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OT: Horror-Comedy Films

Posted by Dante on Monday, October 27 2014 at 07:55:58AM

Most every film one thinks of as a horror-comedy hybrid is just a straight-up comedy with horror tropes as the window-dressing.

When comics like the Three Stooges meet a ghost, you can be sure that it will be played for laughs and all the effects of horror ( fear, shock, revulsion ) will be absent.

Only a handful of films manage to do both at the same time.

The one most everyone knows is Sean of the Dead; the Zombie film spoof by the usual team of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

But there are two others which veer even more strongly into the horror end of things that you're unlikely to find them shelved with the comedies.

John Dies At The End is an outrageous mind f*ck about a sentient drug that chooses its users and reveals a horrible underside of reality.

The film has odd bits like a the broken cell phone which continues to work. And just to make a point, the caller switches the call over to a recently bought bratwurst to PROVE that they are calling from the other side. Or a guy asking of himself in the past, "I'm not dead yet, right?"

Don Coscarelli, who also helmed Bubba Ho-Tep, revels in the warped aspect of it all.

Another fine horror-comedy is Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil.

The premise is familiar, college kids go camping in the back woods and run into two unkempt hillbillies with chainsaws in an old abandoned cabin.

Only the film has the brilliant perspective that the backwoods duo are just plain nice folks, albeit socially awkward.

And when the college kids assume the worst and start taking "defensive action" their actions backfire with horrific effect and a mounting body-count. "Its awful. Like the college kids made some suicide pact. They're killing themselves left and right."

Dante

Dante





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