10 Essential Horror Comedies to Get Out and Watch

Today sees the digital release of director Jordan Peele‘s horror-comedy Get Out. The film cemented itself as a true classic earlier this year by bringing us into a terrifying world that is only a step away from our reality, but also by making us laugh. Featuring prescient satire, hilarious one liners, and a punchline that builds up through the whole movie, Get Out will be remembered as one of the greatest horror comedies of all time and it joins a great club. To mark the occasion of its journey home, we’ve compiled ten more horror comedies worth watching (or re-watching) with five classics and five modern entries.

Essential Horror Comedies: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Every time you see a list like this, you will find this movie, and there’s a reason why: it’s amazing. By the time this feature came along, the Universal Monsters were basically retired, relics of an era that had gone as quickly as it came, but injecting the thrills of those beasts with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello makes for the right kind of combination. Not only is it a great movie but it is filled with icons of two genres.

Essential Horror Comedies: Student Bodies (1981)

Though light on true scares and heavy on the gags, Student Bodies is a must watch for fans of zany comedies like Airplane and The Naked Gun. The film heavily spoofs slasher movies like Halloween, Prom Night, and Friday the 13th while also including gags centered around Carrie and The Shining. Ahead of its time in terms of horrors spoofing but also in comedy due to its incredibly bizarre and almost Lynch-like characters.

Essential Horror Comedies: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

John Landis not only made the best werewolf movie with his 1981 classic, but also one of the best horror comedies of all time (and furthermore one of the best movies ever, but I digress). An American Werewolf in London hits all four quadrants for a good night at the movies: It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s sexy, and you care about what happens to the characters. Also, Rick Baker’s effects are, ahem, no joke.

Essential Horror Comedies: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Twelve years after the first film, Tobe Hooper’s follow-up that spawned the backwoods horror subgenre reinvented the franchise as a black comedy. Hooper always intended for the original film to be funny and doubled down on the antics for the sequel to make sure his point came across. Furthermore, he upped the thrills and gore as well, delivering on of the most blood drenched gut busters in theaters.

Essential Horror Comedies: Evil Dead II (1987)

Sam Raimi’s follow-up, while part sequel and part remake, could only have been born from his delightfully-twisted mind. A mesh up pure slapstick and outlandish gore, Evil Dead II is the kind of sequel that only comes once in a blood moon: revered as better than the first and an improvement on the material in every way. Bruce Campbell’s take as Ash has never been better either, giving life and dimension to a genre stereotype and making him an icon.

Essential Horror Comedies: Tokyo Zombie (2005)

While 2004 brought us the gold standard of modern horror-comedy with Shaun of the Dead, Japan released their own zed-filled picture the next year. Featuring the trademark weirdness one would expect from a Japanese movie, Tokyo Zombie is heavy on dark humor which holds together the story that unfolds in unexpected but profound ways. Though it’s a screwball horror on the surface it’s actually a great film about friendship at its core.

Essential Horror Comedies: Teeth (2007)

What makes Teeth so special as a horror-comedy is in how it plays to audiences. Some will certainly see a film about a woman with teeth in her vagina as a tried and true horror movie, while many will appreciate its (ahem) biting satire as a topic ripe for commentary and parody. Furthermore, the film’s core satire on the topic of rape culture is certainly ahead of its time and worthy of watching in a modern context.

Essential Horror Comedies: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s send up of all of horror is the be-all, end-all of horror comedy. Lampooning every inch of the genre while also reinventing and subverting itself, so that it’s never clear what could happen next. As if you needed another reason though: every monster you could ever possibly think of is here. Yup, even that one.

Essential Horror Comedies: This is the End (2013)

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were already making culture-defining comedies for many years by the time their directorial debut came along, but This is the End is far and away their best movie. Featuring the kind of imagery unheard of from major studio movies, This is the End takes to waters that no one else dares and delights in its grotesquery.

Essential Horror Comedies: Krampus (2015)

Michael Dougherty’s long awaited follow-up to Trick ‘r Treat is all around better than his debut feature, which was in itself a solid picture worth rewatching every Halloween. With Krampus, Dougherty tapped into a special well that few have tread on before: the holiday horror. Filling the void left by Gremlins, Krampus is a haunting and hilarious tale to gather the whole family for around the tree.