SHOCK selects 9 brilliant blends of humor and horror.
Horror and comedy make for strange bedfellows and when the genre combines them, it can be disastrous, with any dread filmmakers try to sculpt potentially undone by clumsily handled jokes.
No, the best horror comedies are ones in which the threat is real, deadly and even scary.The characters have to take the horror seriously or else we will not and then, the entire enterprise either lapses into tired vaudeville shtick or worse, ironic hipster dreck.
But these 9 beloved films are sterling examples of the two elements of comedy and horror working in harmony to create perfect (or near perfect) works of subversive dark and sly art.
Here we go…
ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)
The first of A&Cs beloved monster comedies is a screwball delight. Of course, comedy takes front seat in this classic romp, as is to be expected, but the beauty of the picture is that the monsters are played affectionately straight, their aesthetic design on par with the best of the Universal chillers. A fun, funny, spooky ride that is a perfect entry point into the genre for children.
A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959)
Legend has it, Roger Corman and writer Charles B. Griffith hashed out the idea for BUCKET at an after hours coffee shop with actress Sally Kellerman. The resulting film may be Cormans masterpiece, a riotous skewering of the winding down Beatnik culture by way of HOUSE OF WAX with a definitive Dick Miller performance. Funny and arch but with moments of lurid terror and featuring a slew of outrageous characters.
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)
The 2nd of Corman and Griffiths horror comedies after BUCKET (the third being 1961s CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA), SHOP was filmed in three days on two sets and its both hilarious and macabre. The tale of the man eating plant Audrey Jr. was later turned into a Broadway musical and musical film, but Cormans original is a scrappy, cheap jazz informed gem, with a brilliant final shot.
DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (aka THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS,1967)
Roman Polanskis bouncy, europudding horror comedy is a joy to watch, with Polanski himself starring as nebbish vampire-killing apprentice running afoul of a castle full of ghouls.Polanskis beautiful wife Sharon Tate also stars and its sad to see her in full bloom, knowing the horror that would befall her soon after at the hands of Charles Mansons droogs. Watch out for the funniest scene in any vampire flick, when a would-be-hero raises a cross to a Jewish vampire who laughs off the assault.
SPIDER BABY(1968)
Jack Hills deranged and deformed black comedy is funny as shit but only because its hideously weird, with no one acting as though they’re of this earth. Otherwise, its about as grim as it gets. The scene where actor Mantan Moreland gets hacked to pieces by one of the cannibal clans kids is outrageous, echoing the perversities of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE and anticipating THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.
THEATRE OF BLOOD (1973)
Many cite this film as the apex of Vincent Prices genre work; certainly the actor himself did. In it, Price send up his own hammy and oft derided persona, playing a scenery chewing actor who, after being driven over the edge by his critics, returns to massacre them one by one, in theatrical and outrageous ways. Price is a joy and though Douglas Hickoxs direction is a tad too mild-mannered, its still a gory, caustic blast.
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)
Edging out THE HOWLING as the best blackly funny werewolf movie of all time, John Landis tragic, brooding and unforgettable lycanthrope saga is indeed humorous, but only because of just how strange it gets. Never once do the characters on-screen take the horror they are enduring lightly. The laughs come as release from moments of profound upset. A perfect movie.
FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)
Like AMERICAN WEREWOLF, FRIGHT NIGHTs giggles come from the movies eccentricities and the ways normal people react to abnormal things. Tom Hollands classic vampire film is a quote on Hitchcocks REAR WINDOW by way of Hammer Films and, like Hitchs best films, humor is the essence of the picture, no matter how intense the suspense and terror gets. Much of the laughs come from Charlie Brewsters heroic and hapless adventures in vampire hunting juxtaposed with every day teenage angst. What a fantastic (fangtastic?) film
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)
A disorienting comic horror masterpiece whose biggest laughs come in the first quarter, with veteran actors Clu Gulager, Don Calfa and James Karen bouncing Dan OBannons snappy dialogue back and forth, barely controlling their hysteria as the Trioxin situation spirals way out of control. Those big, bloody laughs pave the path for the second half which turns deadly serious and horrifying. Like AMERICAN WEREWOLF and FRIGHT NIGHT, ROTLD exemplifies the grafting of serious drama, horror and crazed comedy. Viva la 80s!
