Pulse Magazine

To kick this series off, we are first going to examine the funniest of the horror subgenres, Horror Comedy. With examples dating back to Edgar Allan Poe and his take on literary horror pranksters, there is a long tradition of mixing humor with terror. From Abbott and Costello to Sam Ramey to Edgar Wright, visual auteurs have long enjoyed confusing audiences into not knowing whether to run for the nearest trash can or laugh out loud. This subgenre offers something for everyone, from family-friendly films like Gremlins or Hocus Pocus to gorefest splatterfests like Re-Animator or Dead Alive to fun trope exploitations like What We Do in the Shadows.

These films can be watched alone late at night or with friends on a movie night, but they are most enjoyable in the cinema with a large audience. Sometimes, the best laughs come from seeing how others react to the over-the-top violence or black-as-night humor. We feed off the rest of the audience and breathe a sigh of relief when howls of laughter swell around us as a character gets his head blown off on screen in the most over-the-top fashion. As much as I’d like to add something like Dr. Stranglove to the mix, watching that film right now feels like taking a first date to a snuff film. What we can offer is a mix of hilarious genre deconstructions, playfully scattered mishmashes of the familiar and unfamiliar, as well as bizarre and indulgent homages to classic archetypes. This list has something for everyone.

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5. (Tie) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)/ Young Frankenstein (1974)

One wonders if Mary Shelly had any idea her dark and serious account of a mad scientist who meddles with nature would be such prime fodder for laughs?! While Abbott and Costello hit paydirt on their decline by making the genius decision to blend the genres, even Quenten Tarantino has listed it among his favorite horror films saying, “When it was supposed to be funny, it was really funny, and when it was supposed to be scary, it was really scary!” The legendary Mel Brooks deconstructed the monster for his ironic take, featuring hilarious performances by everyone from Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle to Cloris Leachman and Gene Hackman, who steals the show in his very limited but outrageously funny screen time.

Both films are considered all-time classics and contributed to the popularity of genre mashing. Want to put on a movie the whole family will love this Halloween season? You cannot go wrong with either of these uproarious films.

4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Here’s a team that brings every audience to its knees with laughter no matter what genre they choose to lampoon. Filmmaking trio Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost brought comedy horror to new heights in the early 2000s. Audiences welcomed this classic with open arms as they kicked off their Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. Each film is a classic in its own right and takes on a different film genre to make its own. Shaun of the Dead delivers in scares and laughs, doing what Kevin Smith never could by taking his slacker heroes out of their comfort zones and forcing them to care about something. Pegg and Frost tear up the screen as Wright masterfully anticipates the reaction of the audience to every bit, prompting a combination of jump scares, gorefest imagery, and hilarious exchanges that could only be delivered by true best friends Pegg and Frost, the scene in particular when the pair are deciding which LPs to hurl at the undead is an all-time great!

3. Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Here we have another of the great genre-mixing team with this Joss Whedon (whom we’d rather forget had a hand in this film at this point) and Drew Goddard, making his directorial debut with staggering assurance as he leads a cast of seemingly predictable college students, nicknamed “The Virgin,”“The Athlete,” “The Whore,” “The Fool” and “The Scholar” into this brilliant deconstruction of horror which spends its first half leading the audience along with one chuckle after the other with gags like pharemon releasing plants which ensure every trope is perfectly hit by the engineers. While the cast is hilarious all around as the students hilariously look around from time to time, meta-wondering if they are, in fact, in a horror film, the true stars of this show are Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as the underground engineers whose job it is to anticipate every movement of the young students as they are led to certain death. They spice up the work day monotony with an office pool to see who can predict which cliched monster is awakened by the kids. Sigourny Weaver shows up in a surprise roll towards the climax of the film as the joke (and plot) go deeper than any casual viewer would have imagined.

2. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Keeping the setting while showcasing a very different deconstruction of the genre, this 2010 film from Eli Craig stars the unbelievably hilarious duo of Tyler Labine and effortlessly reliable Alan Tudyk. The two play a couple of self-described hillbillies who have made their dreams come true by buying a, forgive the cliche, cabin in the woods where they can spend their days drinking cold beer and fishing. Tucker (Tudyk) is intent on helping Dale (Labine) improve his self-confidence as the two realize their dream “vacation home” is right across the lake from a popular camping spot for college students. The students predictably sneer at Tucker and Dale, while making up their minds before talking to the Steinbeckian pair. However, when the young Allison (Katrina Bowden) knocks herself out in the lake, it’s Tucker and Dale who dive in to save her from drowning. A series of hilarious misunderstandings follow. The bumbling duo attempt to return Allison to her friends. In retrospect, they would probably go about it differently. Shouting “we’ve got your friend!” in the woods may not be the best way to get them to come. The gags are all hilarious: from Dale mistaking Allison’s screams for a dislike of pancakes to Tucker’s ill-timed attempt at cutting a tree with a chainsaw (one of the most hilarious moments, hands down) which also counts among the many callbacks to classic horror. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil mixes genre, nostalgia, and creativity in an unbelievably hilarious, heartfelt masterpiece in expectation subversion.

1. Evil Dead II (1987)

Everyone knows this category belongs to Sam Rami and Bruce Campbell. They defined it and pushed it beyond any boundaries that existed before 1987. This hilarious and terrifying jaunt pushes the camp, gore and violence past the brink. Nothing which has come before or since can stand anywhere but on the shoulders of this giant. While technically a remake (or maybe a sequel starring the same actor in a different role?) Rami and Campbell are having the most fun here, which is more than obvious on screen. And while Rami would push his talents to new heights (Spider-man 2, anyone?) Campbell would continue to stick to what he knows best, writing hilarious books (the brilliantly titled If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor) even reprising his most iconic character as late as 2018, but his talents do not end there. Campbell is beyond hilarious in everything he has done from his many cameos to Bubba Ho-Tep (where he and Ossie Davis play nursing home-bound Elvis and the Black John “they dyed my skin!” Kennedy to fight a resurrected mummy) to Cars 2, all while allowing his image to define his persona in ways few actors could.
Evil Dead II shines in the seamless blend of terror and howling laughter in nearly every scene. And more than anything, everyone involved seemed to be having a blast, knowing what would come of the devious brilliance they had cooked up. And while its 1992 sequel, Army of Darkness, has a place in the oeuvre, Evil Dead II is the pentacle of splatterfest hilarity. Now over 35 years since its release, the film continues to allow newer generations to twist in repulsion and laugh hysterically within moments of each other in ways no other film has. Add in the innovative camera work and focus on prosthetics and makeup over computer effects and what you get is the definitive take of a groundbreaking juggernaut which continues to set the standard for what has come before and since. It will forever be impossible for audiences to consider horror comedy without thinking of a chainsaw-armed Ash grinning at the screen with the iconic line, “Come get some.”