commentaries have jokes Im quoting decades later.
But whatShaundoes perfectly is play the creeping horror in its beginning.
Having recently survived a calamitous world event, it hits even harder.
We really do ignore the end of the world until its in our back garden.
Behavior-modifying collars have neutered the zombie threat, and zombies have become worker-pets in most suburban homes.
AndCreepshowis sometimes only unintentionally funny.
(Stephen King may be a writer, director, andblues-rock musician, but an actor he aint.
Each story has the macabre dry wit of an EC horror comic.
Death by irony, jump scares, and so much fake fall foliage its scary.
Its also one of the rare recent films to launch a true horror icon, short king Sam.
If youre looking for a movie that absolutely screams Halloween, this is your guy.
Jennifers Body(2009)
Maligned in its time,Jennifers Bodyhas finally gotten thecritical reappraisalit deserved.
Its so easy to let a charismatic friend devour you.
Just try not to let it be literal.
Tucker & Dale vs. Do they know their cabin used to be the lair of a spree killer?
No, but thats hardly their fault.
But Tucker and Dale are actually sweeties.
Take that, coastal elites!
Some part of our lizard brain demands sacrifice.
Not just sacrifice, but for people who arent us to be punished.
Meanwhile, shadowy guys at a base somewhere (Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins) plot their doom.
Thespeakerphone sceneis a prime example.
Thats when things get really nuts.
What works best is how the initially scary prospect of Trees death becomes funny with repetition.
Tree doesnt even care that shes dying anymore!
Its arake joke, but the rake impales you.
Its touching, gross, and so, so fun.
A real-estate development company goes on a team-building exercise before announcing its big new subdivision.
Now the farmers survivalist son is picking off corporate stuffed shirts one by one.
Its the well-observed comedy ofThe Officewith the gross-out gore ofReady or Not.
Lisa Frankenstein(2024)
Kathryn Newton is a star!
The script from Diablo Cody is a great balance of horror, comedy, and longing.
