Laughing in delight and screaming in terror are two of the biggest reactions that movies can evoke, so it's little wonder they go so well together. While there are numerous great horror movies that are deeply serious and terrifying, many of the genre's best filmmakers know that a little humor goes a long way in making the scares even more effective.
Humor can help reset an audience in preparation for more shocks, as well as helping produce sympathy for characters, which, in turn, makes us more scared when they're about to die. Even the goriest, scariest films can be funny--the "dinner party" scene in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example, or "You gotta be f***ing kidding me!" in The Thing. But what about those horror movies that are equal parts scares and laughs?
Horror comedy is one of the most popular subgenres, but also one of the hardest to get right. The best directors are able to walk the balance between frights and laughs, without letting one undermine the other. Some horror comedies rely on over-the-top gore to evoke humor, while others use the essential ridiculousness of most horror stories to wink at the audience. But to truly work, there is usually a point where we need to stop laughing and feel a little scared.
The 1980s were the decade where the horror comedy became more popular than more serious types, and many of the decade's best horror movies--from the Evil Dead films to the likes of Re-Animator and An American Werewolf in London--were also very funny. But horror comedies have never fallen out of style--it's unlikely there will ever be a point where audiences get tired of being scared or being made to laugh. There are loads of great horror comedies to watch on streaming right now, so here's our guide to some you can check out right now. And once you've checked these out, take a look at GameSpot's guides to the best monster, slasher, body horror, alien, and animal attack movies on streaming.
And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot's weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
19. Life After Beth (2014)
Streaming: Netflix
There's a lot more to this movie than just the punny title. Aubrey Plaza delivers a hilarious performance as a girl who mysteriously returns from the dead and attempts to rekindle her relationship with her boyfriend, who alternates between delighted his girlfriend is back and horrified that she has become an increasingly violent and decaying zombie. It's almost certainly the only zombie movie in which the undead are soothed by the sounds of smooth jazz.
18. Housebound (2014)
Streaming: VoD rental
Director Gerard Johnstone took inspiration for this spooky New Zealand comedy from both Ghostbusters and the Haunting of Hill House, and the result is a confident new take on the haunted house genre. The film focuses on a troubled teenager named Kylie who is sentenced to house arrest--in a haunted house. The interplay between Morgana O'Reilly, playing Kylie, and Rima Te Wiata as her domineering mother provides the laughs, while Johnstone delivers plenty of atmosphere and spooky scares as the pair are forced to deal with whatever spectral presence is in the house with them.
17. Murder Party (2007)
Streaming: Netflix
Before he made his breakthrough indie thrillers Blue Ruin and Green Room, Jeremy Saulnier wrote and directed this clever and funny slasher comedy. The party of the title is a Halloween celebration staged by a group of art students who plan to commit murder as part of an outlandish art project. With razor-sharp dialogue, lashings of gore, and an increasingly deranged and unpredictable plot this clearly marked out the arrival of a major talent.
16. Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
Streaming: Netflix
Tucker and Dale are a pair of idiotic but lovable pals, whose backwoods trip starts with a misunderstanding and ends with gruesome murder. This witty film takes slasher movie clichés of deranged redneck killers stalking vacationing students and turns them on their head, with wonderfully funny performances from Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as our hapless heroes.
15. Satanic Panic (2019)
Streaming: Shudder
The most recent movie on this list, Satanic Panic takes the usually-very-serious cultist movie and injects some much needed laughter. In this case, it's a cult compromising suburban housewives who are in need of a virgin sacrifice, into whose midst comes unlucky pizza delivery girl Sam. It's a fast-moving and often ridiculous movie, with some unexpected twists and a great performance from former X-Men star Rebecca Romijn as the ruthless cult leader.
14. Creep/Creep 2 (2014/2017)
Streaming: Netflix
Although found footage has encompassed many different types of horror movies, there aren't many found footage horror comedies, perhaps because the format creates an uncomfortable realism that lends itself much better to scares than it does humor. The great exceptions are Patrick Brice's Creep movies. Make no mistake, these two films are extremely unnerving--but they are also damn funny. Mark Duplass, who also co-wrote and produced both, plays a strange man called Josef, who, in the first movie, places an ad to hire a videographer for the week. The bizarre, ghoulish events of Creep lead directly onto the even funnier and more unsettling Creep 2, which puts a fascinating spin on the first movie's plot. Both films walk a fine line between uncomfortable humor and genuine scares, and are anchored by Duplass's wonderfully weird performance. You'll laugh, jump, and cringe--usually in the same scene.
13. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
Streaming: Netflix
Few movie titles sum up the movie better than Killer Klowns from Outer Space. A group of aliens who happen to resemble monstrous, deformed clowns invade a small town and start capturing its inhabitants with the intention of harvesting them. These evil entertainers use murderous circus tricks, deadly cotton candy, and man-eating popcorn to carry out their wicked plans. From The Dickies' iconic theme song to the Chiodo brothers' amazing makeup effects, this is a hilarious and highly entertaining '80s cult gem.
12. Bad Taste (1989)
Streaming: Prime Video
Long before he was the box office-conquering, Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson was making wild splatter comedies in his native New Zealand. Bad Taste was his aptly-named and ridiculously gory debut film--shot with his friends on weekends over the course of four years, it tells the story of a small town that is invaded by aliens. Jackson even mentioned Bad Taste in his 2004 Oscar acceptance speech for The Return of the King, stating that it was "wisely overlooked by the Academy."
11. The Evil Dead (1981)
Streaming: Netflix
Sam Raimi's outrageous debut isn't as overtly comedic as its sequels, but it still treads an expertly judged line between scary and hilarious. Raimi makes up for the lack of budget with wildly inventive camerawork and over-the-top gore, as a group of vacationing kids face off against ancient demonic forces in the backwoods of Michigan.
10. Zombieland (2009)
Streaming: Prime Video
There have been many zombie comedies over the years, and while Zombieland didn't really bring anything new to the genre, it's still a fast-moving and fun undead road movie. The movie has a consistently funny script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick--who would subsequently write Deadpool--and great chemistry between its four leads (Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and Abigail Breslin). And Bill Murray's appearance, playing himself, is one of the great cameos in recent cinema.
9. Tremors (1990)
Streaming: Netflix
Perhaps the best monster movie of the 1990s, Tremors effortlessly combines comedy, action, and scares. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward play a pair of repairmen in a small Texas town who are forced to deal with giant ravenous sandworms (known as Graboids) who decide that the townsfolk would make a tasty dinner. It's a hugely enjoyable experience that totally holds up today. Just skip the many, many sequels.
8. Happy Death Day (2017)/Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
Streaming: HBO Now
Blumhouse Productions might be best known for violent and scary horrors such as The Purge movies and Get Out, but it's also responsible for this pair of PG-13 rated horror comedy gems. They're a slasher spin on Groundhog Day, as student Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself trapped in a loop where she is brutally murdered every day. The irreverent, knowing tone and wonderfully engaging performance from Rothe means that it's impossible to take any of it seriously, but these are two of the smartest and most entertaining teen horror movies of recent years.
7. Young Frankenstein (1974)
Streaming: Starz
Comedy genius Mel Brooks turned his attention to classic Universal horror movies in this glorious horror spoof. Gene Wilder plays Frederick Frankenstein, a distant relative of the more-famous Victor, who sets about building his own monster. Brooks captures the feel of vintage horror by using many of the same props from Universal's classic 1931 movie Frankenstein, as well as shooting in black and white and using that era's stylistic techniques.
6. Re-Animator (1985)
Streaming: Shudder
Director Stuart Gordon sadly died last month, but he left an impressive legacy of horror and sci-fi movies. His debut film was the classic Re-Animator. Very loosely based on an HP Lovecraft story, it stars Jeffrey Combs as obsessed medical student Herbert West, who develops a serum to bring the dead back to life. Combs delivers a masterful performance as the increasingly unhinged scientist, while Gordon keeps the gory and outrageous laughs coming, as West's experiments go wildly out of control.
5. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Streaming: Prime Video
Written by producer JJ Abrams and director Drew Goddard, this ingenious meta-horror movie starts off as a standard backwoods slasher, as a group of friends head to the remote location of the title. But partway in, it takes a very different turn. To say any more would be to spoil the film's many delights, and going in cold is absolutely the best way to watch.
4. Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Streaming: Prime Video
The 1980s really was the decade of the horror comedy, and Return of the Living Dead is one of the best. The film started life as a sequel to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (separate to Romero's own sequels), but was rewritten by director Dan O'Bannon to be something far more interesting and subversive. It turns out that Romero's classic was based on real events, and the dead were brought back to life via an experimental military chemical. Two decades later, a drum of the chemical is found at a mortuary, with predictably apocalyptic consequences. The punk rock soundtrack, inventive makeup effects, and very dark laughs make this a zom-com classic.
3. Shaun of the Dead (2003)
Streaming: Starz/Amazon
As the title suggests, Edgar Wright's modern classic takes inspiration from George Romero's films, and places an ordinary man (played by co-writer Simon Pegg) at the center of an unfolding zombie apocalyptic. Like many of the best horror comedies, Shaun of the Dead works as a comedy without betraying its horror roots. It's absolutely hilarious when it needs to be, but isn't afraid to get dark and tragic too.
2. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Streaming: Max Go, CinemaMax/Amazon
John Landis' classic is a masterclass in knowing when to be funny, and when to scare. There's loads of memorably amusing scenes and quotable dialogue, but at heart, this is also a tragic and terrifying werewolf story. Remarkably, the shifts in tone never feel jarring, which is a big part of why it remains so beloved by horror fans nearly 40 years later.
1. Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Streaming: Showtime/Amazon
For many fans, Evil Dead 2 is the gold standard by which all horror comedies should be judged. It's really a loose remake of the first movie, but with the laughs and insane energy cranked to 11. Bruce Campbell delivers an incredible performance as Ash, who is forced to kill his possessed girlfriend in the opening scene and spends the rest of the movie fighting off the forces of evil that he has accidentally conjured. The insane camerawork, inspired gore gags, and quotable dialogue ("groovy!") make this a horror comedy masterpiece.
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