31 Days of Halloween - Day 23: Horror Comedy

Some horror die-hards find it difficult to enjoy a movie where you’re supposed to alternate scares with laughs. Even I have found it a bit much to sit through a few horror comedies. Of course, that’s because most horror comedies I’ve seen were complete excrement. Thankskilling anyone?! However, there are a few that have some redeeming qualities. Sam Raimi’s horror films are a prime example of this.

Take a look at the Evil Dead franchise. The first movie had several good laughs. Some intentional and some unintentional. By the time the franchise got to Army of Darkness, it had ventured into full-on satirical territory with some gore thrown in for good measure. Raimi’s best horror comedy, in my opinion, is Drag Me to Hell. It was perfection. It had the scares, creepy overtones, and moments that made me literally laugh out loud. It got me wondering if I could ever favor horror comedy over just plain horror.

Why do we like our gore with a side of humor? Everyone has sat in a movie theater during the showing of a horror film and had that collective uneasy laughter that inevitably follows a jump scare. We like horror comedies because it makes being able to watch what we see on screen just a little easier. Even torture porn films like Hostel, Saw, and Cabin Fever had a modicum of humor to calm the frayed nerves of their audiences. Only sadists and desensitized sociopaths could sit through a film watching people be physically degraded and eviscerated without having momentary breaks in the film that allows for the odd giggle or two.

Horror comedies must have that perfect balance between being funny and scary. If it’s too funny with a small amount of scares, then it’s simply a parody. And don’t give me that crap about the filmmakers being ironic and self-aware with their film. The Scary Movie franchise isn’t a statement on how society views the horror genre. Nor does it have anything to do with our need to extract humor from terrifying situations as a means to ease our fears. Those films exist simply to poke fun at horror.

With the horror comedy sub-genre, it’s best to keep the comedy light but relevant to the story. It needs to make sense that we are laughing one minute and leaping out of our skins from fright the next. I think films like these are cathartic and a nice vacation away from the run of the mill horror. Fingers crossed for a Drag Me to Hell sequel.