It’s October, which means people have begun decorating their houses with all sorts of skeletons, spiderwebs, and other creepy regalia in preparation for a month where people celebrate all things scary. As a species, humans get a thrill out of being scared. Perhaps as the functions of society, when they work as intended, make people more and more cloistered from any semblance of real danger (if one plays their cards right), being scared reminds people of what the feeling of fearing for one’s mortality feels like. Maybe that’s why horror movies are such a thriving genre.
However, just like any genre, comedy has found a way to creep in and subvert expectations and traditions of the genre, becoming a wrench in the works of a lucrative formula. Horror has its reliable tropes and techniques, and as with any artistic medium, once a formula has been discovered, the magic is gone. Those who are content to stick with the formula will have no shortage of creators happy to supply, but parody and comedy are usually around the corner, ready to poke fun and remind people that other methods are possible. Sometimes, though, they’re just here to make people laugh. This is a list of films for those who are looking for a side helping of guffaws with their shrieks, a thorough dressing down of the genre, or just a fun way to pass a couple hours.
Rubber‘s an indie movie with a concept that reads like somebody was dared to write a script based on a game of Mad Libs. Quite simply, a living car tire uses its psychic powers to blows peoples’ heads up. Viewers of the film are greeted with a monologue about how the film is dedicated to the concept of things happening for no reason, and this is pretty much the explanation given to viewers for how the events of Rubber come to be. The filmmakers really manage to give the inanimate object a sense of emotions as the tire gains sentience out of nowhere, learns to propel itself forward, and even has fun as it rolls in a serpentine motion once it gets the hang of movement. One can get a semblance of what the car tire is thinking when it first learns it can blow things up with its mind, and that plays into the suspense of the movie. The movie treats itself a little more like an art house film than your standard horror-comedy, replete with a frame story where the movie is being watched by its own audience from afar with sets of binoculars. It’s a strange movie with a strange concept, but then, so are most horror movies.
Rubber can be watched on TubiTV.com, no subscription necessary, but viewers will have to deal with the occasional ad break.
Garey Busey voices the titular murderous gingerbread cookie. Need anything more be said? Okay, well going beyond that, The Gingerdead Man plays like a slightly more explicit, extended episode of the 90’s Goosebumps TV show. It gives viewers a good sense of what sort of movie they’ll be watching right off the bat. Garey Busey (as a human) is a deranged killer who murders a bunch of people in a diner and is then caught by police and executed off-screen. Through some unexplained curse hand-waved away as “black magic”, he comes back to life in the form of a murderous gingerbread man when a pastry chef at a struggling local Texas bakery accidentally bleeds into the flour of a batch of dough they’re making, which is a major health code violation. The movie seems comfortable just being campy while not paying any mind to things like logic or continuity. It’s goofy, it’s short (about an hour runtime before hitting the credits), and the soundtrack is comprised of MIDI orchestral stings, but it’s also a little bit of fun if folks are in the mood for some light fare. Surprisingly enough, the movie has gone on to make two sequels and one crossover, the second in the series having the inspired title The Gingerdead Man 2: The Passion of the Crust. None feature Garey Busey in them, who admittedly does not actually say a whole lot in this movie either.
Like Rubber, The Gingerdead Man can be watched on TubiTV.com with no subscription but with occasional ad breaks.
Whenever the rambunctious college kids have their drug-fueled, sex-crazed romp in the woods, it’s always assumed right away that the hillbilly rednecks with the chainsaws are serial killers who have found their next prey to slake their unquenchable bloodlust. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil propositions the question: What if those hillbilly rednecks with chainsaws are actually innocently minding their own business and folks just keep bumbling their way into their unfortunate and horrific demises? Each death is played up so the gore is as over-the-top as can be, and as the movie subtly transitions from a goofy, bloody farce into legitimate horror movie territory, poor Tucker and Dale can’t seem to succeed in their efforts to keep these darn college kids from accidentally killing themselves!
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is available for streaming on Amazon Prime, available dependent on membership to one of several subscriptions, of which they offer free 7 day trials.
Evil Dead 2 is a sequel to Evil Dead, though there has been some debate as to whether it actually counts a remake. While Evil Dead was a straight-up horror movie involving a group of friends who take a trip to a cabin in the woods and accidentally conjure evil spirits that begin murdering them, Evil Dead 2 is a decidedly more light-hearted romp, evoking Three Stooges physical comedy as Bruce Campbell’s famous character Ash Williams battles with the “deadites”. The movie’s less-ambiguously direct follow-up, Army of Darkness, continues the comedy-horror tone that would become de rigueur for the Evil Dead franchise, dealing with Ash as he attempts to conquer the deadites after having been transported to the Middle Ages. All of the films in the Evil Dead franchise have become cult classics, and they launched the careers of those who were intimately involved in the productions. The films are rife with popular quotes and have even gone on to spawn a soft reboot released in 2013 (a more simply titled Evil Dead) and a well-received TV series, Ash vs. Evil Dead, that ran for three seasons before its untimely cancellation. Actor Bruce Campbell officially retired from the iconic role after that, but in the hearts and minds of fans he’ll always be groovy.
Evil Dead is available for streaming on Netflix. Evil Dead 2 and Ash vs. Evil Dead is available for streaming on Hulu. Army of Darkness can be streamed on Shudder (which offers a 7-day trial) and is available for streaming on Netflix as well.
Following the Evil Dead series with Cabin in the Woods is a no-brainer since the creators went as far as to try to rebuild the cabin from those movies for their genre-takedown. At this point it’s no secret, but originally trailers for Cabin in the Woods made it seem like a straightforward horror film. Nowadays, viewers know that it’s anything but, providing a reason for why college kids seem to keep getting murdered in the woods, even after a creepy local warns them not to go down the road any further. This movie has become a cult-classic because it’s just so dang good, full of easter eggs and little winks to the viewers and fans of horror, rewarding repeat viewings. As much a love letter to the genre as it is a blistering mockery of its conventions, Cabin in the Woods takes no classic horror trope for granted, subverting them before reverting them, putting them down before flipping and reversing them. It’s hard to find a horror classic that isn’t given a nudge in this contemporary classic. It even includes cameos of the special infected zombies from the Left 4 Dead series (using the actual in-game models, though viewed from a distance so as not to be jarring compared to the rest of the film’s spectacular special effects). Cabin in the Woods is a must-watch for horror or just general movie fans, if anything because it contains one of the best third acts in anything ever.
Cabin in the Woods is available for streaming on both Hulu and Amazon Prime.
Like how Cabin in the Woods toyed with the tropes of the “group of friends go to a cabin in the woods and are beset upon by evil”, The Final Girls explores and spoofs the tropes of 80’s summer camp slasher horror films. With the comedic caliber of Thomas Middleditch, Alia Shawkat, and Adam DeVine, it’s clear the sort of vibe the movie is going for. In it, a group of fans go for an anniversary screening of cult-classic 80s slasher “Camp Bloodbath” and its sequel, and through a series of events, end up transported inside the movie. Once inside, they learn that not only are they susceptible to being murdered by the movie’s slasher, but that characters who originally live or die in the movie can have their fates altered. Thus begins the characters from the real world’s attempts to survive until the movie’s climactic events where the “final girl” kills the movie slasher, mostly by preventing the other characters in the movie from having sex.
The Final Girls is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime, and those looking to save money can get it with a 7-day free trial for STARZ, though the movie leaves STARZ on October 31st.
Krampus is a festive two-fer in that it’s a Christmas horror-comedy suitable for the scary month of October, though once things kick off it can be a little lighter on the comedy than other entries in this article. It also feels like a particularly cynical movie for the winter season, which makes an October viewing feel more appropriate than a December one. The krampus itself comes from European folklore, which states that the goat-demon punishes misbehaved children around Christmas time. This movie takes the concept from folklore and imagines if it were real and existed in the modern day, following a family dealing with some holiday turmoil among themselves when they are beset by a krampus and its various cohorts, which include living gingerbread men and evil elves. Featuring comedic actors Adam Scott, David Koechner, Conchata Galen Ferrell, as well as voices from Seth Green and Justin Roiland, it’s clear the film is working with some experienced, funny actors. Perhaps it’s a good film to transition from Halloween to the literal next day when all of the stores once adorned with pumpkins and witches are now full of candy canes and giant fake snowflakes.
Krampus isn’t readily available on any streaming services but it is available to rent on plenty of them for $4.
Gillian Jacobs, Ken Marino, Patrick Warburton, and Peter Stormare comprise the main cast of this 2013 horror comedy. In it, an accountant who has reservations about having kids gets so stressed from his day-to-day that he expels a creepy fetus-like creature from his body, initially thought by his doctor to be a polyp in his colon (which means readers can get an idea of where the creature emerges from). The outlandish circumstances that we find are causing the main character all the stress in his life border on the absurd, and things just continue to get worse despite his efforts to control his stress. It doesn’t take long at all before the movie gets to the gist of things, and the Milo creature is kind of cute in a demented and messed up sort of way, even though it’s killing people throughout the course of the movie. There’s a fair bit of gross-out humor involving butt stuff and a death that involves mutilation to male genitalia, but it’s an interesting take on how the external stressors of one’s life can manifest themselves in unhealthy, internal ways.
Bad Milo is also available for viewing on TubiTV.com with no subscription and a modest amount of ad breaks.
This is the movie that put Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright on the map. Inspired by a brief moment from an episode from their previous project, a highly enjoyable TV series titled Spaced, Shaun of the Dead showed people around the world what a horror-comedy movie could achieve. Hilarious, smart, and heartfelt at just the right moments, it’s not just one of the best comedy movies ever made, it’s also one of the best zombie movies out there. In it, a directionless slacker named Shaun and his similarly directionless roommate/best friend attempt to save Shaun’s mom as well as his girlfriend, who dumped him the night before, during a zombie outbreak in London. As with any zombie attack, survival is more complicated than planning can account for. The movie became such a hit with fans internationally that spawned two spiritual sequels as part of something called “The Cornetto Trilogy” (based on a color-coordinated ice cream treat the main characters eat during each of the films). Anybody who hasn’t seen Shaun of the Dead, as well as Hot Fuzz and The World’s End (the other, similarly great films from the trilogy) are doing themselves a grave disservice and should seek to rectify this immediately.
Shaun of the Dead is available to watch with a subscription to Cinemax, and can also be found available for rental on most streaming platform.
This horror-comedy is nothing like the classic Chris Farley movie. The movie, from a New Zealand production company, is about two sons of a sheep farmer, one who is terrified of sheep due to circumstances in their past, the other who has been genetically modifying his sheep so they are ferocious meat-eaters with a taste for flesh that transform the humans they bite into horrifying half-man half-sheep monstrosities. While things looks contained at first, the genetically-altered sheep eventually escape (because otherwise there would be no movie) causing a bit of a situation, to put things mildly. The movie is more than your standard funny zombie movie, mostly because the zombies are sheep, and their victims don’t strictly turn into undead versions of themselves. Featuring special effects work from the same company that worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the movie is gruesome, over-the-top, and might be just the kind of absurdity people may be craving for the season.
Black Sheep is unfortunately not included on any streaming services, but it can be rented on the Google Play store, YouTube, and Apple TV.
Created by the crew that brought about the wildly popular YouTube channel “5 Second Films” and funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Dude Bro Party Massacre III is the second sequel to two movies that have never actually been made. In it, the younger brother to a member of a fraternity who was murdered infiltrates the frat to discover the truth about what really happened. Due to an unfortunate coincidence in timing, that’s right about when mysterious killer Motherface begins yet another murder spree. The movie is interesting in that it’s presented like a VHS home recording of a movie was that being aired on TV, complete with brief snippets of the commercial breaks that made their way into the recording. Dude Bro Party Massacre III is, essentially, a slasher film that mocks both 80s slasher horror, as well as fraternity culture and toxic masculinity (intentionally failing the Bechel test), though being as ridiculous as possible is the movie’s primary intention. It even features a surprising list of cameos, including Larry King, Andrew W.K., and Patton Oswalt, who has guest-starred in a few of the “5 Second Films” Youtube sketches. Greg Sestero of The Room fame also makes an appearance, an inclusion that is notable as the director of Dude Bro Party Massacre III has been considered instrumental in bringing the infamous trashterpiece to the attention of the world.
Dude Bro Party Massacre III is only available on the movie’s official website for rent or download. They also sell the movie in VHS format, although the only option available for that anymore is a rather expensive VHS with custom VHS box cover (digital download of the movie and extra featurettes included) if one is looking to support indie filmmakers.
That concludes this list, which is not comprehensive, but fans of both fear and humor should find something they like among these entries. Death and violence is traditionally no laughing matter, but films have a habit of framing things in ways one might not normally expect to see them. The comedy in some of these movies doesn’t go far beyond pure schaudenfreude, but in these cases, the characters were literally made for us to watch them fail, so it’s best not to take it for granted.
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