The 20 most memorable horror-comedies

“Ghostbusters” also came out in 1984, but that’s just a full-on comedy. Sure, it involves ghosts and Slimers and men made of marshmallow, but aside from maybe two jump scares it doesn’t feel like a horror movie. “Gremlins” is much more threading the needle on horror and comedy. It’s considered one of the movies that spawned the PG-13 genre for a reason. “Gremlins” also happens to be effective as a dark comedy, and it spawned a delightfully-bananas sequel.

Edgar Wright could make five “Last Night in Soho” quality movies and we’d still be interested in what he does. Why? Because he directed “Shaun of the Dead.” This is arguably the best horror-comedy ever made, and such an astute genre riff. Playing with tropes rarely is as effective as it is in “Shaun of the Dead” There’s a reason why it gave both Wright and Simon Pegg careers in the United States.

We are of the uncommon opinion that “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” the movie is better than the TV show. Joss Whedon himself comes down on the other side of things. The concept of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is much stronger in the movie, which is tongue-in-cheek and a lot of fun. Kristy Swanson’s Buffy, a vapid Valley Girl, is actually funny and compelling as a slayer of vampires. Sure, the budget was low, and the vampires look a bit silly, but the horror tropes run rampant through what is perhaps the Last of the ‘80s Comedies.

John Goodman as a John Milius-esque exterminator (Walter from “Big Lebowski” is also Milius-esque, so clearly Goodman works in such a context) delivers most of the comedy. Otherwise, “Arachnophobia” is a creature feature that lives up to the title. Spiders of all sorts come out of the woodwork (often literally) in a small town. Big ones, poisonous ones, you name it. Although, if you truly have arachnophobia, there may be very little levity to be found in this one.

Because the ghost with the most has become a cultural touchstone, and because Michael Keaton is such a delight, it’s easy to forget all the horror elements of “Beetlejuice.” Even the titular character is an unhinged, amoral menace who tries to press a tween girl into marriage. Beyond Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s movie is filled with gross-out sight gags, and they are indeed both gross and gags. The movie operates on the same level the main character does.

Famously, “Night of the Living Dead” ended up in the public domain, and the world that stemmed from George A. Romero’s iconic film got pretty wild as well. John Russo wrote that film with Romero, after which they parted ways. They agreed Romero could do his own things with the intellectual ideas of that movie, and Russo would have the right to use “Living Dead” in future titles. That birthed “The Return of the Living Dead,” an insane comedy that rules. The punkest comedy this side of “Repo Man,” in the world of this film “Night of the Living Dead” is a movie that exists, but it turns out to be based on real events. A toxic sludge was responsible and, well, if you think teenage punks aren’t going to mess things up, think again.

“Army of Darkness,” the third movie in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, is the most comedic. However, it’s more of a riff on Ray Harryhausen movies. “Evil Dead II” is basically a comedic take on, well, “The Evil Dead.” While this movie isn’t a remake of Raimi’s first film, it is essentially the same movie but less nasty. It’s also better for it, the right mix of creepy, gross, and funny.

Here’s a horror-comedy for the younger crowd (or parents who want to introduce their children to the wonderful world of horror-comedy). Based on R.L. Stine’s books adored by Millennials, the conceit of the film is pretty clever. Jack Black plays Stine, and it turns out his “Goosebumps” books are essentially enchanted, and capable of coming to life. There’s even a pretty decent sequel if you really want to go down this road.

Speaking of clever conceits, there’s a good chance even fans of this subgenre haven’t heard of “The Final Girls.” It’s worth seeking out, though. Taissa Farmiga plays the daughter of a woman who becomes a famed scream queen thanks to the movie “Camp Bloodbath.” The mother dies in a car accident and a few years later Farmiga’s character goes to a screening of the film. Instead of closure, she and her friends end up transported into the movie, and now they need to try and survive the all-too-real Camp Bloodbath.

Once people are breaking into song and dance, it’s hard to keep the comedy out of the horror. Based on a musical based on a straightforward Roger Corman movie, “Little Shop of Horrors” is your classic moral conundrum tale. A mild-mannered employee at a floral shop gains fame, and the attention of the woman he’s crushing on, thanks to a mysterious plant he finds. Is that plant a mean, green mother from outer space? You bet, and it thrives on blood. Also Steve Martin is a sadistic dentist, so there’s that.

We’re doubling down on Joe Dante, who also directed “Gremlins,” and we could have also mentioned “The ‘Burbs” as well. The guy had a knack for the genre. “Piranha” was greenlit to try and capture the fervor caused by “Jaws” in 1975. Owing to Dante’s sensibilities (and a screenplay from future Oscar nominee John Sayles) there is more life in “Piranha” than most “Jaws” knockoffs. It’s got just the right amount of cleverness and impishness to it.

A low-budget mockumentary in the horror space, you may know the name “What We Do in the Shadows” now thanks to a fairly-successful FX show based on the movie. The film, though, is a bit darker, though still plenty funny. After all, it stars its writers and directors, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. New Zealand really took the whole vampire thing in new directions.

“Vampire’s Kiss” has become a cult classic thanks to Nicolas Cage. When people talk about Cage’s off-the-wall acting, this is the kind of movie one can truly find that, but in ways that serve the movie. Or, at least, the experience. It can be hard to parse what about “Vampire’s Kiss” is intentionally darkly comic, and what is just one laughing at Cage’s performance choices. Also, which of those choices were intended to be funny? It’s the most-fascinating movie ever to feature a scene of a future Oscar winner reciting the alphabet.

The concept of “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” probably outpaces the execution by, say, 20 percent. However, it’s still a good movie. Tucker and Dale are, well, they’re hillbillies. Nice guys, though! They scrounge some money together to buy a cabin on a lake in the West Virginia woods, and maybe they can spruce it up and make something of it. Meanwhile, a group of hard-partying college kids have come to the same town to let loose. Familiar with the slasher genre, but not very bright, they just assume Tucker and Dale are, you know, slasher villains. It’s essentially a comedy of errors with a lot more gore than usual.

A good, old-fashioned monster movie with some laughs in it. “Tremors” focuses on a tiny town out in Nevada that finds itself besieged by “graboids,” giant, carnivorous, wormlike creatures. Isolated from the world, they need to figure out how to survive. It speaks to the quality of the execution that “Tremors” isn’t seen as some misfire in the early career of Kevin Bacon. It’s spawned five direct-to-video sequels and even a TV series. Michael Gross has been in all of them, because he rules.

“Zombieland” was the debut film of director Ruben Fleischer, and when you look at the rest of his filmography, it makes you go “Huh…” This movie did not presage a storied, successful career. He’s pretty much just made trash ever since, including his belated “Zombieland” sequel. And yet, this movie still holds up. Maybe it’s because Jesse Eisenberg was the right guy for the lead. Maybe it was being in early on Emma Stone. Maybe it was the Bill Murray cameo. It was probably all three.

We got curious about looking into the early days of the horror-comedy, and just how early we could get. While Abbott and Costello were always hanging out with various monsters, those were really just comedy movies with monsters in them. Based on a highly-successful, long-running Broadway play, the film version of “Arsenic and Old Lace” is a Frank Capra screwball comedy, but honestly it’s kind of a horror film as well. It may star Cary Grant, but he plays a man with a mentally-unwell brother who lives with his aunts. Those aunts happen to make a habit of murdering aging bachelors to “end their suffering.” Yeah, that sounds like the plot of a horror movie to us.

“An American Werewolf in London” manages to make death and dismemberment pretty funny. It is also renowned for a couple things. One is the remarkable special effects, particularly the scene wherein the protagonist is seen transforming into a werewolf. However, John Landis’ film also innovates by making that transformation process incredibly painful for the character. That just ramps up the horror of the piece.

“Groundhog Day,” but with murder. Yeah, that’ll work for a horror-comedy, at least if executed well. Fortunately for all parties involved, “Happy Death Day” was executed well. A college girl keeps reliving her birthday, which she also happens to be murdered on. While she manages to change the details with each revisit, a grisly death remains the end result…until she can figure things out.

We did mention it’s been a banner time for horror-comedies. “M3GAN” was kind of a horror-comedy, in 2024 we had “Abigail,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” and “Unfrosted” (that was supposed to be horrifying, right?). The first third of 2025 offered up “Heart Eyes” and “Hell of a Summer,” but to honor the first part of the year we’re going with “The Monkey.” It’s a relatively new movie, so we won’t say too much about the plot. We’ll just say this. You know those comedy bits based on the idea of repetition first being funny, then being annoying, but then being funny again? “The Monkey” operates on that theory.