It seems like there’s been a proliferation of horror-comedy lately, a genre that seems difficult to pull off because it’s tricky to find a balance where you scare / unsettle people AND get them to laugh. (though I did find this thread from 2011 Why are Comedy and Horror so often/well paired?).
Just off the top of my head recently, there’s ‘M3gan’, which Mrs. solost and I recently watched on Peacock which I thought did a good job of getting the mix of horror and comedy right. Then there’s ‘Cocaine Bear’, which I haven’t seen yet, but it seems to be getting good reviews. My friend and his girlfriend saw it and he said he liked it a lot (and he’s usually pretty tough on popular entertainment).
As for TV horror-comedy, I just finished binging 3 seasons of the show ‘Evil’ on Paramount, which is a crazily WTF mix of both creepy psychological and bloody horror, and humor that borders on wacky slapstick. It shouldn’t work, but somehow it does. If you have Paramount, enjoy horror-comedy and haven’t seen Evil, you should. Looks like a seasons 4 is coming. A thread on the show: Evil TV Show - anyone watching
When we had Starz we watched season one of a show called “Shining Vale” with Greg Kinnear, Courtney Cox and Mira Sorvino. we no longer have Starz so I don’t know if the show was renewed for a season 2, but we enjoyed S.1. Sorvino was very good as a ghostly demonic presence.
Anyone else agree or disagree with the premise that we’re in a golden era of horror-comedy? Any other recent horror-comedies you’d recommend?
I thought M3gan was watchable but not very good. It wasn’t scary, it was very predictable and I went in with low expectations. I don’t really think it was funny either.
Now in the 2000s we had Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Warm Bodies right off the top of my head. That would seem to have been a better time period for what you’re describing in movies.
Working for your argument as TV shows. We currently have Wednesday, Alien Resident (Sci-Fi/Comedy/Horror?), What we do in the Shadows. We also briefly had Truth Seekers which I enjoyed, but didn’t find viewers. Ash vs Evil Dead is another that recently went off and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina might count.
Of the two TV shows you mentioned that I have seen, I thought ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ was a hoot- hugely enjoyable. Despite the demons around every corner however, I’d almost categorize it as ‘gory splatter comedy’ than ‘horror-comedy’ though. More funny than scary. As for ‘Wednesday’, my experience was kind of like yours with ‘Megan’-- watchable, and Jenna Ortega was a most excellent Wednesday, but the tone was weird. It had a more ‘Twilight’ style soap-opera teen drama feel to it, and not as much humor as I would have liked. I’ll likely watch S.2 though.
Possibly but I’m not the one to answer because I never saw any of those shows. I think I saw the WWDITS movie but it’s been awhile, and I don’t remember much about it at all.
Is a horror-comedy a comedy that uses traditional horror elements? Or is it a comedy that also tries to be genuinely scary?
I’d argue for the second definition, and under that, I’d say WWDitS (at least the movie, haven’t seen the TV show) doesn’t count. I don’t think there’s any part of the movie where the filmmakers were thinking, “How do we make this scene scarier?” as opposed to “How do we make this scene funnier?” I’d likewise disqualify most of Buffy and Angel, although there are specific episodes that are exceptions. (The Gentlemen in particular.)
One film that would qualify is the original Ghostbusters. There’s a lot of scenes there that are played for straight horror, like the scenes in Dana’s apartment leading up to her getting possessed, or the jump scare with the library ghost at the beginning.
Apparently, those films were considered quite scary by audiences of the time. It’s just that the Horror elements, just like the Comedy elements, haven’t aged well. I remember the Corman Little Shop of Horrors scaring the heck out of me as a kid. A recent viewing, not so much. Digging back to films 50+ years old, the only ones I can think of off hand that can still both scare me and make me laugh are the Dr. Phibes movies.
Are you sure about that? People liked the first one just to see the array of original actors playing the monsters again, but I hadn’t noticed any observations that they found the movies scary more than funny. Perhaps for children they were still scary, but these were general audience films that seemed to be open satire of the horror genre. I could be wrong, perhaps @CalMeacham and his encyclopedic knowledge of such films will offer more information.
I have no evidence for that except I remember the comment being made somewhere in some history of cinema book or doc (Tarantino credits Abbott and Costello for teaching him how to combine the genres). Except for the comedic turns, the clip below is as scary as any other Universal monster film. The score is certainly pushing that aspect of it; it’s not exactly a Ghost and Mr. Chicken soundtrack.
