Horror-comedies are fundamentally comedies. They’re only good if they make us laugh. But some of the very best do more than just tickle our funny bone. They also send shivers up our spines by embracing their spooky side. Which ones are the best at delivering frights alongside humor? These are 13 great horror-comedies that are also scary.
13. Tremors
Why It’s Funny: Trying to escape giant underground monsters with a taste for human flesh is no reason to stop bickering with other people.
Our list kicks off with a film that embraces both horror and comedy equally. Tremors is a retro-style monster flick that offers up real scares and tension even as it’s making us laugh. Getting chased by giant monsters is terrifying. It wasn’t exactly a box office hit when it first came to theaters in 1990, but there’s a reason it’s become a cult classic since.
12. Gremlins
Why It’s Funny: A bunch of magical cuddly creatures turn into terrifying rage monsters with a sense of humor. They’ll get around to killing you when they’re done dressing up as Christmas carolers.
We’re already into sacred horror-comedy ground with our 12th entry, Joe Dante’s seminal 1984 film, Gremlins. It’s so much funnier than it’s given credit for because its sequel is truly absurd. But it’s also much scarier than people remember, too. There are real moments of suspense as Kingston Falls falls into monster chaos. Plus, gremlins are freaking terrifying to look at! They would frighten us in a traditional horror film.
11. Abigail
Why It’s Funny: Dan Stevens. There’s lots of other really funny stuff in this movie, but Dan Stevens alone is more than enough.
The most recent release on this list might deserve to be even higher, because while a young ballerina vampire makes for a very funny villain she also makes for a really scary one. Abigail also conjures up genuine frights as “heist gone wrong”/haunted house-style film. And even when things get very silly the movie still offers up traditional horror movie moments.
10. Braindead (a.k.a. Dead Alive)
Why It’s Funny: It’s an absurdist zom-com that also doubles as an over-the-top political satire gore-fest.
Before he was making beloved fantasy epics Peter Jackson established himself as a world-class horror-comedy director. The best of his early entries is his 1992 classic Braindead. (Titled Dead Alive in North America.) Silly, tasteless, and loads of fun, this tale of politicians controlled by brain-eating extraterrestrial insects manages to be genuinely unsettling thanks to its massive amounts of gore. This is one blood-soaked, guts-splattered film.
9. The Frighteners
Why It’s Funny: Ghosts eternally trapped in the clothing they died in help a man who can legitimately communicate with the dead run a scam as a professional exorcist.
Peter Jackson goes back-to-back on our list with his fantastic 1997 film The Frighteners. Starring Michael J. Fox, it is full of both horror and comedy, as Jake Busey’s serial killer Johnny Bartlett makes for a truly terrifying villain. He’s not the only scary part of this film, however. It also features some truly creepy visuals, twists, and gruesome murders. If you took out all of the comedy this would be a great traditional horror film.
8. Freaky
Why It’s Funny: A classic body-swap story meets a classic slasher flick and the result is a whole lot of very silly fun and hilarious deaths.
Happy Death Day is a great horror-comedy, but director Christopher Landon land(on)s a spot on this scary list for Freaky. While there are lots of laughs to be found, there are also lots of truly creepy moments. Kathryn Newton is already a horror-comedy icon, but she makes for a genuinely scary slasher in Freaky.
7. Cabin Fever
Why It’s Funny: A sick sense of humor is the only way to deal with a deadly outbreak.
Eli Roth’s tribute to classic low-budget horror films turns a skin infection into laughs, but not by sacrificing any of the unsettling creepiness at the core of the film. An isolated cabin in the woods is an inherently scary premise. As is watching a group of young friends turn on each other as they’re ravaged by a truly nightmarish disease. Those elements makes for a genuinely uncomfortable tale. Even when you’re laughing at Cabin Fever you’re recoiling.
6. Slither
Why It’s Funny: With the right attitude watching someone be turned into an enormous half-alien monster can be wildly entertaining.
Writer-director James Gunn’s first film turned an alien parasite into campy funny, but he didn’t have to sacrifice any scares to make something hilarious. The movie’s grotesque body-horror provides plenty of uncomfortable sequences. Slither‘s transformation result in some truly horrible creatures who put the “horror” in horror-comedy.
5. Deadstream
Why It’s Funny: A desperate quest for continued online clout results in a silly night at a haunted house with an equally desperate ghost also seeking attention.
Deadstream finds new life in the found footage genre while never quitting on its silly B-movie loving spirit, but it also never stops being genuinely scary, either. Locking someone up in a real haunted house will always and forever creep us out. And this overlooked 2022 release always has us feeling uneasy that even while entertaining us with its equally funny concept.
4. The Cabin in the Woods
Why It’s Funny: Turns out unleashing monsters on unsuspecting college students is a pretty fun way to spend a weekend.
If The Cabin in the Woods wasn’t funny at all it would be an amazing straight horror film, so no surprise it ranks so high on our list. Director Drew Goddard’s wildly inventive first film combines classic horror tropes to deliver sincere scares even as while he’s satirizing those concepts. The comedic elements of the film don’t undercut any of the horror.
3. Creepshow
Why It’s Funny: A series of silly, over-the-top premises told with a sly sense of humor by two story-telling masters.
Creepshow is one of the best, most important, most sacred horror-comedy movies ever made. How could this anthology film not be when George A. Romero directed a script from Stephen King. Those two horror icons combined to make something memorable that is both fundamentally funny and fundamentally scary. Because even while each vignette feature hilarious visuals and absurd concepts, they’re all told as straight horror. You can laugh at water-soaked zombies who come back for vengeance, but being buried up to your head on the beach is no laughing matter.
2. An American Werewolf in London
Why It’s Funny: No horror-comedy has ever done a better job combining broad physical comedy with dead-pan humor.
An American Werewolf in London has a legitimate case as the greatest horror-comedy film ever made, and that’s because even though it’s absolutely hysterical it’s also absolutely terrifying. It features the greatest, most horrific werewolf transformation in movie history. It’s also gory, full of gruesome murders that would give anyone nightmares. And it also boasts a score that stands among the eeriest ever recorded.
1. Evil Dead II
Why It’s Funny: “Bruce Campbell fights his own hand” perfectly sums up the non-stop comedy of Evil Dead II.
Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead is a horror film. Army of Darkness is arguably a straight comedy more than a horror-comedy. But Evil Dead II perfectly walks the line between both horror and comedy. It unleashes Bruce Campbell while never abandoning the terrifying core that made the original movie so scary. It might be an outrageously funny sequel, but that cabin is still a nightmare, as is the ancient spirit haunting it. Almost every scene is, somehow, both scary and funny at the same time. It’s a remarkable feat that seems impossible even as you’re watching. Even the famous laughing scene is super creepy even though its super funny!
Evil Dead II is a truly amazing movie, among the best sequels ever made, and we’d be scared to be anything above it on this list.
Now that you’re done reading about the scariest horror-comedies make sure you check out our list of the 13 funniest horror-comedies.
