On the surface, no two genres appear more diametrically opposed than horror and comedy: One is meant to delight and the other to fuel nightmares.
Yet over the past decade, the horror-comedy gained such unprecedented popularity and social resonance that it's now a thriving mainstream genre with no indication of slowing down. That transformation is even more baffling when you consider all the genre had going against it.
For a long time, it was considered something of an ugly stepsister to both genres, earning at most niche critical praise and little widespread industry respect. Horror-comedies were historically bad business, too, in part due to big studios failing to market them correctly for fear of alienating the two different audiences.
There are many exceptions to that rule, of course. Earlier entries into the genre went on to become beloved classics, from Young Frankenstein to Shaun of the Dead. An '80s boom saw masterpieces like the Evil Dead trilogy, An American Werewolf in London, and Return of the Living Dead.
But ever since 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein popularized the genre, the horror-comedy has for the most part been relegated to the role of kitschy crossover schtick a la Gremlins, Child's Play, Leprechaun, and then eventually spoofs like Scary Movie.
In spite of everything, however, the horror-comedy has undergone a true renaissance over the past 10 years, solidifying into one of the most innovative and artistically fruitful genres of modern film. Which actually makes a lot of sense when you consider how the genre's core elements counteract many of the worst aspects of life in the 2010s.
All of us watching horror-comedies and feeling so //seen//
Throughout the decade, horror-comedy enjoyed an unprecedented rise in critical acclaim and commercial success.
Jordan Peele's Get Out definitively declared the genre's cultural relevance on a global scale, earning one of the horror genre's only Best Picture Oscar nominations in 2018. In addition, it and Peele's follow up Us each made an estimated $255 million worldwide.
Ari Aster's comedy-infused Midsommar received near unanimous critical praise earlier this year and is even enjoying some Oscar buzz at the moment. 2009's Zombieland was such a box office and critical hit that it got a sequel with double the budget, 10 years later. 2014's What We Do in the Shadows gained a large enough cult following that it was adapted into one of the best-reviewed new shows of 2019. The new icons of horror-comedy are so mainstream that Midsommar and Us were two of the most popular Halloween costumes of 2019.
Clearly, this crossover-genre-that-could has tapped into something deep within our zeitgeist, and the reason for that is two-fold.
For one, films like Us, Midsommar, Ready or Not, Cabin in the Woods, You're Next, and Prevenge show how the horror-comedy is uniquely equipped to explore the comedic tragedy of living with everything from racism, sexism, classism, stereotypes, prejudice, familial abuse, and even gaslighting toxic relationships. The genre perfectly captures our collective experience of IRL realities so terrifying and absurd that we don't know whether to laugh or scream.
For another, the horror-comedy is an antidote to the individualistic detachment of the digital age (especially when it comes to moviegoing), blending two visceral genres best experienced communally in a theater.
The groundwork for the genre's recent renaissance can be traced back to the turn of the decade.
The horror-comedy perfectly captures our collective experience of IRL realities so terrifying and absurd we don't know whether to laugh or scream.
2009's Drag Me to Hell marked Sam Raimi's return to the horror-comedy with an apparent metaphor for the protagonist's struggle with an eating disorder. Jennifer's Body (which only recently gained mainstream appreciation) used the offscreen sexist bullshit happening to Megan Fox as a backdrop against which to challenge heteronormative gender roles and with our pitiful portrayals of women in film all before #MeToo turned that into a global conversation. Meanwhile, Zombieland used overt Native American symbolism alongside character names (Columbus, Little Rock) and a plotline (a westward trip destroying everything in its path) that pointedly invokes manifest destiny.
In 2010, Tucker and Dale vs Evil proved to be an eerily prescient satire of what would become one of the most hot-button issues of our day. The premise finds a bunch of city kids so terrified by their own prejudiced perceptions of two well-meaning hillbillies that they accidentally murder each other while attempting to "escape" them. While it's also just a lot of stupid fun, the cult classic reads almost like a warning now about the ever-widening divide between rural and coastal America. An indictment of Hollywood's dehumanizing stereotypes of rural, low-income people, it's a comically exaggerated prediction of the dire consequences that come from our failure to communicate across this divide to see each other as people.
This current continued throughout the decade. In addition to Get Out's obvious racial commentary, films like 2011's You're Next and this year's Us and Ready or Not all tapped into the "eat the rich" mentality that's been bubbling to the surface ever since Occupy Wall Street made income inequality a hot topic in 2011. Meanwhile, 2016's Prevenge, about a pregnant widow who murders people at the behest of her unborn fetus, captured the awful misogyny embedded into women's experience of child-rearing.
The horror-comedy essentially became a place for us to purge our collective guilty conscience over a swath of social issues left unaddressed for far too long.
But the more fundamental question of the crossover genre remains: Why? Or rather, how? What makes these two polar opposites work so well in tandem together, and why is it speaking to us right now?
I don't think Tucker or Dale would've been Trump supporters, to be fair
Echoing many other directors and thinkers on the relationship between humor and horror, Get Out's Jordan Peele told Cinema Blend that, "They're two sides of the same coin," because "both [are] about building the tension and releasing."
The humor lulls audiences into confronting horrors that would otherwise feel too threatening or close to home.
Structurally, the set up for a scare and a laugh are almost identical. First, there's a set up: a protagonist alone in a house investigating a suspicious noise or the question of "knock knock?" Then there's the release: the revelation of a serial killer in the house or a punchline answering the joke's premise.
Ideally, both result in primal responses from the audience. These different reactions can even bleed into each other, with jokes so funny you start scream-laughing or scares so severe you're left nervously giggling.
But the difference between comedy and horror matter just as much to the genre's recent resonance as their similarities.
While humor comforts, horror confronts. True masters of the horror-comedy balance these contradictory tones so the humor lulls audiences into confronting horrors that would otherwise feel too threatening or too close to home for comfort.
On an emotional level, our experiences of tragedy and comedy are far more intertwined than distinct genre restrictions might have us believe. After all, the phrase "laugh to keep from crying" is an overused clich for a reason.
The horror-comedy is a confrontation of us
At a time when the world feels like a dumpster fire of increasingly ridiculous fuckery beyond our control, there's a true-to-life honesty in the horror-comedy. It's a genre that understands our struggle to keep from laughing until we scream whenever we get a news alert on our phones. When dealing with the horrific comedy of our real world becomes too painful, we turn to the catharsis of watching it play out from the comfortable distance of fiction on a screen, which unleashes all the bottled up feelings we must suppress during our day-to-day.
Dealing with the horrific comedy of our real world has become too painful.
Moreover, in an era of smartphones, streaming services, and the widespread disconnect and loneliness that can result, there's appeal in a genre that delivers primal, gut-level, shared reactions. More analytically oriented genres like drama will always have their place, but there's something uniquely communal about horror and comedy that makes getting off our couches and into theaters together feel worthwhile.
Both can create an unspoken bond between the complete strangers of an audience like few other film genres. Laughter is infectious, with comedy often relying on establishing a certain amount of common ground. Similarly, panic spreads through a crowd like a virus, the monsters of horror movies always born from a collective unconscious of universal fears buried in all our psychologies.
In a world utterly divided, in a cultural moment defined by polarity, disconnect, and real-life fears we need to laugh at for fear of crying, the horror-comedy is a haven for our contradictory but mutual experiences. It finds harmony among differences, a balance among extremes.
And really isn't that all we ask for at the end of this exhausting decade?
Read the original:
The Horror-Comedy Film Genre Basically Shaped The Decade - Mashable India
- The 30 best classic horror movies of all time - Entertainment Weekly News - March 16th, 2024
- The 23rd Spring, Is Jeepers Creepers Coming Back To Michigan? - 102.5/104.9 The Block - March 16th, 2024
- Winnie The Pooh Horror Movie Dominates The Razzie Awards - 106.3 The Groove - March 16th, 2024
- This Underrated Blumhouse Horror Movie Is Unlike Any Other Creature Feature - Collider - March 16th, 2024
- 13 Horror Movies Where Everyone Dies by the End - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- Willy Wonka Experience Villain The Unknown Gets Its Own Horror Movie - TMZ - March 8th, 2024
- The 13 Scariest Horror Movies Streaming on Peacock: Alien, Leprechaun, The Exorcist: Believer and More - Syfy - March 8th, 2024
- Every Horror Movie Releasing in March 2024 - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- 10 Scariest Movies That Have Won Oscars - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- The 10 Best New Horror Movies To Watch in March 2024 - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based on Viral Willy Wonka Experience Coming Soon - Bloody Disgusting - March 8th, 2024
- Where To Watch Imaginary: Showtimes & Streaming Status - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- Immaculate: Eveything You Need to Know About Sydney Sweeney's Upcoming Horror Movie That Will Give You ... - FandomWire - March 8th, 2024
- The 20 best horror movies on Peacock - Entertainment Weekly News - March 8th, 2024
- Horror Movie Based on the Willy Wonka Experience Villain, The Unknown, Now in the Works - MovieWeb - March 8th, 2024
- Melissa Barrera's Scream 7 Replacement Actually Sounds Better Than Fighting Ghostface Again - Screen Rant - March 8th, 2024
- 'Shaitaan' Movie 2024 Filming Locations: Shooting Spots Of The Horror Flick - TRAVEL + LEISURE INDIA - March 8th, 2024
- The Horror Movie Franchise With the Most Sequels Ever Is One You've Never Heard of - Collider - March 8th, 2024
- Jimmy Fallon asked people to ruin a horror movie by adding a single word to its title - Upworthy - March 8th, 2024
- The Absolute Best Horror Movies on Hulu - CNET - March 8th, 2024
- Willy Wonka Experience creepy character 'The Unknown' handed role in new horror movie - The Mirror - March 8th, 2024
- The Best Sea Monster Movies, Ranked - Screen Rant - February 28th, 2024
- The Borderlands Movie's Scary Behind The Scenes Drama That Has Us Worried - Screen Rant - February 28th, 2024
- Netflix Just Quietly Added the Best Holiday Thriller of the Decade - Inverse - February 28th, 2024
- The 20 best scary movies streaming right now - Entertainment Weekly News - February 19th, 2024
- Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked - New Scary Movies to Watch - Rotten Tomatoes - February 19th, 2024
- 'Only Murders in the Building' Adds Molly Shannon to Season 4 Cast - Yahoo Eurosport UK - February 19th, 2024
- Why Lindsay Lohan Refused to Kiss Charlie Sheen in "Scary Movie 5" - Best Life - February 19th, 2024
- 15 Best Scary Movies To Stream - Screen Rant - February 11th, 2024
- Eight Skin-Crawling Scary Films That Don't Have Any Jump Scares In Them - Digg - February 11th, 2024
- David Cronenberg names some of the scariest movies ever - Far Out Magazine - February 11th, 2024
- 12 Horror Movies That Will Give You the Biggest Jump Scares - Collider - February 3rd, 2024
- TAROT's Trailer Brings the Iconic Cards to Life and Things Get Weird - Nerdist - February 3rd, 2024
- Review: Baghead - Is the Movie as Scary as it Looks? - Blazing Minds - February 3rd, 2024
- Natasha Lyonne Says James Woods Hit On Her As A Teenager While Filming Scary Movie 2 - 106.3 The Groove - February 3rd, 2024
- The Witcher's Freya Allan explains the challenges of filming her first horror movie Baghead: "You have to surrender ... - Gamesradar - January 26th, 2024
- The 5 Best Uses of Popcorn in Scary Movies - Dread Central - January 26th, 2024
- 5 Horror Films That Transformed The Genre - Study Finds - January 26th, 2024
- Kristen Stewart Wants to Star in Another Horror Movie in the Future - ComingSoon.net - January 26th, 2024
- Best Home Invasion Movies of All Time, Ranked - MovieWeb - January 26th, 2024
- Presence Review: Steven Soderbergh Tells a Ghost Story from the Ghosts POV. It Is Scary? Not Quite. But the Family Demons Lure You In - Variety - January 26th, 2024
- 55 best horror movies that are actually good and terrifying - Digital Spy - January 18th, 2024
- She is a Real Housewife, was in a scary movie franchise, is pals with Bethenny Frankel, has a Hilton connectio - Daily Mail - January 18th, 2024
- The Scream cast talk about the legacy of Scary Movie - Popverse - January 9th, 2024
- The 20 Best Horror Movies on Netflix: January 2024 - Vulture - January 9th, 2024
- Scream cast reveals their favorite scary movies - Popverse - January 9th, 2024
- Horror fanatics are 'desperate' to watch the first scary movie of the year Night Swim after trailer leaves the - Daily Mail - January 9th, 2024
- 20 Scariest Horror Movies That Are Too Disturbing to Re-Watch - Collider - January 1st, 2024
- Raging Grace review politicised critique of imperialism in horror movie form - The Guardian - January 1st, 2024
- 15 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time, According to Rotten Tomatoes - MovieWeb - January 1st, 2024
- The 19 Best Horror Films of 2023 Best Life - Best Life - January 1st, 2024
- The Best Horror Movies of 2021, Ranked by Tomatometer - Rotten Tomatoes - December 23rd, 2023
- This Is What Takes 'The Descent' From Scary to Terrifying - Collider - December 23rd, 2023
- 15 Best Horror Movies Of 2023 - Screen Rant - December 23rd, 2023
- 25 Best Horror Movies Created in the Last 5 Years - CBR - Comic Book Resources - December 12th, 2023
- 25 horror movies that were based on true stories - Yardbarker - December 12th, 2023
- The 30 best horror movies of all time - Gamesradar - December 12th, 2023
- Scary Movies In Theaters Now (2023/12/06)- Tickets to Movies in Theaters, Broadway Shows, London Theatre & More - Hollywood.com - December 12th, 2023
- What Is the Highest Grossing Horror Movie of All Time? - Collider - December 12th, 2023
- The 27 Best Horror Films of 2023 - MarieClaire.com - December 12th, 2023
- Upcoming horror movies: new scary films coming in 2023 and beyond - Gamesradar - December 12th, 2023
- 20 Best Horror Movies on Max (Formerly HBO Max): Dec. 2023 - Vulture - December 12th, 2023
- Scary Movie (2000) - Plot - IMDb - December 3rd, 2023
- The Best Horror Movies on Netflix - Rotten Tomatoes - October 16th, 2023
- The Best Horror Movies on Prime Video to Watch Right Now - October 16th, 2023
- From Psycho to a new crop of horror movies, the genre has some mommy issues - The Seattle Times - May 13th, 2023
- Months After Hulu Controversy, Mike Tyson Makes Major Move in the World of Cinema - EssentiallySports - April 8th, 2023
- Best Horror Movies of 2023 Ranked - New Scary Movies to Watch - March 31st, 2023
- Three cheers for the Moose: Everybody knows the name of beloved '80s sitcom star and 'Masked Singer' eliminee - Yahoo Entertainment - March 31st, 2023
- The 10 Scariest Horror Movies Ever - Rotten Tomatoes - February 26th, 2023
- Films Turning 10 in 2013: Oz the Great and Poweful The Croods Oblivion Labor ... - Latest Tweet by Pop - LatestLY - January 1st, 2023
- Family of slain Idaho student from Skagit County relieved to hear of suspect's arrest - KPIC News - January 1st, 2023
- The 50 Scariest Movies of All Time - Reader's Digest - December 24th, 2022
- 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' director rips cancel culture in comedy ... - December 24th, 2022
- "I was a side piece and you're a str*pper": Nia Long spills tea about Regina Halls role in The Best Man: The Final Chapters - Sportskeeda - December 24th, 2022
- Mother says scary movie guy wanted to kidnap her child in Spains Castellon area - The Olive Press - December 16th, 2022
- The Daily Show To Replace Trevor Noah with Chelsea Handler, Kal Penn, Al Franken, Sarah Silverman & Leslie Jones - Television - December 8th, 2022
- 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' director rips cancel culture in comedy: 'We don't want to try to educate' - Fox News - November 11th, 2022
- 20 Scary Horror Movies to Watch on HBO Max - Harper's BAZAAR - October 2nd, 2022
- Best scary movies of 2022 to watch for Halloween - Dexerto - October 2nd, 2022
Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero