Comedy horror

Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof."^[1] Comedy horror can also parody or subtly spoof horror clichés as its main source of humour or use those elements to take a story in a different direction. Examples of comedy horror films include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), An American Werewolf in London (1981), the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present), Gremlins (1984), Shaun of the Dead (2004), and The Cabin in the Woods (2011).

In literature

Horror and comedy have been associated with each other since the early days of horror novels. Author Bruce G. Hallenbeck cites the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving as "the first great comedy horror story".^[2] The story made readers "laugh one moment and scream the next" and its premise was based on mischief typically found during the holiday Halloween.^[2]

Shortly after the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, comedic parodies appeared. Edgar Allan Poe put humor and horror on the same continuum, and many nineteenth century authors used black humor in their horror stories. Author Robert Bloch called them "opposite sides of the same coin".^[3]

In film

In comedy horror film, gallows humor is a common element. While comedy horror films provide scares for audiences, they also provide something that dramatic horror films do not: "the permission to laugh at your fears, to whistle past the cinematic graveyard and feel secure in the knowledge that the monsters can't get you".^[2]

In the era of silent film, the source material for early comedy horror films came from stage performances instead of literature. One example, The Ghost Breaker (1914), was based on a 1909 play, though the film's horror elements were more interesting to the audience than the comedy elements. In the United States following the trauma of World War I, film audiences sought to see horror on screen but tempered with humor. The "pioneering" comedy horror film was One Exciting Night (1922), written, directed and produced by D. W. Griffith, who noticed the stage success of the genre and foresaw a cinematic translation. The film included comedic blackface performances and footage of a hurricane for a climactic storm. As an early experiment, the various genres were not well-balanced with horror and comedy, and later films improved the balance and took more sophisticated approaches.^[4] Charles Bramesco of Vulture.com identifies Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as the first commercially successful comedy horror film. Its success legitimized the genre and established it as commercially viable.^[5]

Some comedy horror movies, such as the Scary Movie series or A Haunted House also function as parodies of popular horror films.^[6]

Well-known director Peter Jackson began his film career with the comedy horror classics Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Braindead.^{[citation needed]}

Stree2, Roohi, Bhoot Police and bhool Bhulaiyaa are some popular horror comedy films in Bollywood.^[relevant?]

Further information on the surrealist, campy comedy horror short film fictional character: Shaye Saint John

In television

Examples of horror comedy on television date back to sitcoms The Munsters and The Addams Family and more recently include gruesome slapsticks Ash vs Evil Dead and Stan Against Evil, mockumentary the What We Do in the Shadows (franchise), Wellington Paranormal, comedies Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, Shining Vale and Santa Clarita Diet, and cartoons Beetlejuice, Courage the Cowardly Dog, School for Vampires, and Scooby-Doo. More recent examples include The Owl House,^[7] Wednesday, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Gravity Falls, Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss.

See also

• Film portal
• Literature portal
• Comedy portal
• Speculative fiction/Horror portal

• List of comedy horror films
• List of genres
• Zombie comedy – a subgenre involving zombies
• Black comedy

References

1. Miller, J.S. (2004). The Horror Spoofs of Abbott and Costello: A Critical Assessment of the Comedy Team's Monster Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-7864-1922-7.
2. Hallenbeck 2009, p. 3
3. Carroll, Noel (Spring 1999). "Horror and Humor". The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 57 (2): 145–146. doi:10.1111/1540_6245.jaac57.2.0145. JSTOR 432309.
4. Hallenbeck 2009, pp. 5–7
5. Bramesco, Charles (22 October 2015). "The History of Horror-Comedy in 11 Crucial Films". Vulture.com. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
6. "Every "Scary Movie" in the Franchise Ranked". Screen Rant. 7 November 2020.
7. Brown, Tracy (10 January 2020). "For its creator, Disney's 'The Owl House' is the best revenge". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.

Bibliography

• Hallenbeck, Bruce G. (2009). Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914–2008. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3332-2.

Further reading

• Och, Dana; Strayer, Kirsten, eds. (2013). Transnational Horror Across Visual Media: Fragmented Bodies. Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies. Taylor & Francis. pp. 201–208. ISBN 978-1-136-74484-6.
• Carroll, Noël (2001). "Horror and Humor". Beyond Aesthetics: Philosophical Essays. Cambridge University Press. pp. 235–253.