The horror-comedy subgenre has a stylistic palette that's quickly attained acclaim. There's an argument to be made that layers of comedy can sometimes water down the lasting effects of a horror film. One could instead argue that expanding the appeal and tonality of a horror film is essential, especially in this day and age where viewers have shorter time spans and more content to watch than ever before in any sort of film genre. It's also important to comprehend that horror and comedy are both two visceral approaches to movies with almost bodily reactions (which both depend upon tension and release) that seemingly fit perfectly together. The purpose of a horror story is to scare you, while the purpose of a comedy is to ignite laughter; both create bodily responses unlike any other genre.

Creating a balance as a filmmaker is one of the best steps a person can take in order to benefit the audience one intends on serving. Instilling diversity in plot lines, not only through the experiences of different people but with different tones, will reel in additional audiences who may not have wanted to view a traditional horror film. Balancing out the gore with some dark comedy is a skill that's elevated some films from good to great, and these are some of the funniest horror comedies ever made. Whether you're too scared or just laughing too much, remember to breathe.

Update November 14, 2023: Just because Halloween is over does not mean you can't enjoy a good scary movie, and a good horror comedy is always welcome, so this article has been updated with more titles and where each film can be streamed.

13 The VelociPastor (2018)

Being groundbreaking in horror in the age of social media is challenging but not impossible. With a name like The VelociPastor, you know exactly what you're getting into when you press play. This silly horror comedy is written, directed, and edited by Brendan Steere. The movie stars Gregory James Cohan and Alyssa Kempinski and tells the story of Catholic priest Doug Jones, who gains the ability to become a dinosaur after being exposed to a mysterious artifact.

What Makes It Great

Just the name alone is an invitation to watch this underrated indie masterpiece. The whole concept of The Velocipastor is shrouded by an endearing, campy silliness that makes this film a must-watch if you want a few cheap laughs. It's a priest being convinced by a sex worker to use his newfound skills to turn into a dinosaur to fight ninjas and the Chinese Triads. This type of film has every element of old exploitation movies that no longer get made.

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12 The Menu (2022)

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The Menu was the breakout horror hit of 2022. Based on a story written by Will Tracy, who also wrote the screenplay, the film is directed by Mark Mylod and stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nicholas Hoult. In the story, a young couple visits an exclusive restaurant where Chef Slowik is about to serve the ultimate dinner to a group of guests, unaware of the fine thread connecting them all together.

What Makes It Great

The Menu was critically praised for offering a fantastic original premise that was a commentary on many current-day issues. The film takes shots at foodie culture and how it has killed the passion for cooking in chefs who only want to offer a good meal. It also touches on some of the shadiest practices incurred by investors during the COVID-19 pandemic that drove many restaurants out of business worldwide. The Menu is a dark satire that is worth watching.

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11 Totally Killer (2023)

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The most recent entry on this list, Totally Killer, is a genre twist on the slasher movie. Combining the setup of any slasher movie but with a sci-fi time travel mechanic of Back to the Future, Totally Killer sees a young girl go back in time to the 1980s, where she met her parents when they were teenagers. She has to stop a masked killer from killing her mom's friends back in the past while also trying to find a way to get back home.

Why It's Great

Totally Killer does exactly what you want from the premise. It delivers on all the fun jokes that a time travel movie delivers, from fish-out-of-water humor to culture clashes of someone from 2023 arriving in the 1980s. It also delivers the bloody kills that a slasher movie promises. The movie has the perfect balance as the killers are always brutal and terrifying and never played for laughs, but the movie knows the downtime between those moments can be funny.

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10 Zombieland (2009)

A great classic nowadays, Zombieland is an amusing horror comedy written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben Fleischer, starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. In a world ravaged by Zombies after a deadly virus overtakes most of humanity, four survivors try to stick together while doing their best to reach a rumored safe heaven located in Los Angeles while hunting for some good, old-fashioned Twinkies.

What Makes It Great

Zombieland is a fresh take on a concept everyone knows very well. Zombie apocalypse are normally played very tragic, so seeing it done in a humorous light was a nice change of pace and served as a nice counterpoint for The Walking Dead, which would do a serious take on the material one year later on AMC. Zombieland, like Scream, satirizes the genre and has the characters say and do things audiences have thought of for years. It is also worth noting that at the time, only Abigail Breslin had an Oscar nomination, and by the time the sequel came out all of the actors were Academy Award nominees and, in Emma Stone's case, an Oscar winner.

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9 Freaky (2020)

Vince Vaughn shines bright in his role as the notorious Blissfield Butcher in Freaky; you almost forget that his character is a ruthless murderer simply because everyone seems to love Vine Vaughn a million times over. The Blissfield Butcher switches bodies with 17-year-old Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) after his black magic dagger causes him and Millie to have a Freaky Friday sort of situation. The film wastes no time. The next morning of the apparent switch, the petrified teen learns that she has only 24 hours to get her identity back before she looks like the aging (no shade, Vince) psychopathic killer forever.

What Makes It Great

The Blissfield Butcher was not playing with his victims at all, slicing and dicing left and right and making this otherwise funny film often gruesome and horrific. Freaky was a unique spin on the slasher genre, using the body swap concept to significant comedic effect. The movie is going for the Freaky Friday model and, at one time, was even being developed under the clever working title, Freaky Friday the 13th. Released during the COVID-19 pandemic, Freaky was just the type of fun horror comedy audiences needed.

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8 Jennifer's Body (2009)

Demonic possession never looked so good. Jennifer's Body is one of those films that easily gets to you, deep inside your psyche, turning people off of concerts for a while after watching Jennifer (Megan Fox) get kidnapped by a rock band. Jennifer was sacrificed by the band Low Shoulder at a local bar as an aspect of musicians' black magic ritual on a virgin in their pursuit to achieve mainstream fame. Something obviously went wrong because Jennifer, who was 100% lying, was not a virgin. She then transforms into a flesh-eating succubus, seducing all the guys in her school and shortly thereafter killing them in this dark, sexy horror comedy. Jennifer's friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) attempts to end the killings and restore Jennifer back to her once-human persona.

What Makes It Great

Jennifer's Body was a box office bomb when it came out, but it has since been hailed as a modern feminist masterpiece. It has become a cult classic and a movie that has gotten better with age, sadly, as the predatory nature of men has only been highlighted more in recent years. Great performances from the entire cast, including a standout role for Megan Fox, Jennifer's Body is always worth a watch.

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7 Scream (1996)

The original Scream played almost every other hour on television during its time in syndication over the past 20-plus years, and, whatever the reason why, we were all sitting in front of our television sets, not complaining. What's so unique about Wes Craven as a director is his ability to incorporate an extensive range of human thought patterns and perspectives into one scene.

What Makes It Great

Let's use a not-so-fun encounter with Ghostface himself: one actor is visibly shaken up, another provides undertones of comedic relief, and the third actor is probably dead. Thanks to 2022's Scream and 2023's Scream VI, returning success and acclaim to the franchise, Scream has proven to be one of the greatest, more postmodern amalgams of horror and comedy we've ever seen and has probably the best cold open in horror history.

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6 Scary Movie (2000)

Speaking of Scream, Keenen Ivory Wayans created one of the most memorable and iconic parodies of all time, staring his famous brothers Shawn and Marlon, with Scary Movie out-parodying every single historical pop culture parody of its time, and collects great jokes about everything in the cultural lexicon circa 2000. The film takes jabs at scenes from Scream, The Matrix, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Blair Witch Project.

What Makes It Great

There really hasn't been a great parody since this original installment in the Scary Movie franchise, as it has dominated pretty much every other parody of the past two decades. This can be compared to LeBron out-shooting the opposing team in the last period to the point where the other team doesn't stand a chance at retaliating back. After 18-year-old Drew Decker (Carmen Electra) is chased outside her home and murdered, a la Scream, a not-so-bright group of friends realize a killer has invaded their lives in this horror comedy staple.

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5 Child's Play (1988)

In Child's Play and the subsequent Chucky films, a notorious serial killer frequently escapes death by performing an impromptu voodoo ritual in order to transfer his soul into a creepy ginger doll, Chucky. Child's Play is an effortless slasher film with components of dark humor, sometimes getting campy before rapidly reverting to being deeply disturbing.

What Makes It Great

Chucky has become a staple of horror, currently enjoying a revival with a great TV show running three seasons strong. Since its initial release in '88, the franchise has produced a total of six sequels and a remake. A PSA for mothers: please make it a point to gift your children with tons of Fortnite and Roblox gift cards instead of possibly bringing them a possessed toy doll. Your children will indeed thank you.

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4 Werewolves Within (2021)

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Werewolves Within is based on the video game of the same name, which is based on the popular card game. The film involves a local ranger assigned to a new town filled with colorful characters who, one night suddenly find themselves the target of a monstrous werewolf. Everyone is a suspect, and anyone can be a victim.

What Makes It Great

Werewolves Within is the best video game and most underrated video game movie adaptation, so it has that working in its favor. The outstanding ensemble of some of the best comedic actors working in Hollywood, including Sam Richardson and Milana Vayntraub, make Werewolves Within a great viewing experience and like the best improv session. The mystery is genuinely interesting as the audience is left guessing until the very end who the werewolf is or if there is even a werewolf at all. It is both genuinely gruesome but also laugh-out-loud funny.

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3 American Psycho (2000)

Telling the too-familiar tale of living two lives, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) works by day as an ultra-handsome executive and by night lives life as a frightful serial killer. It's so mind-blowing to see the transformation from day to night of Bateman. It reflects just how comfortable he was, dedicated and flawlessly shifting personas being two different people, yet Bale plays it perfectly by maintaining the same amount of smarm and arrogance throughout.

What Makes It Great

The film is filled to the brim with every single trope that's been labeled as problematic by modern standards. There's plenty of toxic masculinity combined with affluent male privilege oozing through the screen and practically staining any carpeted floors red. Now is a perfect time to revisit American Psycho, which humorously but appallingly shows how people turn a blind eye to obvious signals that something may not be right so long as a person is privileged and rich.

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2 Tragedy Girls (2017)

Horrifyingly funny though deeply disturbing, Tragedy Girls brilliantly incorporates elements of true crime, flat-out horror and borderline maniacal tendencies; McKayla Hooper and Sadie Cunningham are complete savages here, making having no friends in high school sounds like the American Dream. Both high school seniors, McKayla and Sadie, are deeply committed to running a true crime blog titled Tragedy Girls in their tiny Midwestern town of Rosedale.

What Makes It Great

After writing extensively about an insane serial killer, the two girls make the decision to commit killings themselves after the initial murderer abruptly stops. The girls begin to boost traffic through social media after each murder, catapulting them to instantaneous online stardom. Manipulative, violent, and death-obsessed teenage girls make puberty and menstruation sound like a cakewalk in this funny but surprisingly brutal film.

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1 Young Frankenstein (1974)

Young Frankenstein tells the story of respected medical professor Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder). After inheriting his grandfather's estate in Transylvania, Dr. Frankenstein abruptly dedicates his time to recreating his grandfather's experiments, with the help of servants Igor (Marty Feldman), Inga (Teri Garr) and the fearsome Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman). Although he successfully creates the monster commonly known as Frankenstein (Peter Boyle), problems abruptly rise to the surface when complications emerge.

What Makes It Great

Young Frankenstein is actually kind of beautiful in how it tells the story of an outsider who's striving to find his place in the world, but this doesn't stop it from being the funniest and most visually stimulating send-up of horror films ever made. The film is a parody of the traditional horror genre, but mostly spoofing acclaimed film director James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein; this movie has been elevated to the upper echelons of horror as one of the most iconic works of art ever in cinematography. Although many films began incorporating color into their projects long before the '70s, director Mel Brooks strived to make his parody in black and white due to his long time affection for the stylistic era.

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