Editorials
How To Start Getting Into Horror Part 15: Comedy
No two film genres are more intertwined, in my opinion, than horror and comedy. While we may love the “over the top” aspect that this genre has to offer, we can’t deny that such scenes often delve into the realm of the absurd and laughable. Just think the lawnmower scene in Dead Alive.
After all, think of how many times you’ve gone to the theaters to watch the latest horror movie and people laughed as much as they screamed. In fact, many times, they laughed immediately AFTER they screamed! For every scare we encounter, we get a rush of adrenaline which makes us feel energetic and, well…good! So why not laugh a little when someone kicks the bucket? Usually it’s so outlandish of a death that it merits a chuckle or two.
Now, I forgot to mention something rather important. This week’s entry into the How To Start Getting Into Horror series is the last in terms of making recommendations within subgenres. I know that there are several that I could’ve gotten into, such as “body horror”, “art-house”, “fantasy”, and more, but the whole point of these posts was to spark an interest in horror and all that it had to offer.
There are going to be two more posts and I’ll ruin the surprise for you. I guess you could call it a spoiler! Firstly, there’s going to be a piece on how to NOT get started in horror. Lastly, there’s going to be a wrap up piece. A conclusion, if you will. Something to tie everything together.
But since this post is the last recommendation piece, I decided that comedy is the best way to end this series. After witnessing blood, guts, carnage, mayhem, and sheer terror, it’s time to lighten things up and have a laugh. But not so much so as to recommend Scary Movie. Thanks, but I’ll pass on that one.
A great place to start is with something fresh and modern, something that actually, in my opinion, mixes horror and comedy in effectively equal parts. Let’s head to New Zealand for Housebound, which combines supernatural elements and snarky, witty writing that makes for a hilarious and, at time, truly creepy film! This would be a great way to end a horror movie marathon, simply because of the levity that it gives.
Certainly we can’t forget the Evil Dead trilogy. While the first one is still an incredibly spooky film, it has its moments of black humor. And the next two entries become even more comical, fully embracing the absurdity of their stories and upping the laughs. In its own way, an Evil Dead marathon would be a great way to get someone into horror, although starting off with Evil Dead 1 might be a bit too much.
Of course, another great entry into this subgenre, I feel, is Cabin in the Woods. It doesn’t joke around with its horror but it also completely embraces its comedy, creating something wildly unique and thoroughly entertaining.
What makes horror comedy so good at this point for a burgeoning horror fan is that, by now, they’ve experienced and probably questioned several horror cliches and tropes, which are exactly what these comedies aim to poke fun at. Movies like Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Scream, and the upcoming The Final Girls don’t shun these elements but instead embrace them, adding to the “wink wink” nature of the films. It’s a way for horror fans to laugh at the absurdities of our genre without feeling like it’s being attacked.
Oh, and make sure to sneak in Beetlejuice at this point for good measure, I might add. One of my favorites.
Check out the rest of our How To Start Getting Into Horror series.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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