My friend Sean text me the other day and told me to prepare some Top 10 horror movies in light of it being October. After putting a ton of movies together we decided it needed to be broken up into straight forward scary horror movies and movie comedies. He drew first blood over on his blog Ecstatic Friday(http://ecstaticfriday.tumblr.com/), no it's my turn. Here are my Top 10 Horror Comedies...
10. Lesbian Vampire Killers(2009)
Let me start by saying, THIS IS
NOT PORN! It is however a surprisingly funny and well worth a look, vampire movie. There are a lot of vampire movies out these days and this is one of the few that I genuinely liked. I'd highly recommend giving this a shot.
9. The Monster Squad (1987)
What really makes this movie so great is that it kind of fell of the face of the earth for a long time. There is only a select age group that really knows about this movie and it's sad because everyone should know about THE MONSTER SQUAD! It's like the Goonies meets all the Universal horror Monsters. The best part is that it's a kids movie that is NOT a kids movie. Dracula literally calls a four year old kid a bitch. Right to her face! Menacingly! It's great. I simply adore this movie by Night of the Creeps director Fred Dekker and Shane Black, writer of LETHAL WEAPON.
8. Dead Alive(1992)
A movie from the director of THE LORD OF THE RINGS?! Dead Alive is a complete SPLATTERFEST from Peter Jackson in the vein of Sam Raimi's great THE EVIL DEAD. Lionel is a loveable loser who's mother is bitten by a spider-monkey and all hell literally breaks out! This is one of the nastiest movies I've ever seen and it is also hilarious! Spoiler, this is not the last time you'll see Peter Jackson on this list...
7. SLiTHER(2006)
From the demented mind of James Gunn, Slither is a half creepy crawler movie and flat out zombie splatterfest and I love almost every scene. It stars Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker. An alien asteroid falls in a small town and infects Michael Rooker. Then things get really gross and morbidly funny. I've watched this movie quite a bit and really have liked it more and more. Also Greg Henry is amazing in this.
6. Planet Terror (2007)
Planet Terror is the part of the Movie GRINDHOUSE, that Robert Rodriguez directed. It's a zombie splatterfest that I think really grows on you over time. It is 100% tongue-in-cheek but has some just pure disgusting gore that is so much fun to watch. It's a fun zombie movie that takes itself just serious enough. It's a tough line to stay on because this could have turned into a complete spoof but manages to become a pretty solid zombie/virus outing. Very enjoyable.
5. Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
What happens when an aging Elvis and old black John F. Kennedy fight an ancient Egyptian mummy? Oh and by the way, Elvis is played by BRUCE CAMPBELL. I absolutely love Bubba Ho-Tep and Bruce Campbell's portrayal of Elvis. This movie reminds me of a weird Tales From the Crypt or Amazing Story...um story. Whenever this movie is on, I'll watch it. That's gotta say something, right?
4. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
A college documentary crew follows Leslie Vernon, a wanna be slasher icon, on the verge of becoming a legend. None of it is real of course but it is all played that way. The movie goes between a documentary style and typical horror movie. The humor in it is very dark but also very funny. Things end up turning pretty dark. It features a couple cameos from horror movie icons. Behind the Mask at times feels similar to Scream in that it pokes fun of the genre and is 100% one of the movies it pokes fun of. Definitely a movie to check out if you haven't seen it.
3. Army of Darkness (1992)
If you're doing a list on the best Horror comedies how do you not include at least one of the Evil Dead movies? Then the next question is, which one do you pick? The Evil Dead, The Evil Dead II or Army of Darkenss??? The original Evil Dead is much more of a straight, low budget, nasty horror movie(spoiler: I saved it for my other top 10). Evil Dead II is a great movie that really continues/remakes the original but with a much sillier tone. But Army of Darkness is just ridiculous amounts of fun. It's not nearly as gross but has probably the best version of Bruce Campbell's Ash that has been on film. This time Ash knows what he is up against so he has this cocky ego that is pure fun to watch. This was a hard pick because honestly any of the Evil Dead movies belong on this list but the one liners and setting just make this movie the hands down pick for me.
2. The Frighteners (1996)
I told you Peter Jackson would be on the list again, this time along side Family Ties star, MICHAEL J. FOX. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Banister, played by Fox, who after a terrible accident can see and hear spirits. He uses this "gift" to scam people out of money. That is until a vicious spirit from his past comes back to kill everything living, and dead. This is a very funny and actually very funny movie that deserves more credit than I think it's given. It was just re-released on BluRay and I can't wait to pick it up.
1. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Not only is An American Werewolf in London one of my favorite Horror movies, it's also one of my favorite all around movies. Director John Landis made The Blues Brothers, Animal House and the music video THRILLER among other things, and here, made a truly funny and terrifying werewolf movie. The werewolf movie, like vampire movies, are hard to pull off. If you have a bad creature the movie simply falls apart and just doesn't work. In this particular movie they went with the Jaws approach, in that they barely actually show the FULL creature and it works so well. It's also a very disgusting gory movie, too, that just so happens to be very funny. It balances the horror and comedy perfectly. Griffen Dunn's character Jack is very funny and disturbing all at the same time, while haunting his best friend and newly created werewolf David, played by David Naughton. I've never seen another movie that is so perfectly a classic horror movie and a genuinely funny movie all at the same time. This is my favorite werewolf movie next to the original Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr.
This list was every hard to make. It took a lot longer than I thought it would. Here are some honorable mentions that were at one time on this list but got booted for one reason or another:
Bride of Chucky, Club Dread, The Burbs, Tremors, Fright Night, Transylvania 6-5000, Gremlins, and Zombieland. All great for their own reasons but just didn't make it. You may notice the omission of the mentioned but not listed, Shaun of the Dead. I've only seen it once and at the time, I didn't think it was that great. I've never gotten around to seeing it again, but do plan on it this month sometime.
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