Can you name 10 "great" horror-comedies?

I've heard it remarked that the number of great comedy-horror films can barely be counted on two hands. I've been wracking my brains, but I think it's pretty difficult(at first blush, at any rate) to come with genre examples that count as "great" films. Can you do 10? What about 15?

pffft depends on yr definition of great

return of the living dead is a great film

as is evil dead 2

Also depends on your definition of "comedy" i.e. I think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Tenant and Baby Jane all qualify.

Transylvania 6-5000, I was twelve and it made me laugh and jump.

Return of the Living Dead
Shawn of the Dead
Dead Alive
Fearless Vampire Killers
Evil Dead II
Gremlins
Young Frankenstein
Slither
John Dies in the End
Little Shop of Horrors
An American Werewolf in London
Ghostbusters ...

tucker & dale vs evil

There are some winky ones too, like Piranha and Alligator. And I've always appreciated the intention comedy of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

Tyen: You know what I think? I think we're dead meat.
[a little later on, after hearing Megan screaming]
Tyen: REAL dead meat.
Billy: So, what were you gonna be when you grew up?

Cemetary Man
Evil Dead
Dead Alive
Toxic Avenger
Cannibal: The Musical
Hausu
The Stuff
Bad Taste
Spider Baby
Return of the Living Dead

Yeah, the list I had jumbling around in my head:

Evil Dead II
Return of the Living Dead
Dead Alive
American Werewolf in London
Ghostbusters
Shaun of the Dead
The Thing
Re-Animator

And I guess Young Frankenstein counts, but I've always racked that one up as just "comedy", likewise Little Shop of Horrors is just a "musical"

Re-Animator

Re-Animator

oh yeah, Re-Animator

Braindead is as good as it gets, I think. Dellamorte Dellamore, if you count that. Day Of The Beast, maybe. The Quiet Family. The Seventh Curse.

It's not easy.

Is Society a horror-comedy?

American Werewolf in London was my first thought.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

I'd say Society probably counts.

Knew that Evil Dead II would be among the first to be mentioned, but it is TRULY great. Braindead and Bad Taste also. I don't find Gremlins scary, but it's certainly more horror than e.g. Young Frankenstein, and it too is great.

How about Street Trash? It's not truly up there with the zenith of film-making, but it's grand trashy fun.

Co-sign.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

damn

Oh wait, I forgot about Cabin in the Woods. And that one even has a happy ending!

I laughed all through Rosemary's baby. People told me I crazy for it. Then I found interview with Mia farrow where she says yeah they totally approached it as comedy. Now who crazy? Also every cronenburg movie is hilarious.

Also anything with the credit "Directed by Larry Cohen," particularly Q and The Stuff.

cabin in the woods
the happiness of the katakuris

drag me to hell

I think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Tenant and Baby Jane all qualify.

Eric otm! but Baby Jane is actually the one with the most tragic undertow, I think.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein is funny, probably their best picture. Not "real" horror tho I suppose.

Corman's Bucket of Blood is a good one.

Peak-era Cronenberg has comic touches, but I would call any of them comedies.

I'm kind of stumbling on 'great' here, to be honest. I can think of a fair few that are enjoyable or worth your time or whatever, but not sure how to define something as great.

Dawn of the Dead closer to satire I guess

Evil Dead II is a great film, as mentioned previously

Young Frankenstein.

Carry on Screaming

We watched Evil Dead 2 last night along with some people who had never seen it before, and it was a blast. That movie rules.

Ash mimicking the table lamp in particular is sublimely great.

Morbs, when was the last time you saw A&C Meet F? I'm curious, because I just saw it again less than a week ago for perhaps the first time in 30 years, and, well, no.

Horror, humor, same diff.

Theatre of Blood perhaps?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Housefilmposter.jpg/220px-Housefilmposter.jpg

Is this any good? I remember lolling as a teenager but that was a long time ago, and I was a teenager.

I was young enough when I watched Reanimator and An American Werewolf in London that I didn't recognize them as horror-comedies. Evil Dead 2 must have been far less subtle, as it made me laugh my ass off around the same age.

xpost

wasn't the blurb on the VHS cover of House "Ding Dong You're Dead?" Only thing I remember about the film.

xpost Theatre of Blood!

My favorite horror genre!!!!!!! Actually, really the only type of horror movies I like.

The Death Of Mr Lazarescu

JiC, I can precisely state that I rewatched A&C six years ago, for this:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-movie-comedy-duos.htm

cat and the canary w/ bob hope?

The Raven

(I mean I liked it when I was 10, but I haven't seen it since)

Carry on Screaming
What a Carve Up

Whale's The Old Dark House

House doesn't really hold up.
Fright Night?

Critters? Anyway, I watched A+CmF about six months ago, and it totally held up.

Wake in fright

The wicker man

Didn't know about Thundercrack until just now. Sounds awesome!

It's called thundercrack! and yes, yes it is

satire is comedy

hmmmmmmmmm

I mean, is Dead Ringers a comedy?

Dead Ringers is a satire?

srs question. never liked the film in general.

Deadgirl is really funny, except for the parts where it is really really not funny

btw I went to see Theatre of Blood at Film Forum once and they had been sent a TV print with all the murder moments cut.

Some satire is not comedic, or even funny.

I'm fine with a debate on that, Morbs, but yes, I totally view satire as a type of comedy. Or perhaps a tool of comedy is more accurate?

That was actually an xpost... Satires can be dark, miserable and/or depressing, but so can comedies.

So yeah, maybe saying 'satire is comedy' is incorrect, as it assumes an identity relation that I don't think would resist fierce analysis.

My class is watching Gremlins right now. Agree with Emily--funnier than it is scary, but I enjoy it, especially the allusions to other films.

And yet, it's really hard to say that a movie about demonic sharp toothed and clawed creatures terrorizing a small town is not a horror film.

Phoebe cates dead santa story in gremlins is harsh

i was kind of appalled that they took the piss out of that scene in the sequel. spoofing the serious/sad bits of previous films in a sequel is almost unheard of isn't it?

Brain Damage as yet unaccounted for.

Ha, I think the seriousness of the story is sort of what makes it weirdly funny. It's so discordant.

Lugosi-Karloff or the '60s one?

Yes

Oh, ha, the Corman one

only seen clips of Brain Damage - I love Hennenlotter but that one looked like a bit of a bridge too far even for me

xp

i was kind of appalled that they took the piss out of that scene in the sequel. spoofing the serious/sad bits of previous films in a sequel is almost unheard of isn't it?

The whole point of the second one was that EVERYTHING was completely and totally irreverent.

Agree with Texas Chainsaw Massacre--the dad going back to shut off the lights cracks me up every time. So many of my favourite horror films have comedic elements, even some of the most intense. Maybe it's a needed release from the intensity, maybe it's a comment on the genre itself, a chance to laugh at ourselves for being so frightened.

Jaws has some amazing bits of comedy. supposedly Carl Gottlieb was brought in to make the original draft funnier.

^^ Dreyfuss's introduction in the movie is one of my favorite bits from his career "You know those guys on the fantail launch out there? Well, they're all gonna die."

Agree with Texas Chainsaw Massacre--the dad going back to shut off the lights cracks me up every time. So many of my favourite horror films have comedic elements, even some of the most intense. Maybe it's a needed release from the intensity, maybe it's a comment on the genre itself, a chance to laugh at ourselves for being so frightened.

― clemenza

Well most good films of any genre have funny bits.

True (except for certain comedies). Maybe the comedy in a horror films just seems more incongrous.

^^Even poor grammar has comedic elements.

as per the usual I will rep for homebodies, filmed like a comedy but it's a coldblooded chiller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQd52fsX0pQ

You think there are good comedies with no funny bits?

didn't we have this satire/comedy debate on the comedy film poll thread

you could argue that 'dr strangelove' is kind of a horror-comedy.

every single kubrick film is a horror-comedy but we're starting to wander afield

i rewatched 'a&c meet frankenstein' a few years back and i thought it held up great. works because lugosi et al play it straight.

The shining has elements of horror if I'm being generous

Tarantino says the horror elements of the A+C movies are as real/scary as any horror film of the era. i recall a tea-time-on-British-TV Laurel and Hardy haunted house short that scared the beejeesus outta me as a kid.

Another great horror-themed comedy (I doubt that it would be a true horror-comedy even at the time):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb9bQU76y-k

can't believe i almost forgot this. so under-rated. hillarious and horrible too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWmXBknC3K8

Is Bad Milo any good?

I hesitate to mention it but america's deepest feelings is pretty funny - an episode of america's funniest home videos where all the clips have been replaced with real life atrocity footage. not for the squeamish, in fact only complete nihilists need apply. shockingly, it can be found on youtube.

Whoa.

How about American Psycho? Certainly a comedy (or SATIRE, Dr. Morbs) but is it horror?

its on my list upthread, so i def think it qualifies. and its decidedly great

American Psycho absolutely qualifies

think there is a lot of crossover - or a thin line between - the existential despair and torpor of a great deal of british sitcommery and the comedy horror movie - the junkyard debris of the cannibal family in texas chainsaw massacre is remarkably similar, in look and function, to all the rags and bones that surround steptoe and son.

Is Bad Milo any good?

― Dan I.

Kinda enjoyable, but very silly and pretty crappy.

Ward's post reminds me - if TV is allowed, the League of Gentlemen Christmas Special could totally belong here.

Yep - by Season 3 LoG was barely a comedy and that Halloween special is insanely great.

Haven't seen it for ages, but my recollection is that Basket Case is pretty funny. ("Aw, that's so cute...What's in the basket?") Seconding 2000 Maniacs, too.