The 24 Best Horror Comedies Streaming Right Now
Author Robert Block ( Psycho ) described comedy and horror as “opposite sides of the same coin”. Since the days of silent films, films had mixed styles, and by 1948 , Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was grossing more at the box office than Universal’s horror films of the time. Comic relief is often a function of a good thriller, where laughter is used either to relieve tension or to disarm us so that we are less prepared for the horror to come. And of course, there are plenty of horror films that don’t just feature comedy – they make a selling point for it by mixing these two extreme emotions, like contrasting tastes, that work surprisingly well together.
Housebound (2014)
It’s a simple but fairly good set-up: Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) is sentenced to house arrest (along with her mother, horror of horrors) after hacking into an ATM in a shockingly amateurish manner. The house is truly sinister and the tiresome mum (Rima Te Wiata) is also convinced it is haunted. When strange things start happening, Kylie believes there is an intruder she couldn’t escape from even if she wanted to, due to the ankle monitor. Australian director Gerard Johnston has created a chilling haunted house tale that also acknowledges how absurd haunted house stories are, mixing comedy with horror in just the right amounts.
Where to shout: Tubi, Hoopla, Fandor
Deadstream (2022)
There’s still life in the found-footage genre, as evidenced by this year’s most inventive comedy, which cleverly nods to the original Evil Dead with its mix of goofy good humor and surprisingly crude practical effects. Director and star Joseph Winter plays Sean, a once-popular YouTube character working on a comeback (one of the film’s cleverest schemes is to trick you into loving a character who, it becomes increasingly clear, doesn’t deserve your love). Favorite for his outrageous stunts, he hosts a late-night live broadcast while locking himself in a supposedly haunted house. You can certainly see where this is going, but Winter and company deftly mix solid scares, technical wizardry, and some laughs in a film that’s thoroughly enjoyable while also managing to dig a little deeper into our toxic social media landscape.
Where to shout: Wince
Scary Movie (2000)
Making a parody of Scream , which is itself a parody of sorts, might have gone too far in the meta, but Keenan Ivory Wayans’ director makes it mostly work. The comedy is very broad and requires a fair amount of knowledge of late 90s horror films, but it has a lot of jokes and is funnier than it has any right to be. It stars Anna Paris, but Regina Hall steals the film as Brenda Meeks, never missing an opportunity to say what we’re all thinking.
Where to shout: Max
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Before it was a TV series, Shadows was also an excellent comedy starring, written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. As the franchise has proven, there are plenty of laughs to be had with the concept of traditional old-school vampires that seem neither sexy nor cool when faced with the modern world.
Where to shout: Digital rental
Werewolves Within (2021)
Although it tanked at the box office during its limited COVID-era release, The Werewolves Within is a shockingly good video game adaptation. The film version is a bit reminiscent of the slightly bloodier Clue : soon after the arrival of wacky new gamekeeper Finn Wheeler ( Veep ‘s Sam Richardson, who is excellent here), a series of strange attacks lead the townspeople to believe there is someone living among them. werewolf. , and a lot of accusations (and worse) follow. Director Josh Reuben, whose previous film Scare Me was equally delightful, strikes just the right balance between scares and laughs. The hilarious cast includes What We Do in the Shadows by Harvey Guillen.
Where to Shout: Hulu
Happy Death Day (2017)
A very funny slasher film that also requires a lot of heart, Happy Death Day is about shallow, introverted sorority girl Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) who is killed by a mysterious killer—over and over again. With a plot similar to Groundhog Day (with hints of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ), she is forced to rely on her wits (and a nerdy guy she never usually talked to) to solve her own murder and break the vicious cycle. . The film is a lot of fun as the resourceful but arrogant Tree goes through her day-to-day steps, while also getting some very dark laughs at the increasingly complex deaths she has to deal with. The sequel , Happy Death Day 2U, is almost as interesting.
Where to shout: FXNow, Fubo
We Have a Ghost (2023)
Christopher Landon, writer and director of innovative horror-comedy films such as Happy Death Day and Freaky (and the follow-up Scream ), helms this equally fun, but more family-friendly effort. Anthony Mackie stars as Frank Presley, who buys a cheap fixer-upper with his family only to have his son Kevin (Jahi Winston) discover a ghost (played by David Harbor) unliving in the attic. Familiar territory so far, but Kevin wants to help their new ghost and Dad only wants to make money, so their ghost goes viral. It’s cute and has Jennifer Coolidge in it, which makes everything even funnier.
Where to shout: Netflix
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Agatha Christie-style detective stories never quite go out of fashion, and certainly not this year, thanks to films like The Glass Onion and director Halina Rein’s Bodies, Bodies, Bodies , in which a group of twenty-odd people finds himself trapped in a mansion during a hurricane when the main character’s body is on the floor. Class consciousness is often at the heart of modern murder mysteries, and this is much like our modern preoccupation with using our online presence to hide our true identities and motives.
Where to shout: Paramount+, Fubo
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Bruce Campbell plays an aged Elvis Presley opposite Ossie Davis’ John F. Kennedy in a nursing home plagued by an ancient Egyptian mummy. This amusingly silly premise (not to mention Campbell’s involvement) is almost enough to guarantee the film’s cult status, but writer-director Don Coscarelli ( Phantasm ) treats his leads with surprising and uplifting dignity.
Where to shout: Prime Video, Tubi, Pluto
Cabin in the Woods (2011)
There have been countless “cabin in the woods” style horror films made that have used every possible variation of the many associated tropes of being executed to death; Sam Raimi had already parodied and subverted the genre in his Evil Dead films back in the 1980s. We know these films and we know how they should work. While The Cabin in the Woods initially appears to be a laugh-out-loud Scream -style deconstruction of the subgenre, it soon reveals itself to be something much more ambitious. Although the trailer makes it clear that something strange is going on, the films oscillate between comedy and existential dread with shocking speed.
Where to Shout: Max, Roku Channel
Gremlins (1984)
It’s a Christmas movie! And also a parody of Christmas movies. It’s definitely a horror movie, but in the mid-’80s you could buy Gremlins dolls, action figures, and storybooks, which, considering how violent and nightmarish the film is, is both impressively twisted and a profound indictment. consumer culture in which we sell anything to anyone. This is a truly twisted movie, with a sequel that goes even further.
Where to shout: Digital rental
Arachnophobia (1990)
Although director Frank Marshall’s spider attack film is mostly played for laughs and chronicles the chaos that unfolds after a hapless nature photographer returns an arachnid hitchhiker from a trip to the jungle, it includes more than one truly chill-inducing moment for anyone. who shares this film. titular fear, even a little (we are talking about slippers). There’s real terror here for anyone even remotely knocked off their feet by something with that many legs.
Where to shout: Tubi
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi are back in this sequel, which is very similar to the remake of the first, but much darker. Raimi clearly feels that raising the level of violence to ridiculous levels makes the film funnier – and he’s 1000% right. Seriously, directors: keep pumping blood, we’ll keep laughing.
Where to shout: Shudder, Freevy, Tooby.
Cocaine Bear (2023)
A very thoughtful B-movie, Cocaine Bear nonetheless boasts stellar talent both behind and in front of the camera, with Elizabeth Banks directing and Keri Russell starring. Based on a true story, the title largely abandons the premise of an American black bear snorting about 75 pounds of cocaine and going crazy.
Where to shout: Prime Video
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
After Night of the Living Dead , George Romero and the film’s co-writer John Russo parted ways, sending the unlikely franchise in different directions. Romero’s films are serious social commentary, while Russo’s approach is deeply satirical, satirizing American capitalism as well as the punks and goths who oppose it in equal measure. It’s actually quite funny, such as when the zombies destroy several paramedics and manage to muster enough eloquence to ask the radio dispatcher to “send more paramedics.”
Quiet Family (1998)
In “The Quiet Family,” starring Song Kang-ho ( “Snowpiercer , ” “Parasite “), a large family moves from Seoul to the mountains for a taste of the slow-paced life; they bought a large house which they plan to turn into a camping house. This all sounds great until they have to deal with first one body, then another, and then several more bodies as they try to cover up other deaths. It’s all gloriously absurd.
Where to shout: Freevi
Idle Hands (1999)
It takes clueless stoner Anton Tobias (Devon Sawa) a week or so to notice that his parents are missing (where did the cat get an eyeball?), but he soon realizes that his arm is possessed (appropriately) and that it will keep killing. even if it is torn from your hand. I guess there’s also a metaphor for skilled high school students being used here, but it’s probably best not to read too much into the movie and just enjoy it.
Where to shout: Pluto
Bride of Chucky (1998)
Most Child’s Play films contain comedy to some degree (the show’s strength is that it acknowledges its inherent silliness), but Bride of Chucky introduces Jennifer Tilly’s Tiffany as Chucky’s equally deranged counterpart, and her performance brings the situation home to a whole new level. level. By the time the two dolls creatively kill a couple of crooks and have sex afterwards, it becomes abundantly clear what kind of strange movie we’re in. The sequel, Seed of Chucky , takes the comedy even further.
Where to shout: Peacock, USA
M3GAN (2022)
More killer dolls, more problems. By the time bad surrogate parent and unlikely gay icon M3GAN shows off his killer moves on his way to killing some guys with a paper cutter blade, it’s clear we’re witnessing the birth of a horror-comedy star.
Where to shout: Prime Video
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)
The perfect pairing of Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk finds the two scruffy country boys on the wrong side of one of the oldest slasher movie stereotypes: their appearance convinces a group of college-aged tourists that they are backwoods types who will probably kill them. while they are sleeping. A series of mostly funny misunderstandings only add to the confusion in a film that, for all its silliness, has a surprising amount of heart.
Where to Shout: Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Crackle
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
A timeless horror-comedy classic, Shaun of the Dead is also one of the best zombie films. Slacker Sean (Simon Pegg) lives with his lazy best friend Ed (Nick Frost) on the outskirts of London. Watching these two gradually rise to the occasion in the face of the zombie apocalypse is truly a joy to behold, and the film begins with a great core joke: in a world of meaningless routine and mindless consumption, you don’t even notice that the zombie has taken over.
Where to shout: Hulu, Peacock
Night Camp (1983)
I’m not sure Sleepaway Camp was intended to be funny, but the film has so many strange moments and strange decisions that it’s hard not to view it with modern eyes as a complete parody of the Friday the 13th genre. It’s a cult classic for that reason, and also because of the crazy twist ending that is either inspiring or deeply offensive.
Where to Shout: Peacock, Tooby, Crackle, Freevy, Shout Factory TV
One Dead Man Cut (2017)
The micro-budget Japanese film opens with a 37-minute continuous shot of the zombie film’s crew being attacked by real zombies. It’s all clever and includes some funny jokes. However, the film earned its reputation for the major narrative reversals that occur in the second and third acts, the types of twists that call into question everything you’ve seen before. It’s best to watch without knowing more, really.
Where to shout: Wince
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Two American tourists, David and Jack (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne), are attacked by a werewolf while traveling in England. Through incredible, mind-bending practical effects, David becomes an increasingly dangerous wolf-man, and Jack becomes his increasingly intelligent ghost-corpse companion.
Where to Shout: AMC+, Roku Channel, Pluto.