Best in Show: Horror-Comedy (Pt. I of II)

Defining what exactly a horror-comedy movie is can be difficult. At times, there is a fine line between a few different moments where a film runs too close one way or the other, may feature satire (like Scream) but isn't necessarily a comedy or is unintentionally funny and is actually just a bad movie. With those things considered, filmmakers must then pull off a movie that is actually entertaining. As someone who is openly predisposed to hating the diametrically opposing genre blend, my list of horror-comedy movies is pretty limited. For some movies that lean one way or the other or do so unintentionally, I tried sift through in exchange for very definable horror-comedy movies.


(imdb.com)

10. They're Watching

They're Watching is weird. Simultaneously funny and at times, scarier than it should be, the smaller release of this film isn't one that should go unnoticed. It's ending, while insanely over the top, is the best kind of disaster. From the foreign backdrop, to the less than intelligent characters, They're Watching is a heaping mess of strange Eastern European foreigners and eccentric mythology that makes for a frolicking found-footage adventure with an insane ending to match.

(imdb.com)

9. Slither

Slither definitely leans more towards horror than to comedy. When I originally caught this film on MTV years ago, it actually scared me and did little to make me laugh. Over the years, repeated watches have allowed me to see the comedy comfortably, while still being disconcerted by the grotesque parasites that deform and craze the townspeople. This movie is disgusting above most else. It's crazy cyst-like visuals will make your skin crawl long before you're able to utter a chuckle, that being said it's definitely worth something for being such an obnoxiously off movie.

(imdb.com)

8. The Final Girls

Like Scream, The Final Girls definitely borders on being a simple satire, but hard inflections of comedy definitely permit it into this list. This movie is perhaps the most millennial film to come out in recent years. With a cast of young, budding stars including Taissa Farmiga of American Horror Story fame, The Final Girls has a lot of color and spunk for such a small movie. Actors like Adam Levine (Workaholics) and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley), only up the level of the film's ability to make something that is wholly funny.

(imdb.com)

7. Black Sheep

Like a lot of the movies that fill out this list, Black Sheep takes grotesque to a new level. Think American Werewolf in London transformation scene but much more horrifying and sheepish (sheep-like, but sheepish sounds better). Black Sheep is insane. Like a zombie-werewolf crossbreed featuring exclusively sheep, literally every moment of this film is a big, laughable question mark. The absurdity that runs rampant- more than pretty much any other movie I've seen, is noteworthy because Black Sheep plays like it has absolutely nothing to lose. Poor graphics, mediocre acting and somehow less than amazing views of New Zealand, all make for a movie that shouldn't be nearly as fun as it is.

(imdb.com)

6. Scary Movie 3

To this day, Scary Movie 3 is the only movie in the entire parody franchise to make me laugh. In fact, it's also the only one in the series to scare me even slightly. The use of The Ring and Signs provided for such a array of material that the comedy benefited greatly over the previous two. It is so ridiculous, so unintelligent and yet, so confident, that it's worth the watch. Where low-brow comedy paired with gags would normally make for a cringe-inducing journey, something about Scary Movie 3 kept my attention.