Editorials
10 Overlooked Modern Horror Comedies
There’s perhaps no two genres more closely aligned than horror and comedy. Both serve the purpose of eliciting a physical response from the viewer, and both rely on a rhythm, or precise timing to land their intended gags. Horror often uses humor as levity to punctuate long stretches of tension or scares, giving the viewer a moment to catch their breath before ramping up the suspense again. So, it’s no surprise that the horror-comedy mashup makes for some of the most fun horror movies.
Celebrated films like Cabin in the Woods, Slither, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Shaun of the Dead, Evil Dead II, and more have become tried and true crowd pleasers that even non-horror fans tend to love. But for those looking for something new or different, there’s a lot more horror-comedies out there that are worth seeking out.
Here are 10 modern horror-comedies that are deserving of more love…
I Sell the Dead
Harkening back to the gothic horror of Universal Studios horror films of the ‘20s and ‘30s, this period horror-comedy follows a grave robber as he recounts his story of crime from prison to a Father (Ron Perlman) as he awaits his execution. The grave robber, Arthur (Dominic Monaghan), tells of his partnership with Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden) as they turn a profit robbing graves and contend with blackmail by Doctor Quint (Angus Scrimm), before unwittingly digging up the undead. Vampires, aliens, ghouls, and rival grave robbers all contribute to Arthur’s current predicament with often humorous results. Glenn McQuaid’s first outing as director isn’t perfect – Arthur’s story drags on its own – but anytime Fessenden is on screen I Sell the Dead really shines.
Dead & Breakfast
If you prefer your horror-comedies heavy on the splatstick side with a musical number interlude, this one is for you. Following a group of friends road-tripping to Galveston, TX for a wedding who then wind up lost in the town of Lovelock where a murder results in them being caught up in the investigation. When one of the friends opens a mysterious box belonging to the deceased owner of the bed and breakfast, it sets a demon loose that begins possessing and slaughtering everyone around. Think Evil Dead II meets the honky tonk charm of the small town south. Gory, silly, and featuring many actors on the rise; Jeremy Sisto (May), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead), and Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter) round out a surprising cast of recognizable faces in this underseen film.
Witching & Bitching
Otherwise known as Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi, or The Witches of Zugarramurdi, this Spanish horror comedy by Alex de la Iglesia starts out with a bang, involving a pawn shop robbery by robbers disguised as street performers (think Jesus and Sponge Bob). On the run from the police, the robbers head for the border and stumble into the secluded town of Zugarramurdi. The encounters with the town’s inhabitants, a large coven of witches, grows increasingly bizarre. This is a dark, over the top horror comedy that leans heavily into gross-out humor. Though subtitled, Witching & Bitching is easily of the most accessible of de la Iglesia’s work, whose dark humor often falls more toward the bleak. Gory and irreverent, this zany comedy is a crowd pleaser.
Bad Milo!
Duncan (Ken Marino) deals with constant stress in his life, to the point where it manifests in his intestinal tract as a demon. A demon that crawls out of his butt and literally kills Duncan’s sources of stress. That’s correct. A butt demon. That Duncan winds up bonding with and naming Milo. Who knew a butt demon could be so gosh darn cute? Somehow, writers Benjamin Hayes and Jacob Vaughan, and the talented cast, manage to take an over-the-top premise and turn it into something so horrifically endearing. As if the comedic relationship between Duncan and his butt demon isn’t enough, the supporting cast is equally great, especially Peter Stormare as Duncan’s therapist. A creature feature in the distant vein of Gremlins should be more popular than it is.
Wolfcop
This goofy Canadian indie gem about an alcoholic cop, Lou Garou (get it? Ha.), who gets turned into a werewolf is every bit as irreverent and silly as it sounds. Written and directed by Lowell Dean, this werewolf horror comedy is as much of a love letter to Canada as it is to werewolves. It’s the perfect B-movie to watch with friends, and if a drunk werewolf isn’t enough to sell you, then scene-stealer Willie Higgins (Jonathan Cherry) is worth the watch alone. The even better sequel, Another Wolfcop, is finally arriving on Blu-ray in July, which makes now a perfect time to get introduced to Lou and his straight-edged partner Tina (Amy Matysio).
The Final Girls
Perhaps because it’s far heavier on the comedy than the horror, or not as self-mocking as horror-comedies like The Cabin in the Woods, The Final Girls seems to be far more overlooked than it should be. An accurate and loving break down of slasher tropes, Max Cartwright and her friends get sucked into the retro slasher Camp Bloodbath when a fire breaks out at the theater playing the film. Max and her friends must pass themselves off as new counselors and steer clear of machete-wielding maniac Billy Murphy to survive to the end credits. The only problem is that Max is now confronted with the character Nancy, the scream queen her deceased mother was known for playing. While humorously deconstructing the slasher tropes, The Final Girls also succeeds in doing what most slashers can’t- getting the viewer to care about its characters. This one pulls on the heartstrings.
Fido
Set in a 1950s alternate universe where space radiation has reanimated the dead, a company has created technology that neutralizes the zombie by way of a domestication collar. Therefore, most zombies have become household servants. When housewife Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) buys a zombie despite her husband’s phobia, the neighborhood starts to unravel when that zombie, Fido (Billy Connolly), breaks his neutralizing collar. This gory zombie comedy borrows heavily from the likes of Lassie Come Home, The Night of the Hunter, and of course, George A. Romero’s zombie films. A small Canadian production followed by a very quiet release in 2007 meant that despite being well-received by critics, Fido was mostly slept on.
The Voices
On the surface, The Voices seems like a quirky sort of rom-com, with Ryan Reynolds as Jerry Hickfang, a socially awkward factory worker living alone with his dog and cat, and searching for love. Jerry is more than just awkward, though, he’s schizophrenic, and he chooses to stop taking his medication. This then means that his delusions take over, especially in the case of his pets. His dog Bosco is a good dog, representing Jerry’s pure nature, whereas evil Mr. Whiskers appeals to Jerry’s dark side. When Jerry’s unrequited work crush stands him up, his delusions get deadly. The way Jerry deals with his victims is surprisingly gruesome. This horror comedy is the darkest of dark, and sadly far less seen than it should be.
The Editor
While almost anything by Astron-6 would certainly apply to this list, like Father’s Day or Manborg, The Editor is so very niche in its humor that it’s no surprise it’s not often brought up in conversations about horror-comedies. Written and directed by Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy, with additional writing credits by Conor Sweeney, The Editor lovingly and humorously pokes fun of giallo films. Brooks stars as Rey Ciso, a film editor who gets caught up in a string of murders while working on a director’s latest giallo film. Using the same cinematic language and tropes employed in classic gialli, The Editor pays homage to numerous films from the 1960s to the 1980s; Deep Red, Torso, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Black Belly of the Tarantula, and dozens more.
Attack the Block
This sci-fi horror comedy has it all: jokes that stick their landing, endearing leads, action, suspense, and above all, amazing creature design. After a nurse in training is mugged by a gang of street teens, she’s then forced to team up with them to defend their block from an alien invasion. Starring Doctor Who’s Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, as the nurse, and John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) in his breakout role as gang leader Moses, Attack the Block is pure heart and vicious bioluminescent alien teeth. U.S. Distributors were concerned American audiences would struggle to cope with the street gang’s slang and their thick South London accents, and the U.S. release was limited. Attack the Block offers style and substance, and while it’s lighter on the scares, the creature effects make up for it. It’s the type of film you wish got a sequel.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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