Oh man, there's more than just 10 great horror comedies! I think it's one of the most organic genre blends known to man, alongside romantic comedies - the subject matter usually works better when not taken too seriously.
Just off the top of my head, beyond Dead Alive, there's Evil Dead 2, Scream, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Shaun of the Dead, Gremilns, Ghostbusters, The Frighteners (Jackson again!), Texas Chainsaw II, American Werewolf in London, Beetlejuice, Fright Night, Little Shop of Horrors, Return of the Living Dead, One Cut of the Dead, okay imma stop now. But there's so many! Definitely need to see Benny Loves You. I actually bought it on digital a couple years back and have just been sitting on it.
Dead Alive, Evil Dead 2, Scream, Shaun Of The Dead, Gremlins, American Werewolf In London, perfect movies. Yes, of course. I would maybe add Dead Of Night.
But hot take time.
Frighteners -- I'm a Peter Jackson die hard, but... I don't know if I'd rank this one among horror comedies.
Ghostbusters/Beetlejuice/Little Shop Of Horrors -- This ties into more of what I'm saying, in that I think maybe these lean too close to comedy.
Texas Chainsaw II/Fright Night -- There are some laughs, but I still think these are primarily horror movies.
Still haven't seen Tucker and Dale or One Cut Of The Dead.
We all have our own takes, of course, but I'd argue there's a distinct difference between momentary laughs in, say, the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th sequels and then the ever-present, very black humor of Fright Night or Texas Chainsaw II (I mean, TCII truly is not a serious scary movie, which Hooper intended). Re-Animator also falls into this camp, now that I think about it.
I'd also argue against quibbling between "horror comedy" and "comedy horror". No other genre blend gets questioned this way: there's no such thing as a "comedy romance" or a "thriller action" or a "drama crime", because fans of those genres aren't precious about that shit. Either something has a significant amount of both or it doesn't. There's no magic 50/50, 60/40, 70/30 line that suddenly makes it one or the other. Either the "humor" (which doesn't not have to be laugh out loud) is part of the overall tone and approach, or it isn't. That should really be the full definition.
1) Horror comedies movies have to be vaguely scary. The gremlins are scary. Zuul is kinda scary, if you wanna go there. The werewolf in "American Werewolf" is TERRIFYING. I think the movies I'm reviewing this week are, unfortunately, scary-adjacent, but not spooky enough to be in the horror-comedy canon. Spoiler alert.
2) They can also be mildly funny. If they're too funny, then they are primarily comedies, with some scares. Is SCARY MOVIE (which I think is unfunny, but is TRYING to be funny) a horror comedy or just a comedy? Because it's not remotely scary..
I think a proper horror comedy requires an alchemy of scares and laughs. It's just really tough to be scary, and it's even tougher to alternate between genuinely horrific sights (like Evil Dead 2) and belly laughs (also Evil Dead 2).
I set a low bar for what constitutes a horror comedy. But to be a REALLY GOOD ONE, I think that's incredibly difficult to pull off.
The demon dogs in Ghostbusters TERRIFIED me as a kid, too. Little Shop the same - it’s honestly gruesome and horrific, regardless of musical numbers.
I agree that Scary Movie is the straight up comedy, being a spoof, whereas Scream is then the horror comedy, because it’s a true blue slasher with stakes and terror on top of the tongue-in-cheekiness riddled throughout.
“Scary” is a tricky one, because honestly I’d say being a great non-comedy horror is much harder than being a great comedy horror. Especially as we age and become jaded. Something is scary to me but not to you and vice versa. At some point that definition is far too subjetive to work as a functioning, shared cultural deifnition of the subgenre. Many people don’t think ther Terrifier movies are scary, just gruesome/nasty. So is it not a horror movie then?
Oh man, there's more than just 10 great horror comedies! I think it's one of the most organic genre blends known to man, alongside romantic comedies - the subject matter usually works better when not taken too seriously.
Just off the top of my head, beyond Dead Alive, there's Evil Dead 2, Scream, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Shaun of the Dead, Gremilns, Ghostbusters, The Frighteners (Jackson again!), Texas Chainsaw II, American Werewolf in London, Beetlejuice, Fright Night, Little Shop of Horrors, Return of the Living Dead, One Cut of the Dead, okay imma stop now. But there's so many! Definitely need to see Benny Loves You. I actually bought it on digital a couple years back and have just been sitting on it.
Well, ok. Let's do this.
Dead Alive, Evil Dead 2, Scream, Shaun Of The Dead, Gremlins, American Werewolf In London, perfect movies. Yes, of course. I would maybe add Dead Of Night.
But hot take time.
Frighteners -- I'm a Peter Jackson die hard, but... I don't know if I'd rank this one among horror comedies.
Ghostbusters/Beetlejuice/Little Shop Of Horrors -- This ties into more of what I'm saying, in that I think maybe these lean too close to comedy.
Texas Chainsaw II/Fright Night -- There are some laughs, but I still think these are primarily horror movies.
Still haven't seen Tucker and Dale or One Cut Of The Dead.
We all have our own takes, of course, but I'd argue there's a distinct difference between momentary laughs in, say, the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th sequels and then the ever-present, very black humor of Fright Night or Texas Chainsaw II (I mean, TCII truly is not a serious scary movie, which Hooper intended). Re-Animator also falls into this camp, now that I think about it.
I'd also argue against quibbling between "horror comedy" and "comedy horror". No other genre blend gets questioned this way: there's no such thing as a "comedy romance" or a "thriller action" or a "drama crime", because fans of those genres aren't precious about that shit. Either something has a significant amount of both or it doesn't. There's no magic 50/50, 60/40, 70/30 line that suddenly makes it one or the other. Either the "humor" (which doesn't not have to be laugh out loud) is part of the overall tone and approach, or it isn't. That should really be the full definition.
I dunno. I'm of two minds about it.
1) Horror comedies movies have to be vaguely scary. The gremlins are scary. Zuul is kinda scary, if you wanna go there. The werewolf in "American Werewolf" is TERRIFYING. I think the movies I'm reviewing this week are, unfortunately, scary-adjacent, but not spooky enough to be in the horror-comedy canon. Spoiler alert.
2) They can also be mildly funny. If they're too funny, then they are primarily comedies, with some scares. Is SCARY MOVIE (which I think is unfunny, but is TRYING to be funny) a horror comedy or just a comedy? Because it's not remotely scary..
I think a proper horror comedy requires an alchemy of scares and laughs. It's just really tough to be scary, and it's even tougher to alternate between genuinely horrific sights (like Evil Dead 2) and belly laughs (also Evil Dead 2).
I set a low bar for what constitutes a horror comedy. But to be a REALLY GOOD ONE, I think that's incredibly difficult to pull off.
The demon dogs in Ghostbusters TERRIFIED me as a kid, too. Little Shop the same - it’s honestly gruesome and horrific, regardless of musical numbers.
I agree that Scary Movie is the straight up comedy, being a spoof, whereas Scream is then the horror comedy, because it’s a true blue slasher with stakes and terror on top of the tongue-in-cheekiness riddled throughout.
“Scary” is a tricky one, because honestly I’d say being a great non-comedy horror is much harder than being a great comedy horror. Especially as we age and become jaded. Something is scary to me but not to you and vice versa. At some point that definition is far too subjetive to work as a functioning, shared cultural deifnition of the subgenre. Many people don’t think ther Terrifier movies are scary, just gruesome/nasty. So is it not a horror movie then?