The Fine Line Between Horror And Comedy
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Over the last year or so, it is not unusual for a horror film to become a breakout hit with fans like M3GAN, The Menu, or the Disney+ hit Werewolf by Night. Not only are we getting our scare on with these films, but there is also a hint of humor in them too. Comedy or comedic elements have gone hand in hand with horror for as long as there have been horror movies. But why do comedy and horror seem to work so well together?
Since the early 1900s, movie-makers have been trying to mix the genres of horror and comedy. Horror movies in the early days were not very successful in this endeavor and their efforts could be seen as higher-brow than usual. In One Exciting Night (1922), a group of high society types gathered at an estate that was being used by bootleggers, and someone was going around and killing people one by one. It may not be a thrilling storyline for us now, but the audience back then appreciated the blend of horror and comedy as the goofy bootleggers were chased by the murderer.
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As we move through the years, the line between horror and comedy is blurred as new genres and sub-genres arise like dark comedy, parody horror, and spoofs. Black comedy is when dark scenes are offset by some kind of humourous moment, either in the situation or immediately after a particularly horror-filled scene. Great examples include Zombieland, Return of the Living Dead, and Shaun of the Dead. Parody horror is when we take tropes from your more classic horror and play them up for laughs. Think, What We Do In The Shadows, The Cabin In The Woods, and Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes. Finally, in the land of spoofs, we go over the top in the comedy department and make complete jokes out of horror. Good examples here include Saturday the 14th, A Haunted House, and Tucker & Dale Vs Evil.
Why do these seemingly different genres seem to go so well together? The answer is probably in the science of the human mind. Laughter is a form of stress release for people thanks to something called the “Relief Theory.” People tend to laugh things off as a way to cope or compensate for being put in a particularly stressful situation such as seeing Leatherface hang a girl on a hook. This is why when you see a particularly outright frightening scene, people will either scream or immediately start laughing.
Here are some of my personal favorites that exemplify the horror and comedy blend.
Ghostbusters (1984)
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If you were a child of the 80s and 90s, Ghostbusters was a movie you grew up on. Directed by Ivan Reitman, a team of ghost hunters tries to save New York from a benevolent force. The horror is certainly there, especially in the opening scene at the New York Public Library as well as the escape of the spirits after the containment field they were in was shut down. However, when you have the comedic talents of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, you have to let the jokes fly as much as the scares.
The Frighteners (1996)
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Before his trips to Middle-earth, Peter Jackson had done quite a bit of horror work and even horror comedy work. A sidebar entry would be one of his first films from Australia, Dead Alive, which contains a very graphic way to deal with zombies and a lawnmower. In The Frighteners, Michael J. Fox played a character who can see the dead and uses it to take advantage of members of his small town. However, when he starts to see people being killed by a long thought dead serial killer, things begin to get real for him and his ghost friends. The movie has a lot of comedy elements but the serial killer spirit and his kills are absolutely scary.
Dracula: Dead And Loving It (1995)
Image Source: SlashFilm
Brought to us by the comedic legend Mel Brooks and featuring equal comedic legend Leslie Nielsen as the titular character, we get a classic spoof movie about Dracula filled with a lot of laughs and send-offs of horror tropes from the classic horror monsters, all delivered with great timing.
One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Image Source: AppleTV
Also known in North America as Don’t Stop the Camera, this movie is a mix of not only horror and comedy but also my favorite horror genre of found footage. In this movie set in Japan, a film crew is making a low-budget zombie invasion movie. However, the director decides to raise the dead to capture an authentic zombie apocalypse.
Cinema is an experience. Whether you laugh, cry, or scream we watch a movie to experience some kind of emotion. As we learned, there is no real difference between horror and comedy, and frankly, you can say that they are two sides of the same coin. So if you have that urge to laugh when Jason swings a sleeping bag of co-eds into a tree or if you decide to hide your eyes when the audio cues in Paranormal Activity begin, just go ahead and embrace it.
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