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Best Comedy Horror Films
Coming this Halloween is the new film SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. Part comedy, part horror, director Christopher Landon’s latest movie has Scouts saving the world from the Undead. Landon says audiences will be “screaming and laughing their heads off. This movie is an amusement park ride.”
What’s better than the mashup of comedy and horror to get you shrieking in fear! Just like a Reese’s cup – peanut butter and chocolate – the two just go together. Making scary themes into funny romps, while doing it cleverly, is a hard act to pull off. The films that have done it well have become part of the zeitgeist with fans of both genres.
Before you catch SCOUTS vs ZOMBIES, check out our list of the funniest horror films.
ZOMBIELAND
Tallahassee: My mama always told me someday I’d be good at something. Who’d a guessed that something’d be zombie-killing?
Columbus: Probably nobody.
Nerdy college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has survived the plague that has turned mankind into flesh-devouring zombies because he’s scared of just about everything. Gun-toting, Twinkie-loving Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) has no fears. Together, they are about to stare down their most horrifying challenge yet: each other’s company. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin co-star in this double-hitting, head-smashing comedy. A Zombieland 2 is in the works. The two have devised a laugh-riot rule book to survive the zombie apocalypse.
BUD ABBOTT AND LOU COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
Wilbur Grey: Mr. Talbot, and I thought you were such a nice man too. Look at you, you’re a mess.
Larry Talbot: Last night I went through another one of my horrible experiences. Many years ago I was bitten by a werewolf. Now, whenever the full moon rises I turn into a wolf myself.
Wilbur Grey: Oh pal. That’s all right; I’m sort of a wolf myself.
It seems that Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), in league with a beautiful but diabolical lady scientist (Lenore Aubert), needs a “simple, pliable” brain with which to reactivate Frankenstein’s creature (Glenn Strange). The “ideal” brain belongs to the hapless Lou Costello, whom the lady doctor woos to gain his confidence and lure him to the operating table. Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), better known as the Wolf Man, arrives on the scene to warn Costello and his pal Bud Abbott of Dracula’s nefarious schemes. Throughout the film, the timorous Costello witnesses the nocturnal rituals of Dracula and the Monster, but can’t convince the ever-doubting Abbott–until the wild climax in Dracula’s castle, where the comedians are pursued by all three of the film’s monstrosities. As a bonus, the Invisible Man (voiced by an unbilled Vincent Price) shows up for “all the excitement.”
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: You know, I’m a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I can help you with that hump.
Igor: What hump?
Mel Brooks’ monstrously crazy tribute to Mary Shelley’s classic pokes hilarious fun at just about every Frankenstein movie ever made. Summoned by a will to his late grandfather’s castle in Transylvania, young Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) soon discovers the scientist’s step-by-step manual explaining how to bring a corpse to life. Assisted by the hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman) and the curvaceous Ings (Teri Garr), he creates a monster (Peter Boyle) who only wants to be loved.
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Ed: Any zombies out there?
Shaun: Don’t say that!
Ed: What?
Shaun: That!
Ed: What?
Shaun: The zed-word. Don’t say it!
Ed: Why not?
Shaun: Because it’s ridiculous!
We were having a laugh with Edgar Wright’s movie! Starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, audiences were treated to a gut-busting, bone-mashing good time in this hilarious horror comedy about two slackers out to save their friends and families from flesh-eating zombies.
TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL
Tucker: Oh hidy ho officer, we’ve had a doozy of a day. There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.
The movie is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what SHAUN OF THE DEAD did for zombies. Tucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, preppy college kids. When one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count.
SCREAM
Phone Voice: Do you like scary movies?
Sidney Prescott: What’s the point? They’re all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It’s insulting.
Okay, maybe it should be filed under the horror genre, but Wes Craven’s movie is really cheeky in some parts. Empire ’s Adam Smith called it “Clever, quick and bloody funny.” Its original working title, Scary Movie, became the title of the 2000 parody film by Damon Wayans.
HOUSE (1986)
Aunt Elizabeth: It won Roger. It tricked me. I didn’t think it could, but it did. It’s going to trick you too, Roger. This house knows everything about you. Leave while you can!
Called a “refreshingly unpredictable horror comedy” by the LA Times, this 1986 film was directed by Steve Miner. Not exactly a straightforward haunted house movie, the unexpected ending with the zombie commando is too awesome for words. HOUSE’s writer Fred Dekker directed the cult classic THE MONSTER SQUAD.
CABIN IN THE WOODS
Hadley: [sighs] These fucking zombies. Remember when you could just throw a girl in a volcano?
Sitterson: How old do you think I am?
Teenagers, zombies and monsters – Drew Goddard’s masterpiece is one of our absolute favorites. In his WAMG review, Travis Keune wrote, “THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is smart, witty, fast-paced, comedic, horrific fun.” The End-of-the-World pandemonium had us chuckling!
GHOSTBUSTERS
Man at Elevator: What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?
Dr. Peter Venkman: No, we’re exterminators. Someone saw a cockroach up on twelve.
Man at Elevator: That’s gotta be some cockroach.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Bite your head off, man.
Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts & Rick Moranis star in this wildly funny movie about paranormal investigators. Not only were Stantz, Venkman, Zeddmore and Spengler the ghost hunters you’d want coming to your town to battle the Stay-Puft Mashmallow Man – packing their zippy one-liners and proton packs – but the supporting characters of Louis Tully and Janine Melnitz are equally hilarious!
BEETLEJUICE
Juno: [as Adam and Barbara come back to the afterlife] You two have really screwed up! I received word that you allowed yourselves to be photographed, and you let Betelgeuse out and didn’t put him back, and you let Otho get hold of the handbook!
Adam: Handbook? When?
Juno: [rolls her eyes] Never trust the living! We cannot have a routine haunting like yours provide proof that there is existence beyond death.
On March 30, 1988, audiences were introduced to the afterlife’s leading bio-exorcist, the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and dancing football player ghosts. Featuring a terrific score by Danny Elfman, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis and Michael Keaton starred in the rambunctious horror/comedy from Tim Burton.
ARMY OF DARKNESS
Ash: All right, you primitive screw-heads, listen up! See this? This… is my boomstick!
Hoo boy! Skeleton armies in the same vein as Ray Harryhausen’s fighting skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and a campy script had us howling. Featuring Deadites, witches and the Necronomicon, Sam Raimi’s hilarious movie tops our list. Along with another horrific score by Danny Elfman, the composer’s “March of the Dead” theme is icing on the cake.
Tye Sheridan, David Koechner, Cloris Leachman, Halston Sage, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, Sarah Dumont and Patrick Schwarzenegger star in SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.
The must-see horror comedy film of the year opens this Thursday, October 29th.
Check out exclusive red band content from the film at:
Contributed by Michelle McCue and Melissa Thompson
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