I got to thinking about films that manage, with reasonable degrees of success, to be both funny and scary (if not at the same time, necessarily). Turns out, there are quite a number that could be nominees, but most get disqualified in short order on one of two points: not funny, or not scary. I'd count Innocent Blood (the main point of interest there being the ever-delicious Anne Parillaud, post-Nikita) as being among the former, and Young Frankenstein as being among the latter, for example. But some films do manage to find a workable balance between stuff that makes you laugh and stuff that makes you jump or wince. So, light 'em up if you've got 'em, and without further ado...
- Fright Night--Charlie Brewster is the kind of teenager I was, with a room full of "Famous Monsters of Hollywood" models, staying up late Saturday nights to watch Chiller Theater. Late one night, some new neighbors move into the long-abandoned house next door, hauling an ominous-looking long wooden box. That's right: your new neighbor is a vampire. Chris Sarandon is suave and hilarious as Jerry Dandridge, a California vampire if ever there was one, Jonathan Stark is perfect as Renfield to Sarandon's Dracula, and Roddy McDowell is great as the querelous host of said late-Saturday-night horror-fest, Peter Vincent, "Vampire Slayer". Lots of laughs, lots of scares, cool effects. One of my favorites.
- Night of the Comet--Another one of my absolute favorites. Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney (who's also "Zoe Kelli Simon" and "D. Mason Keener", depending on what she's doing, evidently, but who's cute as blazes no matter what she calls herself) are teenage sisters from the Valley who find themselves the only people left in LA (and maybe the world) after the Earth passes through the tail of a killer comet, and all witnesses are reduced to dust. Turns out partial witnesses turn into mutants, which adds to the fun. The movie is completely stolen by one Ivan E. Roth as "Willie", the leader of the "mall mutants", who gets away with all of the best lines: "If bachelorette number one isn't out here in half a tick, I'm gonna ice bachelorette number two!"
- An American Werewolf in London--John Landis can do comedy, no question. Here he shows us that he can do the scary stuff too, in this film featuring David Naughton as the unwitting victim of a werewolf bite incurred while lost with his best friend (who doesn't survive his werewolf bite) on the English moors. Again, a pile of funny stuff interspersed with a truly frightening story, supported by amazing special effects--the transformation scene (engineered by Rick Baker) is a classic, and rightfully so. Another plus (for me, anyway, Your Mileage May Vary) is a pretty good number of scenes featuring Jenny Agutter and no clothing.
- Phantom of the Paradise--An early Brian de Palma film, with a catchy rock score by Paul Williams, who also plays the part of the Devil (or his henchman, at least) in this updated melange of Phantom of the Opera and Faust. More funny than scary, admittedly, but a terrific film. de Palma, as usual, steals shamelesslly and well from every other director in sight. Point of interest: I appeared as an extra in the rock concert scene about two-thirds of the way through the movie. Don't bother looking for me; I can't find me, and I know what I look like....
- The Frighteners--Now that everyone knows who Peter Jackson is, you could do much worse things with an evening than go back and check out this earlier film. Michael J. Fox, likeable as ever, plays Frank Bannister, an ex-architect-become-"psychic investigator" following the death of his wife, and his survival, in a mysterious car crash. Franks sees dead people now, who talk back to him and give him a generally hard time. Thirty apparently healthy people in his small town have died of a mysterious "heart ailment" in recent months; what connection does it have with his wife's death and with the mass murders years ago at the local mental hospital? Frank finds himself--"I've gotta take an out-of-body journey and I've gotta take it now!"--on the case, along with a few of his spectral sidekicks. Jeffrey Combs (Herbert West in Re-Animator) is stupendously fabulous as a psychotic undercover cult investigator for the FBI ("I'm an asshole with an Uzi!")...
- Arachnophobia--Jeff Daniels is a small-town doctor, faced with an invasion of monster spiders which smuggled themselves into the conuntry inside of the coffin of a photographer one of 'em chomped on in South America. Not for the arachnophobic--there are spiders galore here, and they're everywhere. John Goodman is excellent as the exterminator who is enlisted into the battle against the insect kingdom.
- The Stuff--Larry Cohen takes on corporate exploitation in this film concerning the marketing of some tasty sludge that inexplicably begins oozing up from the ground. It's delicious, it's addictive, and when you've eaten enough, it turns around and eats you back. Turns out you're delicious, too. Michael Moriarty pulls hero duties here, as well as the best line in the movie. His reaction on being told that he's not as stupid as he looks: "Nobody's as stupid as I look."
- Tremors--Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are a pair of layabouts in a dying Western town which finds itself isolated and attacked by gigantic, wormlike monsters. Reba McIntire and Michael Gross are hilarious as a couple of rabid gun nuts who spring to the defense. Some disgusting special effects and a lotta fun. Skip the two sequels, by all means.
- Evil Dead 2--No comedy horror film festival could possibly be complete without an appearance from Bruce Campbell's chin. But which one? Of Sam Raimi's cautionary tales warning against messing around with books of ancient evil that you find in other people's basements, this one is--for my money--the funniest. Raimi himself wasn't really satisfied with the original Evil Dead, hence this remake (it's not really a sequel in any meaningful sense), and Army of the Dead is (again, for my money) a good ways over the top. This one is just right. "Groovy!"
- The Nightmare Before Christmas--This one was a tough call, since it seems not to have the scariness factor really going, but I think it deserves a place on here anyway. Jack Skellington, King of Halloween, decides to do a more-o-r-less hostile takeover of Christmas, too. Jack has fallen in love with the lights, songs and happy trappings of the holiday, and now wants nothing more than to be Santa. So, he kidnaps the real Santa Claus, and sets the monsters of Halloween Town to "making Christmas" for all the little boys and girls--and is it ever gonna be scary! Produced by TIm Burton (whose touch is in abundant evidence), and with a wonderful score by Danny Elfman, this should be on everyone's Christmas (or Halloween) viewing list.
Lots of Honorable Mentions: Mars Attacks, Dawn of the Dead, Re-Animator, Deep Rising, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Gremlins, Return of the Living Dead, Eating Raoul, From Dusk till Dawn, The Prophecy... I also want to single out Lake Placid for special mention, not least for Oliver Platt's line, "Later tonight, I'll let you chew the bark off my big, fat log." |
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