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

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)

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.

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

This Is the End, 2013's funniest movie so far, is piss-your-pants hilarious. Funnymen Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and James Franco crack endless jokes at one another's expense, clowning everything from Pineapple Express to Hill's recent Academy Award nomination for Moneyball. In one particularly uproarious scene, McBride and Franco get into an epic argument about the former jacking off to the latter's prized dirty magazines. It's amazing.

And it doesn't need the film's apocalyptic/demonic elements, which come into play later on and are admittedly badass, to sell the humor. This Is the End would've been equally as funny as it'd been titled This Is Judd Apatow's Friends Making Fun of Themselves. It's a comedy first and a horror flick second, and once the horror kicks in, co-directors Rogen and Evan Goldberg adhere to our first rule and play the monsters straight. Thus, This Is the End is the genuine article for making an effective horror-comedy.

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.

Lesson learned from: Scream (1996), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), You're Next (2013)

Horror fans appreciate it when filmmakers share their enthusiasm for the genre and their knowledge of its past. Moreover, they'll salute the hell out of someone's horror-comedy if it's loaded with intelligently executed and well-placed subversions and/or riffs on of the genre's most overused tropes. It shows that the screenwriter and director aren't just some paycheck-cashing hacks who want to exploit the horror community's viewing interests. It implies, "Hey, these filmmakers really know their shit," and it's rather comforting.

A prime example of this is last year's The Cabin in the Woods, an aggressively meta horror-comedy that hinges on the audience's understanding of the genre's history and its myriad monsters, ghoulies, and creepers.

Without giving anything away here to those who've yet to experience co-makers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's brilliant film firsthand, let's just say that The Cabin in the Woods expects you to know about Asian horror cinema and comprehend the fact that Hollywood has rebooted all of the classic Universal Monster movies except The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Otherwise, some of the film's smartest bits won't connect.

Lesson learned from: Hysterical (1983)

If the objective is to make a straight-up spoof, then, sure, go crazy with the visual winks, familiar soundtrack cues, and on-the-nose references to every popular horror movie imaginable. Of course, your movie will immediately warrant mentions alongside those increasingly awful Scary Movie sequels and cinematic dung like Stan Helsing and Meet the Spartans, but at least every viewer will know that you, like them, watch a ton of movies.

Horror fans who appreciate subtlety and filmmakers who respect their intelligence, however, will most likely hate your film. Or just laugh it off as disposable art. When's the last time you heard anyone cite the '80s comedy team/siblings the Hudson Brothers' 1983 horror-comedy Hysterical? Never, and one reason for its residence in noiseless obscurity is that Hysterical is little more than a string of referential gags that a 13-year-old could've conceived.

Amongst other follies in Hysterical, there's an overt riff on Jack Nicholson's "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" bit from The Shining (see the picture above) and a nutty doomsayer who rides around on his bicycle as if he's pedaled in directly from the original Friday the 13th (1980). Even the Wayans Brothers would watch the bicyclist's scenes and say, "How lame." And speaking of which...

Lesson learned from: Scary Movie 2 (2001), A Haunted House (2013)

It's not that Shawn, Marlon, and Keenen Ivory Wayans aren't funny. As I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), In Living Color, The Wayans Bros., and, yes, even the first Scary Movie (2000) prove, when the siblings are on, they're downright hilarious. But a strange thing happened during the creation of Scary Movie 2—the Wayans family ran out of good material.

Nearly everything they've touched post-Scary Movie 2 has been comedy kryptonite, especially Marlon's solo bid at genre spoofing, A Haunted House, a lifeless and often shameful attempt to poke fun at found-footage horror flicks that spends more time committing homophobia than it does cleverly milking POV cinema for all its worth.

We have no doubt that the Wayans Bros. will once again be funny, but until that day comes (might we suggest an In Living Color reunion special?), hopefully they'll steer clear of rehashing the Scary Movie franchise they launched 13 years ago and wisely abandoned after the second one sucked wind. Oh, wait, that's right—Marlon's already working on another A Haunted House.

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.

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.