There are two types of entertainment that target your stomach muscles, but they do it in very different ways. The word “horror” conjures up images of stomachs churning with…well, horror.
Jump scares, violent deaths, and the sheer anxiety of uncertainty have all been present in some of the best horror films ever made. You are telling us your stomach did not clench involuntarily when Jack Nicholson slammed the door shut with an axe in The Shining? OR during The Exorcist’s exorcism scene? Or in Jordan Peele’s enthralling book Get Out, during the eponymous scene? We have made our argument.
Comedy, on the contrary, takes your breath away with its utter hilarity. Comedies frequently use “violent intent” to create circumstances that attract peals of laughter from the audience, whether it is satire, slapstick, insult comedy, or something else.
And, when you think about it, horror flicks and comedies are essentially the same things. The build-up of suspense and exact humorous (or horrifying) timing, culminate in the pay-off. That pay-off in a horror film elicits screams, winces, and an overall sense of collective frenzy.
The payoff in a comedy is laughter. However, in a good horror-comedy, it is both; a cringe-inducing mash-up of unsettling happenings that are both terrible and amusing. And the best horror comedies are like fiddles with their audiences, combining stunning cruelty with a rib that is too amusing to resist. We will look at the Top 15 Horror Comedies in this video and see what makes them so addicting to watch!
Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2010)
This movie takes the premise of a slasher film and completely flips it on its head by switching the roles of the psychopath killer and the victim. The eponymous Tucker & Dale are an affable duo of gentle, kind-hearted hillbillies who have just acquired their “dream home”- a cabin in the woods by the lake.
They’re heading over to the property when they meet a group of teenagers who are heading to the same area for a camping trip. Tucker feels an instant attraction towards Allison, but his social awkwardness drives the group away. Tucker & Dale remain undeterred and start working on their cabin, which turns out to be a decrepit heap of rotten wood & bones.
Meanwhile, Chad, the group’s leader, tells his friends the story of the “Memorial Day Massacre”; a hillbilly attack on their town 20 years ago that took his father’s life, allegedly. Later, when the group is swimming in the lake, Allison almost drowns and Tucker & Dale save her, but her friends think she’s being kidnapped.
And with Chad’s clear antagonism towards hillbillies, it doesn’t take long for them to chase after the perceived kidnappers. What unfolds next is a series of hilariously tragic & unfortunate events, where most of Allison’s group dies because of their own carelessness. Chad is revealed to be an unhinged hillbilly-hating psychopath, who tries to kill Tucker & Dale (and fails). Allison falls for the kind-hearted, well-meaning hillbilly, and Dale finally overcomes his social anxiety as the movie rolls to credits.
What makes this movie so endearing is the fact that it tows the line between slasher-gore and slapstick comedy with borderline perfection. Tucker & Dale aren’t unhinged, cabin-dwelling psychopaths; they’re just regular folks with regular lives and issues.
Seeing things from the perspective of the perpetual antagonist works wonders for this movie’s comedic timing, which is extremely on point, we might add. The moment we saw Dale trying to talk to the group with a scythe-like, Grim Reaper-esque tool, we knew where this film was going.
And it only kept building. Miscommunication and the fear of the unfamiliar drive this story. The kids just assume that Tucker & Dale are horrible people and set out on a “quest for survival” like the premise of every slasher film ever. But at its core, Tucker & Dale v Evil is a buddy-comedy with a fairytale ending. Dale’s social anxiety & Tucker’s genuine friendship are at the heart of this film, and their interplay creates some of its best moments.
Allison’s trust for our duo is heart-warming, and Chad’s implosion was just as hilarious as his downfall. Like every good slapstick film, Tucker & Dale v Evil has its fair share of gore; unfortunate impaling, miscalculated immolation, one of the better tributes to Aaron Eckhart’s Two-Face, and of course, the wood chipper scene.
This movie doesn’t try to oversell the violence to make the comedy work; it perfectly times its jokes to make the violence work. From the “suicide pact realization” to the iconic “We’re having a doozy of a day” speech, Tucker & Dale v Evil is a queasy, heart-warming spin on the hillbilly in the forest trope that should definitely be on your list.
Army of Darkness (1992)
Sam Raimi’s cult-hit Evil Dead series’ 3rd installment sees Ash Williams transported to the Middle Ages! Army of Darkness starts off with Ash as a prisoner, recounting his tale to the audience. He doesn’t know how he ended up there, but he’s gonna find a way out. Ash and Duke Henry reach Lord Arthur’s Castle in chains; the Duke is Arthur’s enemy, and they await his justice.
Ash’s boomstick & chainsaw are taken away from him, and he’s flung into a pit to be tortured to death. But he encounters Deadites in the pit, and after defeating them, he’s accepted by Arthur’s people as a hero. Ash spends his days living lavishly and courts Sheila, the sister of a fallen soldier.
When time comes for him to return to his world, he’s tasked with recovering the Necronomicon which is the only thing that can help him. Of course, he botches it, and let lose an army of the dead upon the world, led by an evil doppelganger of Ash himself! After an elaborate, rib-tickling battle sequence (and we mean that literally), Ash saves Sheila, forges peace between Arthur & Henry, and returns to his own timeline.
The movie ends when we see Ash telling this story to a colleague of his at a departmental store. As usual, the colleague doesn’t believe a word of what he’s saying. A Deadite attacks Ash just in time to confirm his story, and after dealing with the dastardly being, he signs off with the iconic one-liner, “Hail to the King, baby!”
Army of Darkness is less horror more comedy, but in the best possible way. Sam Raimi tuned Ash’s hammy personality up to 11 for this one, and Bruce Campbell knocked it out of the park. The man-out-of-time trope creates genuine entertainment value, as Ash busts out insults that probably haven’t even been invented yet, and keeps quoting one-liners like a self-obsessed, testosterone-driven Rodney Dangerfield.
We’ll admit that the plot is threadbare, but the movie more than makes up for it with its gags. Army of Darkness is, for all intents and purposes, an insult comedy dressed up in a Halloween costume. Ash’s buffoonery has been amplified by his ego, and that is the perfect recipe for a series of delightful disasters.
From the Gulliver’s Travels-inspired scene with the mini-Ashes to the creation of the Jim Carrey-esque “BAD Ash”, this movie heads towards its climax like a roller-coaster on steroids. Our favorite thing, though, has to be the skeleton army.
Their stop-start movements, the fact that they bring era-accurate drummers & flautists to the battlefield, the fight montage with Ash at the Necronomicon’s location; it is silly comedy executed with uncanny brilliance.
Campbell’s commitment to Ash’s misplaced sense of coolness creates some genuinely badass moments, and overall, this film is a treat to watch and a testament to Raimi’s pioneering contributions to horror comedies.
Ghostbusters (1984)
When ghosts start haunting New York City and evil demon-gods approach, it begs the question: Who are you gonna call? Parapsychologists Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz & Egon Spengler have more than a passing interest in the paranormal. They believe ghosts are real beings, and are determined to prove that they are correct.
However, an encounter with a monstrous ghost at the New York Public Library leads to them losing their jobs and our trio of misfits decides to fight them for a living. Now called “The Ghostbusters”, they hire a fourth member, operate out of a disused, run-down firehouse and develop advanced (and bizarre!) technology to combat their ectoplasmic foes. The Ghostbusters’ real trial arrives in the form of Zuul & Vinz: demigods and spirit entities that threaten to unleash a terrible evil on Earth from a different dimension. They target the Busters’ friends as their vessels, possessing them and attempting to perform some kind of ritual, but the Ghostbusters manage to keep them apart.
However, things go awry when EPA lawyer Walter Peck (William Atherton) visits our dynamic quartet and accidentally sets all the captured ghosts free. As a result, Vinz is able to catch up with Zuul and they summon their leader, Gozer the Gozerian, who starts destroying New York City. It’s up to the Ghostbusters to save the world from this supernatural threat.
Ghostbusters is an affable, car-crash of a movie that throws everything at the wall and hopes it sticks. Blending elements of horror, mysticism and comedy, Ghostbusters uses just the right amount of “Crap Science” to sell itself without being taken too seriously. And while the ghosts themselves are hilariously designed, this entire film rides on the shoulders of excellent improvisational comedy.
The stellar cast of SNL-graduated comics on set managed to improvise almost every joke, dialogue & punch line that made it into the film! From Spengler’s defense for trying to drill into Venkman’s head (“That would’ve worked if you hadn’t stopped me”) to almost all of Venkman’s quips (“Nice shooting, Tex!”), every hard-hitting joke in this movie draws you in and punches you in the gut with its hilarity.
And who can forget the moment when Gozer the Gozerian finally emerged! The non-stop barrage of laughter elicited by this God of Destruction, as it “lays waste” to New York in the form of a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow mascot is ingrained in our memory. From start to end, Ghostbusters plays like a hilarious fever induced dream, with one of the best theme songs of any franchise, ever.
Night of the Creeps (1986)
While traveling in their spacecraft, a scuffle breaks out between three aliens who drop a canister from their vessel that crashes on Earth, circa 1959. A couple encounters this canister, but an escaped, maniacal criminal attacks them, killing the girl. The boy tries to deal with the man, but a creature enters his mouth, leaving his fate uncertain. Flashforward 27 years, and we encounter Chris & his friend J.C.
Chris is pining over Cynthia, a peer of his from Corman University, and joins a fraternity in an attempt to win her heart. The leader tasks them with stealing a corpse and dumping it on rival territory but the plan goes awry when the dead body wakes up and attacks the duo, causing them to flee.
Detective Cameron is called to the scene and he soon realizes that there is a connection between the missing cadaver and his past; the girl at the start of the film is his ex, and the corpse that fled the University’s Medical Center was her boyfriend. He comes back to the frat house for his date, except now, he’s a zombie that’s being controlled by alien slugs.
With time running out, Dt. Cameron, Chris, Cynthia & J.C. face this alien threat while neutralizing zombified humans and coming up with a scheme to put a permanent end to it all. At the end of the movie, Cameron sacrifices his life to protect the children but it is revealed that the slugs zombified him as well. They escape from his body and enter the cemetery, seemingly planning their next move.
We’re going to say this upfront: Night of the Creeps is a slapdash mess of a film. From the trope-riddled script to the costume designs for the zombies & aliens (that looked worse than dollar-store mascots), everything about this project screams “B Movie”; and that is part of the plan.
Director Fred Dekker tried to incorporate every B movie trope imaginable to create this epic hybrid of horror, science fiction, romance, and comedy with a touch of slasher-gore for good measure. The movie is cheesy, we’ll admit that; the outfits, the fraternity theme, the paranoia of alien invasions, everything about this movie embodies the spirit of the 80’s with unabashed pride. It even manages to pull off nuanced comedy.
In one scene, a zombie walks out of the University Medical Center and passes by a cop who, without looking up, says “I’ll see you tomorrow”. But the real reason this mess works is Tom Atkins. Atkins’ Dt. Cameron is a weathered veteran with a penchant for one-liners and a cigarette stuck to his lips.
Atkins’ sheer charisma and delivery makes you believe in everything Cameron says, and he has some of the best one-liners in the entire movie. We imagine a young MC Hammer taking notes when Cameron proclaims “Duck! It’s Miller Time!” right after informing some girls that he had good news & bad news; the good news was that their dates had arrived. The bad news was that they’re all dead.
The other thing it had going were the slugs themselves. Now, we know that as far as originality goes, Dekker’s slugs aren’t exactly top-notch. What they are is creepy, and that itself breeds horror. A combination of sounds, well-timed special effects & sheer creature design will make your stomach churn every time they pop up on screen.
They make you want to duct tape your mouth shut too! Night of the Creeps delivers exactly what it promises: a B movie with quality humor, well-timed jump scares, and terrific acting from the cast, which makes it well worth the 88-minute runtime.
Gremlins (1984)
1984 was kinda like the golden year of horror-comedy. Not only did we meet the Ghostbusters, we also befriended Gremlins! Randall Peltzer, loving father and failing inventor, visits an antique store in Chinatown looking for a present for his son Billy. There, he encounters a mysterious creature called a mogwai. Randall wants to buy it for Billy, but the store owner refuses.
After a series of events, Randall gets the creature and is given three commandments for taking care of it: never expose it to sunlight, let it touch water, and most importantly, never feed it after midnight. Randall named the affable furry creature ‘Gizmo’ and Billy quickly takes to him. One day, however, Billy’s friend Pete accidentally spills water on Gizmo, who spawns more creatures like it, baffling them both. Unlike Gizmo, these mogwai are rambunctious and cause all kinds of trouble.
The boys turn to their science teacher, Mr. Hanson, looking for answers, but Hanson’s merely interested in experimenting on the creature and finding out more about its true nature. Gizmo’s new, mischievous roommates meanwhile, trick Billy into feeding them after midnight, which leads to them creating a cocoon around themselves and hatching into evil, green-fleshed, reptilian gremlins that attack Billy’s mother & torture Gizmo. Mr. Hanson’s gremlin attacks and kills him as well, in rather violent fashion.
Billy and his mom manage to kill most of the gremlins terrorizing their home, but the leader, Spike, escapes. He jumps into a swimming pool, creating dozens of gremlins who attack Kingston Falls on Christmas Eve.
Billy & his girlfriend Kate manage to corner them in the movie theater and blow most of them up in a massive explosion. Billy & Gizmo take down Spike by exposing him to sunlight, which makes him explode in a hail of oozing slime. The final moments see Billy handing over Gizmo to the antique store owner, who tells him that he can come back for Gizmo when “he’s ready”.
From the moment we learn about the three rules of raising a mogwai, we know that at some point, they’re going to be broken. And yet, Gremlins lures you in with that ominous sense of something evil coming out of this cute, little ball of furry warmth called Gizmo. This movie does a great job of building tension, and puts many modern slasher films to shame based on the action alone.
While the gremlins are goofy, make no mistake; they’re lethal. These gluttonous little reptilian miscreants have a sizeable appetite for candy & blood. They’re hyper-active, brutal, and always looking to create as much mayhem as is possible. They seem to have a sick, twisted sense of humor as well.
Case in point: Mrs. Deagle’s come-uppance. When she answers the bell, she sees a bunch of gremlins caroling at her porch, who then proceed to kill her by causing a malfunction in her chair that comically flings her out of the window. From the moment we see Randall step into the antique store, we get this juvenile sense of doom that permeates the movie’s runtime and makes for a gripping watch.
The cast puts in a great performance as well; special props to Francis McCain for looking like a woman on an absolute mission in that kitchen scene! Hoyt Axton’s take on the failing inventor Randall emanates warmth and lovable dad energy throughout, which makes sense, as he ad-libbed most of his lines. Bonus performances by Jonathon Banks & comedy legend Howie Mandel, who voices Gizmo, tie up Gremlins with a neat little bow that says “Classic”. It’s the perfect choice for those of you who like your Christmases with a side of laughter & gore.
Scream (1996)
“What’s your favorite scary movie?” This iconic line from the opening phone call sets the tone for the rest of the film. Casey Becker gets a call from a stranger who flirts with her on the basis of their shared love for horror films. The call soon turns into a deadly trivia game; if Casey gets a question wrong, her boyfriend dies. If she gets another one wrong, she dies.
A ghost-masked killer violently murders the couple and puts their bodies on display for the town. As reporter Gale Weathers investigates the case, Sidney Prescott prepares herself for her mother’s death anniversary.
She gets a call from the killer as well, but manages to escape him just as her boyfriend Billy enters her room. Thinking Billy was the one who made the call, she gets him arrested and spends the night with her friend Tatum, when they get another ominous phone call. Sidney’s friends throw a party at Tatum’s house to celebrate school being closed down on account of the killings, and everyone gets together to watch a horror film.
Amongst the attenders are Gale and Tatum’s brother, Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley, who are chasing the killer. Ghostface strikes at the party, killing Tatum. Sidney’s friends leave the party after they discover that their principal has been murdered, which leaves Sidney, Billy, Randy, Stu, and Gale’s cameraman Kenny at the house.
Ghostface strikes again, killing Kenny and going for Sidney. What ensues is a race against time, where Dewey & Gale must figure out the killer’s identity before he gets to Sidney. The climactic action sequence reveals that Billy & Stu had been playing Ghostface this entire time; they were the ones behind the killing spree and it was Billy who killed Sidney’s mom.
With Gale’s assistance, Sidney overcomes her attackers and puts an end to Ghostface once and for all. The movie ends with an impromptu news report on the events that transpired the previous night.
The moment they killed off Drew Barrymore’s character in the first scene of the film, we knew that this movie was going to be special. Scream is the original Inception, in that it deconstructed the horror genre so precisely, it became a horror-film-within-a-horror-film, complete with an in-universe adaptation of the film’s events in sequels called Stab!
For all intents and purposes, it is a parody of the entire genre; the main characters are very aware of all the taboos of a horror film and actively take measures to avoid them. They basically expose every trope of the genre: alcohol and drugs lead to death, sex is a bloody affair, and everyone who says “I’ll be right back” is basically guaranteed to die.
And that isn’t where the parody stops. Even the deaths are a mockery of the gruesome slasher genre; Tatum’s especially. Imagine getting crushed to death while stuck in a dog door! But that self-awareness lends itself to the tension of the film, which builds perfectly as a comedy-tinged gore-fest. Ghostface’s disturbing mask is contrasted with his abhorring clumsiness; what kind of self-respecting serial killer keeps getting knocked over by refrigerator doors?
And that is where the true hilarity of Scream lies. The constant breaking of the 4th wall creates an atmosphere of the known unknown, that instantly devolves into crazed lunacy and we eat up every second of it. The cast puts in immaculate performances, especially Courtney Cox, whose Gale Weathers is a far cry from the loving Monica Geller.
Weathers is a capital-B bitch, and her presence in the film is a blessing for both the plot and the actor herself. David Arquette’s affable goofball take on Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley breaks the tension with an easy charm that he is yet to recreate. Overall, Scream is a laughter-filled gore-fest that single-handedly revived the 90’s slasher industry. You should give it a watch for that alone.
Zombieland (2009)
Welcome to the United States of Zombieland. A mutated strain of mad cow disease evolves into a zombie virus that rapidly spreads across the US. Teenage zombie apocalypse survivor Columbus is traveling across the US to check on his parents and check whether they’ve succumbed to the zombie virus or not.
On his way, he encounters the eccentric zombie-hunter Tallahassee, who has a penchant for violence, alcohol and is addicted to twinkies. They form a reluctant partnership and start traveling together. On their journey, they encounter Wichita & Little Rock, con artists who swindle them out of their weapons & vehicle. Columbus & Tallahassee give chase, and after a brief altercation, the four of them form an uneasy alliance.
Columbus also relentlessly pursues Wichita, but she isn’t having any of it. The sisters reveal that they’re traveling to Pacific Playland amusement park in Los Angeles, an area supposedly free from zombies.
When the group arrives in LA, they go to Bill Murray’s mansion and discover that the superstar is still alive; he disguises himself as a zombie to freely roam the streets and starts watching Ghostbusters with Little Rock when Columbus shoots him in the head, mistaking him for a zombie.
The quartet splits apart when Wichita & Columbus get closer because of one of the rules of survival in this world; no attachment. The sisters travel to Pacific Playland and start all the rides, attracting hordes of blood-thirsty zombies.
They prepare for their final stand when Columbus & Tallahassee arrive, who manage to save the day. As Wichita & Columbus confront their feelings, they leave Pacific Playland together. The movie ends by reaffirming the need for human attachment; because otherwise, we’re all just zombies.
This film is 88 minutes of action-packed, gore-filled, punchline-driven humor that never lets up. We’re introduced to Zombieland as a zombie burps into the camera and Jessie Eisenberg’s chittery voice introduces us to the “Rules” for surviving this world. In the opening scene, we see 4.
By the time the movie ends, the list has grown to 33. And most of them are absurd, but if you really think about it, they end up making sense in their own twisted ways. Why is cardio rule #1? Because if you can’t outrun them, you’ll end up joining them. Beware of bathrooms because these zombies are smart, you see; they’ll corner you when you’re at your most vulnerable.
And for god’s sake, double-tap your victims; conserving bullets will only get you closer to death. This running gag threads the plot and humor devices of the movie together into a compact package of impactful hilarity. Jessie Eisenberg and Emma Stone play their parts to a T, their nervous energy & nerdy romance lying at the center of the film’s story. But while the story was theirs, the screen was Woody Harrelson’s.
His unhinged take on Tallahassee has to be some of the best comedy work of his career. That attractive Southern drawl, the Magic Mike-inspired costumes, and the perpetual search for calorific twinkies are extreme personality depictions; yet he somehow pulls it off with such finesse, you believe he is Tallahassee.
And the brilliant cameo by comedy legend Bill Murray serves as a meta reminder of the culture-bending effects of horror-comedy. Zombieland is a love story, a buddy-comedy & a gory slasher film at the same time and manages to tick each box without a scrap of fat on the entire production.
From start to finish, the twists turns, and wise-cracking quips keep you gripped to your seat, rooting for the loner and cheering for the weird, zombie-hunting cowboy every time he cocks his shotgun. His mother would be proud of him, indeed.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
The movie begins with a long, esoteric opening card that depicts horrific scenes; immolation, violence, gluttony, lust, all are in full display. It immediately transitions to regular office gossip between two colleagues who are discussing a seemingly scientific “ritual” and the failure of one such ritual in Stockholm.
After moving away from this conversation, we meet our cast of misfits- Curt, Marty, Holden, Jules and Dana. They’ve decided to spend their weekend at Curt’s cousin’s cabin in the woods. On their way to the cabin, they’re warned by Mordecai, the creepy-looking owner of a gas station, about the cabin and its supernatural nature. The group brushes him off and goes there anyway.
Once they reach the cabin, odd things start to happen. The colleagues from the opening sequence, Gary & Steve, start manipulating the environment of the cabin to induce a series of horror-inspired events that lead to most of the group dying.
Only Dana & Marty survive, discovering a secret; the secret underground lab and the true purpose of its existence. Having had this revelation, the dynamic duo tries to save the world from its own grief and ends up causing the destruction of the lab, the cabin & possibly the world itself.
From its name to its execution, The Cabin in the Woods is a thorough, merciless & utterly hilarious deconstruction of horror & slasher tropes; and that is what makes it such a wild watch. Everything about this movie is backwards; Curt is supposed to clearly fit the athletic trope, but has terrible aim and prefers Russian philosophy to football.
Marty is the stoner comic relief, but he’s the one who actually loves the mystery of the cabin; he had been acting dumb the whole time! Jules is dressed evocatively and is clearly meant to be the promiscuous one in the group; and yet she’s in a loving, committed relationship with Curt!
The ensuing cognitive dissonance is fertile ground for humor. In one scene, Curt clearly rules out splitting up as a dumb decision, so the secret lab releases a mind-altering drug into the cabin that causes Curt to suggest splitting up. The entire foggy, mysteriously seductive aura of the cabin is a play on the glum environment of such films and their unnecessarily sexualized tones.
Of course, this is egged on by the nature of the secret project. Gary & Steve’s affable, office humor & chemistry is undercut with a sense of doom when they unveil their whiteboard containing the list of every monster they have captured. This list is Whedon & Goddard’s tribute to every horror film ever; no, seriously. Go through it.
The pair have packed every minute of this film with dialogue, motion pieces and actions that pay tribute to every impactful horror film of every era, from The Shining to Hellraiser. Heck, they straight up imported most of their monsters and let them loose on the titular cabin in a sick, twisted game of human sacrifice.
Special props to Bradley Whitford’s jittery, chatty, self-assured portrayal of Steve Hadley; easily one of the best performances we’ve seen from him, period (and yes that includes being Jake Peralta’s dad).
The Cabin in the Woods does its job as a satirical comedy about horror and does it phenomenally. If you’re the kind of person who likes to ponder on the very fabric of reality and horror’s place in it, while casually laughing at the bone-headed decisions some of the characters make, this is just the movie for you.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
The mundane life of perpetual loser & electronics salesman, Shaun, comes to a standstill after it crumbles all around him; his colleagues & step-father hate him, his girlfriend dumps him and his dead-end job isn’t getting him anywhere. Dejected, he goes on a night of drinking with his best mate, Ed.
They hit up their favorite bar and pass out after drinks, waking up with wicked hangovers. What they don’t realize, is that the entirety of London is going through a zombie apocalypse. Shaun encounters zombies in the streets & mistakes them for regular people. It’s only after they come across a pair of zombies actively trying to attack them that they are convinced of the threat.
Shaun & Ed embark on a quest to protect his mother and ex-girlfriend from the zombie horde. Along the way, they encounter various survivors who are related to their lives in some way, shape or form. Shaun’s mother gets bitten by a zombie and has to be mercy-killed by her own son. The gang of misfits seeks shelter in a local watering hole, preparing for their last stand.
They’re attacked by a swarm of zombies who kill David & Dianne, biting Ed in the process. Just as our trio of unlikely heroes are about to meet their fate at the hands of the zombies, the British Army arrives & decimates them, returning London to normalcy within 6 months. Shaun & Liz get back together and it is revealed that Shaun kept the zombified Ed in his shed to be able to play video games with his best friend.
Shaun of the Dead uses the premise of a zombie apocalypse to show its audience the true horror of life: monotony. Going through the motions is the true terror, and if you’re lucky enough to see a stand-up comic performing in Britain, they’ll let you know that the first chance they get. British humor is dark; it’s dry, sarcastic, and tonally dull.
Its impact falls flat for the uninitiated ear, and cannot be resisted by those who have experienced it. Shaun of the Dead is, in our opinion, peak British humor. Simon Pegg & Nick Frost’s infectious energy and effortless chemistry make this movie a lot more believable than it should be.
Pegg’s Shaun epitomizes the dejected, middle-class Briton; utterly lifeless in his pursuit of life, to the point where he doesn’t realize that the man he just crossed on the street and the woman in his backyard is actually undead. The first zombie attacks our affable duo faces draws out raucous laughter; if you want to harm a zombie, use expensive, limited-edition vinyl records and cricket bats because nothing else seems to work.
As the movie progresses, a combination of wry wit and social humor sees the duo coast through one tough situation to the other, without skipping a single beat. Our favorite scene has to be the one at the Winchester Bar; because if a triple-team assault on an undead zombie man with “Don’t Stop Me Now” as its soundtrack doesn’t make you lose your head with laughter, then you might as well have been bitten by a zombie. Everything about this movie- from its breakneck pacing to its dry & sardonic humor, to the inspired performances put in by the cast- is pure comedic perfection.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
This Oscar-winning classic is perhaps the most important horror & werewolf film of all time. David & Jack, backpackers from New York City, make their way to the United Kingdom on a trekking trip, intending to cross the moors of Yorkshire.
They stop at a local bar called the Slaughter Lamb and strike up a conversation with some patrons, who make fun of their nationality and are otherwise cordial towards them; until they spot the pentagram on the wall of the bar. The room’s aura shifts from uplifting to menacing at the drop of a hat; the pub-goers warn the pair to keep to the road while traveling at night and be wary of the full moon.
David & Jack inadvertently veer off course and are viciously attacked by an unseen entity that kills Jack & injures David. After waking up from a coma three weeks later, David is visited by the undead Jack who tells him that he’s turning into a lycanthrope; a werewolf. Jack insists that David kill himself, as that is the only way to free his soul from the mortal world and stop David from giving others a similar fate.
David ignores Jack, however, and succumbs to his fate; he transforms into a werewolf and murders 6 innocent people on the streets of London. David keeps ignoring Jack’s advice and puts his girlfriend Alex’s life at severe risk. In the climactic scene of the film, David goes on a rampage and is only stopped with a bullet to the head. The movie ends as we see Alex mourning David over his cold, dead body.
Amidst the gore-filled, decapitation-savvy throes of An American Werewolf in London, we find an addictive brand of dry, British humor and stereotype-based comedy that happens to live up to its reputation till date.
In the opening scene at the Slaughter Lamb, our protagonists are ridiculed by the patrons for the simple fact that they’re Americans, which becomes a subsequent theme for the rest of the film’s humor. In the closing stages of the film, we see David hurl obscenities at the Queen, Prince Charles and Winston Churchill in an attempt to get himself arrested, which is singularly American, employing crafty, Yank insults to rile up the Brit police chief.
The biggest comic relief of the film also happens to be its most hideous one; Jack’s undead spirit is the ideal definition of a crass best friend who breaks down his peer’s defenses with unparalleled wit. Jack is David’s soul buddy, his supernatural guide and his laughing medicine in turns.
The way he ridicules his paranormal existence (“Have you ever talked to a corpse? Boring!”), reminisces about his mortal enemy (“Life mocks me in death!”) and attempts to reconcile David with his fate as his body decays progressively is never going to get old for us. And who can forget the signature British hospitality & sardonic quips directed towards David by the spirits of his victims?
Yes, the movie has its fair share of graphic violence. In fact, it’s astonishing how polished the production is, given that special effects at the time were still physical. Through love, death & friendship that lasts beyond the grave, An American Werewolf in London takes the tummy-tickling premise of an American assimilating into British society, and masterfully layers it with equal parts horror and trademarked Briton sarcasm.
This is the End (2013)
Proof that James Franco house parties are best-avoided. This is the End is a movie that is packed to the brim with R-rated humor, violent deaths, and self-depreciation, the likes of which have never been seen before on-screen.
Set in a fictionalized version of the real world, every character in the film portrays their “real self”- this includes Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel & Craig Robinson. They attend a party at James Franco’s house in Hollywood, where he’s hosting a bunch of A-list celebrities.
Seth & Jay arrive, get bored of the party real quick, and head out to the store to get some booze. That’s when the world ends, as apocalyptic earthquakes destroy most of Los Angeles & all hell literally breaks loose. The rest of the movie sees our cast of comics overcome adversities, clear up confusions & find a way to ascend to Heaven quick, to escape Satan’s clutches.
This movie is the definition of testosterone-fueled humor. The entire cast gets up to several debauched and questionable activities that play with the idea of the “Hollywood lifestyle” and the audience’s perception of the daily routine of a celebrity. Rogen & Goldberg manage to pull together this car-wreck of a movie with sheer charisma.
This is the End doesn’t have a lot going on in terms of plot; it more than makes up for it with copious amounts of apocalyptic humor and well-time slapstick comedy. Everything we see in the movie is a parody of real life; Jay Baruchel’s exorcism attempt devolves into a hilarious exchange about Christ’s compelling capabilities, Seth Rogen’s tragic childhood trauma comes full circle (sorta) and Michael Cera somehow manages to steal the entire show with the sheer contrast between his movie-self and real-self.
The film’s epic conclusion is so over-the-top that you can’t help but laugh; who doesn’t picture The Backstreet Boys as Heaven’s residential Muses after all?! This is the End is not a serious horror movie; it’s not a serious comedy, either. It’s an improvisational roller coaster of drugs, sex, vulgar jokes & outrageous premises that make you crack up despite your better judgment, and that is where it shines.
The Babysitter (2017)
What if your hot, blonde babysitter was secretly a Satanist and befriends you only to sacrifice you to the Devil later? The Babysitter explores that oddly-specific possibility. Cole is a meek, adolescent boy who gets picked on often and has two friends; his neighbor Melanie and his babysitter Bee.
His parents are outgoing by nature, so they hire a babysitter for him. Bee quickly develops a strong connection with Cole, who thinks of her as a strong & friendly figure in his life. She teaches him how to stand up for himself by scaring off Jeremy, his bully, and treats him kindly despite his timid nature.
However, he does want to know what Bee does at his house when his parents are away, so Cole secretly decides to spy on her. Everything seems normal; Bee and her friends are playing a game of truth and dare, a fairly normal thing to do for teenagers. Things go horribly wrong when Bee stabs Samuel in the skull and collects his blood for a ritual.
Shocked, Cole returns to his room, calls 911, and steels himself for a confrontation with the cultists. What follows is a series of wise-cracking interrogations, unfortunate deaths & immeasurable tension. Things come to a head when Cole confronts Bee at the end, having dealt with her occult buddies.
He crashes Melanie’s dad’s car into his own home after setting Bee’s power source on fire. They share a heartfelt farewell, where they acknowledge each other’s pain before Bee seemingly passes away. The movie ends with Cole telling his parents he doesn’t need a babysitter anymore, and a firefighter going through his wrecked house getting attacked by Bee.
The Babysitter is a sass-filled teenage comedy, a Home Alone tribute film, and a genuine attempt at horror that does have some pretty good scares peppered in throughout the plot. The Home Alone parallels are especially clear, with the way Cole runs through the cult members like a piece of cake (and blood & brains).
And despite its fairly common premise, the movie manages to spin horror tropes and make use of them as part of an actual comedy. The way the characters interact with each other is the source of its hilarity. Upon being “abducted” by the cultists, Cole’s first question is why Max is shirtless! Later on, as he’s trying to escape Bee’s crew, Max actually hypes Cole up after the kid’s Moxy impresses him, encouraging him to keep fighting.
He then proceeds to try to kill him but ends up hanging himself. Its instances of accidental deaths like this make The Babysitter gut-clenching in more than one way. Its humor is decidedly millennial, we’ll admit (just go back to Allison’s rant about getting shot in the boob), but that works in its favor. In a genre saturated by the same trope being recycled time and again, The Babysitter feels fresh, and for that alone, it is worth a watch.
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
If we had to sum up this movie in one word, it’d be, “BRAINS!” Return of the Living Dead opens with foreman Frank showing off US Military equipment to his subordinate Freddy. In the process of doing so, he unleashes a toxic gas in the tank that melts the body inside and reanimates a corpse in the meat locker.
Their boss Burt arrives and takes charge of the situation, incinerating the corpse, and inadvertently spreading the gas that reanimates more corpses. Freddy’s girlfriend, Tina, comes to meet him at his workplace with his friends Spider, Trash, Chuck, Casey, Scuz, and Suicide.
As they hang out at the cemetery, Tina accidentally stumbles across a zombie and the cat-and-mouse game begins; the punks trying to get away from the zombies, and the zombies trying to eat their brains.
The film’s climactic scene sees Burt call the number on the US Military drums, only to cause the army to launch a nuclear strike on the city, leveling the entire population; dead or undead. The final shot speaks of acidic rain falling on the city’s remains, which indicates that the zombies are far from done.
When Freddy says, “Wait, the movie lied to us?!” in the opening scene with the zombie, we knew we were in for one comedic ride. This movie is iconic for many reasons, but perhaps the one with the most longevity is the personality it gave to zombies. As a direct consequence of this movie, zombies feasting on brains, being able to talk using broken speech, and performing moderate athletic feats became a more prominent feature in future zombie films.
For all intents and purposes, Return of the Living Dead redefined one of horror’s most commonly-used tropes and deserves your attention for that reason itself! After this movie’s release, “BRAINS!” became a legitimate catchphrase for zombies!
But besides that, this 80s offering is a hilarious product of its time. Freddy’s crew consists of punks and they are very committed to their lifestyle (Suicide: “You think this is a fuckin’ costume? It’s a way of life!”). From their costume designs, to their names, their music choices, and even their spray-painted vehicle, the cast commits to the punk aesthetic of their characters and it weirdly works. Spider is often the voice of reason and the source of hilarity, which comes as part of his rational outlook on life (“I ain’t in no mood to die tonight”).
The humor that is generated by the general lack of awareness and naïveté of the group is no less rib-tickling, and is perfectly captured in the scene where Freddy tells Tina he loves her and wants to eat her BRAINS! The film is hokey to the point of extreme, yes; the effects of a nuclear strike aren’t nearly as safe as this movie makes them out to be, and Tarman’s design is gross enough to make us puke our guts out. But beyond its obviously tropey existence is an earnest comedy that draws you in with gags, charm & circumstance.
Teeth (2007)
Dawn O’Keefe is a young, conservative girl who is the spokesperson of a Christian abstinence group called “The Promise”. She lives with her stepdad Bill, her mom Kim, and her sex-crazed step brother Brad. Dawn continues to preach & practice abstinence despite Brad’s aggressive proclivities, and keeps her purity ring on.
All of that changes when she meets Tobey. Though she wants to remain chaste until she marries, she can’t deny her obvious attraction to him and often fantasizes about him. Dawn and Tobey start hanging out as a group and soon get close to each other. The pair is unable to resist their physical attraction to one another and agree to get intimate, but things go horribly wrong when Dawn becomes uncomfortable in light of her vows.
Tobey attempts to force himself on her and quickly realizes that it was a terrible decision. Dawn flees the cave, after having bitten Tobey’s genitalia off with her “other teeth”. What follows is a series of psychologically traumatic events that lead to Dawn learning how to protect herself from violent, self-imposing, amoral men.
She deals with her perverted OBGYN, her sleaze-ball friend Ryan, and finally her step-brother Brad, who has a crazed obsession with Dawn. She escapes on a bike and has to hitchhike, but soon discovers that the man’s generosity wasn’t unconditional. The final shot sees Dawn understand her situation, analyze her options, and give the camera a seductive smile before the screen fades to black.
Teeth is, simply put, a deconstruction of the phallic dominance that men have tended to assert on woman throughout the course of history; the real horror is the lack of the phallus itself. Vagina dentata is a persisting myth across different world religions: Hinduism, Ko-Shintoism, Maori mythology, and a few others.
Teeth takes the myth and brings it to the 21st century, converting it from a curse to a weapon that most women would likely kill to have; and rightly so. Unabashedly feminist in its narrative, Teeth’s horror (and humor) is derived from the unsettlingly real circumstances Dawn finds herself in. Throughout the course of the film, she gets assaulted 3 times and misled once; the relatable nature of each encounter is what’s horrific. Through Dawn’s journey, we see the seedy underbelly of the male psyche; even the doctor in this film “couldn’t help himself” from touching Dawn inappropriately.
Funnily enough, the humor generated at the expense of these men feels well-deserved. When we see Dawn’s incestuous step-brother Brad trying to take advantage of her, we don’t feel sad for him after he loses his penis, and even manage to break into a laugh when Brad’s dog eats his genitalia in some form of twisted come-uppance.
Even Ryan, who we were rooting for in the beginning, shows his true colors and gets what was coming, even though he knew all about Dawn’s curse. Teeth’s humor isn’t as cheerful as it is cathartic. The genuine confusion that most of the men experience at Dawn’s retaliation is priceless. Some have argued that Dawn’s violent intentions were a bit much, but really, what did you expect from someone who kept finding herself at the short end of the stick with literally every man she met?!
Teeth is that rare offering that is one thing for a section of the audience, and an entirely different thing for the other. For men, it is a visceral horror that taps into their most primitive fear. For women, it is one of the finest comedies on planet Earth.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
The film begins with Needy, an inmate at an asylum, recounting the tale of how she got there. In a flashback, we meet the nerdy & shy Needy watching her hot, popular best friend Jennifer at cheerleading practice. Jen & Needy being as close as they are doesn’t make sense, but they’re inseparable. One night, Jennifer takes Needy to a concert by a local indie band called Low Shoulder.
Unfortunately, a fire breaks out at the venue, and Jennifer disappears into the night with the band. Needy goes back to her place only to find Jennifer there, blood-soaked and maniacal, feeding on whole rotisserie chickens & puking up black blood. Needy is terrified but come the next day, Jennifer looks completely normal and brushes off Needy’s suspicions.
Meanwhile, Low Shoulder gains popularity for their perceived heroism during the earlier incident at the concert. What follows is a tale of seduction, death & cannibalism with occult overtones. It is revealed that Jennifer has been transformed into a succubus, who seduces men to feed on them in order to satiate the demon that possesses her.
Turns out, Low Shoulder tried to turn her into a virgin sacrifice but botched the ritual because they didn’t know Jennifer wasn’t actually a virgin. Now the vessel for a demon spirit, Jennifer uses her body to lure unwitting victims to their death to maintain her beauty and gain god-like powers.
Needy confronts her demonic friend who tries to prey on her boyfriend, and puts an end to Jennifer’s life, destroying the demon with it. In the closing moments of the movie, we see Needy acquire some of Jen’s powers, which she uses to escape the asylum and hitch a ride to a band’s final show. The credits reveal that all members of Low Shoulder have been brutally murdered.
Jennifer’s Body is perhaps Megan Fox’s finest hour in the spotlight, and there is good reason for that. What makes this wacky, esoteric tale about a demonic seductress is the script. The story reads like a chick-flick hopped up on ectoplasm, replete with sarcastic quips, sassy dismissals and cute-yet-deadly intentions.
We get this sense of grandeur from Needy’s first few lines of dialogue; “I think I get more letters than Santa Claus, Zac Efron & Dr. Phil combined”. And it is precisely that kind of familiar, catty dialogue work that makes this movie seem almost like a darker, more evil version of Mean Girls sprinkled with a healthy dusting of Satanism.
Speaking of which, the sacrifice scene is a criminally underrated piece of comic timing and unnerving tension. Nikolai’s nonchalant admission that Satan was their only hope at fame (because they couldn’t be bothered to get on a soundtrack or appear on Letterman) found us struggling to keep our laughs down.
Even the supposedly climactic fight scene had insane zingers being flung left, right & center; can someone get poor Jen a tampon, please? She’s bled enough today. A rapid-fire barrage of one-liners, incredible costume designs and an inspired performance by Fox carry this movie. There isn’t a single scene where you feel bored by Jennifer’s Body.
Amidst its gory plotline and high-school levels of drama, it manages to tell a nuanced story about female friendship and delivers memorable laughs, all the while scaring the absolute bejesus out of you.