A Clockwork Orange was some pretty damn fine horror-comedy.
Sorry I haven’t responded in a while. I’ve been extremely busy, but the sound of someone calling my name – and as an expert, no less – can rouse me from my labors.
I don’t have special knowledge of the situation at the time of the film’s release – it was before I was born – but a look through the contemporary reviews shows that people, in the main, felt the wat TriPolar does, and the way I always have – It’s great to see the original actors treading in the roles again (especially Lugosi, who had been absent from playing Dracula in films for so long. Universal had John Carradine playing him in the “House of…” films, and Lugosi had to be content playing ersatz Dracula in the non-Universal Return of the Vampire and Mark of the Vampire). People were nostalgic for the Good Old Stuff and not, so far as I can tell, scared by it. Lon Chaney Jr. later complained that Universal had ruined the old monsters, turning them into buffoons. It’s notable that Costello himself didn’t like the script at first. Nonetheless, they worked with it, and it was a good product, especially with the monsters playing it pretty straight.
One thing I always liked about the Abbott and Costello flicks wa the way they actually showed you things that were only suggested in other films, laying on the special effects with a sure hand. We got lots of the wolfman transformation on-camera, and this is the only Universal film I know where you actually see Dracula transform into a bat (and vice-versa)That sort of literalism is frowned on by serious filmmakers – you can accept that Dracula can become a wolf or a bat or mist if you don’t see the transformation itself. Actually showing it makes it somehow less real and less scary. Curt Siodmak never did want to even say in the origfinal Wolf Man that Larry Talbot ever transformed into a hybrid Wolf-Manm creature, let alons show the transformation in detail. The Wolf Man remains a straight horror film because the script suggests that what the studio insisted be shown might not be the reality. For Siodmak, it was ambiguous whether he ever really physically transformed, or if it was all in his head.
I’d like to plug the 1986 autobiographical film by Richard Pryor called “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling”. He stars and directs in it, and it’s about his life growing up, starting his comedy career at the bottom, and right up to the time he set himself on fire.
Some parts are hilarious, others are harrowing, but it’s one of the strongest films I have seen. It’s not polished, it’s shoot from the hip, and I think I’ll watch it again tonight. Very powerful film. It’s real.
I’d say the 50’s through 80’s were the golden era for films. Amazing stuff was made in those decades, both in America and overseas.
Army of Darkness is probably the king, but I did love both Zombieland movies. They need to do a third one.
I agree. We’ve seen a lot lately but my faulty memory fails me.
We did like M3gan quite a bit.
EDA: Happy Death Day is a great example. WE love that movie!
Get Out is also great.
I watched a few of the different “Species” sci fi films. They weren’t specifically made to be horror comedy, but they ended up being that way judging by the acting and plots.
Tremors was hilarious. Killer Klowns From Outer Space too, that had a lot more horror than people suspected would be there.
Evil Dead 2 does a great job moving itself from horror movie to horror-comedy. I find the opening segments to be rather intense and scary but by the time blood cannons are coming out the wall and he is putting “Farewell to Arms” on his hand, it’s full blown comedic.
The TV show Ash Vs. Evil Dead was also really fun.
Zombieland owned me from the opening montage when the chubby soccer mom goes flying through the windshield of the minivan in slomo.
I don’t know from naming a golden era, but Tremors and An American Werewolf in London deserve a shout out.
No love for Theater of Blood?
That’s “Phibes adjacent”.
I’m watching it now and it really isn’t all that funny.
I beg to differ. Phibes is Diana Rigg adjacent.