How to Make a Good Horror-Comedy (Because Most People Can't Get It Right)

Laughs and scares don't easily go hand in hand.

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Complex Original

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See that handsome devil up there? That's Milo, the titular creature in the new horror-comedy Bad Milo (which hits Video On-Demand today, in advance of its October 4 theatrical opening). He's a rambunctious demon that lives inside the colon of star Ken Marino's character, also named Ken—whenever Ken gets angry, Milo crawls out of his rectum and fatally slaughters whomever's making his owner mad. Yes, Milo's literally the shit. Harkening back to the days of E.T. (1982) and, of course, Mac and Me (1988), Milo is all practical effects, no distracting CGI. 

Bad Milo the movie is endearing but ultimately one-note, relying too heavily on its central joke—there's a monster in this dude's ass and it kills people! How wacky! To the film's credit, though, it's much, much better than the majority of independent horror-comedies that have debuted in recent years. Too often, filmmakers commit one of the many cardinal sins that'll immediately prevent a movie from joining the ranks of classics like An American Werewolf in London (1981), Creepshow (1982), and Shaun of the Dead (2004).

The next time a screenwriter and director try their hand at funny scares, someone should point them in the direction of our helpful guide on How to Make a Good Horror-Comedy, free of charge.

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Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone)

Play the horror elements seriously.

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Lesson learned from: Fright Night (1985), Shaun of the Dead (2004), This Is the End (2013)

What makes a horror movie? Its ability to scare the viewer, for one—that at times inexplicable way a film creeps under the skin, festers in a person's memory, and makes healthy sleeping habits hard to maintain. What's the polar opposite of "scary," then? The Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988), a ridiculous zombie misfire with several infuriating blunders. When a rotting corpse's severed, still functioning cranium gets a screwdriver driven into it, it says, with a hokey southern accent, "Get that damn screwdriver out of my head!" Later, a ghoul dressed like Michael Jackson for no good reason strikes a Wacko Jacko dance poses while being electrocuted:

See, that's not funny.

In addition being lazy, these gags are also instant credibility breakers. Even when a horror movie's trying to make you laugh as much as you cringe in fear, the horrific threats still need to be taken seriously. A great example of this is Shaun of the Dead—the jokes are all sharp and the characters are genuinely amusing, but whenever the zombies attack and/or connect en masse, it's convincingly imposing. The undead never smirk, nor do they act out of I-want-to-eat-your-flesh character. And, because of that, Shaun of the Dead has more than a few scenes that stand up against the best George Romero Dead film moments.

The comedy needs to stand on its own, outside of the horror motivations.

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Get gross, not gory.

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Lesson learned from: Re-Animator (1985), Dead Alive (1992)

OK, so the jokes are legitimately funny and the horror stuff is authentically frightening. Got it. But how frightening do you get, and by what means?

If you're ever trying to traumatize your friend, go rent the 2007 French knockout Inside, which has some incredibly tough-to-watch imagery of the dismemberment and unsanitary-C-section variety. You'd have to be the real-life version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer's main character to find anything in Insidethe slightest humorous. Carving a living woman's womb open is about as funny as a Whitney Cummings joke.

Putting carnage of that intensity level into a horror-comedy isn't gonna work. Keep in mind, the point is to allow viewers to enjoy themselves and chuckle as much as they shiver.

The solution: Make the gore cartoonish—there's no such thing as "over-the-top" in a horror-comedy. The more outlandish the visuals are, the easier it is for audiences to accept the ridiculousness and laugh it up. Case in point: Peter Jackson's magnificently gross Dead Alive, a zombie flick where an old woman eats soup with the key ingredient of "decrepit zombie ear," the hero goes chainsaw-happy in one of the goriest-yet-silliest sequences ever put on film, and large monsters pop out of small human orifices.

You can't help but laugh at something that absurd.

Make it a point to subtly acknowledge the genre's history and biggest cliches.

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Don't go overboard with horror movie references.

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Don't involve the Wayans Brothers.

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Don't stunt-cast the villain role.

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Lesson learned from: Santa's Slay (2005)

This applies to any kind of horror, comedic or otherwise.

You know Leatherface, the hulking, skin-wearing cannibal freakshow in Tobe Hooper's iconic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)? Pretty damn terrifying, right? Leatherface fits into that movie perfectly, since, like the rest of its cast, we've never seen him before. For all we know, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre could actually be some kind of Man Bites Dog-like documentary, in which real backwoods nutjobs kill real flower-child innocents. It feels that real.

Now try to imagine The Texas Chainsaw Massacre starring a professional wrestler as Leatherface, and not then-unknown actor Gunnar Hansen. There's no way you'd be scared of him. It'd be unintentionally goofy, not paralyzing scary. In other words, it'd be the 2006 movie See No Evil, the underwhelming slasher flick starring WWE bruiser Kane.

Where's Paul Bearer when you need him?

Or, even worse, it'd be the wholly unfunny Santa's Slay, that Yuletide shitshow starring one-time wrestling champion Goldberg. Pick your poison.

When all else fails, revisit old Troma Entertainment movies.

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Lesson learned from: The Toxic Avenger (1985), Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)

Every student needs a teacher, or at least an effective curriculum. In regards to making good horror-comedies, if your goal is to create the funniest, goriest, wildest, and most WTF hilarious genre movie possible, consult the school of Lloyd Kaufman, the fun-loving mastermind behind the infamous indie production/distribution company Troma Entertainment.

With their tongues always firmly planted in cheeks, the Troma team specialized in self-aware ludicrousness. Whereas "serious" filmmakers were trying their hardest to deliver fresh monsters comparable to the genre's iconic greats, Kaufman and his colleagues went ahead and aimed for wacky absurdism with 1985's The Toxic Avenger.

And while every George Romero fan with a camera was aping Night of the Living Dead, Troma went for the gold with Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, which is about exactly what it sounds like: an outbreak of man-sized chickens that act like zombies and are undeniably terrific.

Sure, Troma movies defy the first rule we presented, about "playing the horror elements seriously," but whatever. There's always room for Toxie and those evil chickens. If you can't scare 'em, make 'em giggle like Beavis and Butthead hearing the word "balls."

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