Structurally, good horror and good comedy are more alike than a lot of people think. That’s why it makes sense that so many comedians end up trying their luck with scary movies – oftentimes to great success. One of the most recent examples of this is Zach Cregger, with the Whitest Kids You Know veteran […]
Structurally, good horror and good comedy are more alike than a lot of people think. That’s why it makes sense that so many comedians end up trying their luck with scary movies – oftentimes to great success. One of the most recent examples of this is Zach Cregger, with the Whitest Kids You Know veteran thrilling audiences with both 2022’s Barbarian and this year’s genre hit, Weapons.
However, even in a movie as disturbing as Weapons, Cregger still made a point of peppering some of his trademark humor into the story, a decision that I think is partially responsible for the film’s success. And in honor of clever filmmakers who know how to use humor as a palate cleanser in between terrifying scenes, we’ve decided to come up with a list highlighting six of the funniest laugh-out-loud moments in serious horror movies.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll only be including genuine scary movies, so no horror comedies like The Monkey or The Evil Dead franchise. We’ll also only be including intentional humor, so no instances of shoddy filmmaking turning a serious scene into an accidental laugh-riot. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite funny moments if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list…
6. The Shoot-Out – Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)
The Marked Ones was always meant to be targeted towards a younger audience, so it makes sense that it’s one of the most light-hearted entries in the Paranormal Activity franchise. However, nothing could have prepared filmgoers for the climax of the picture where a group of gangbangers aid our protagonists in their fight against a coven of witches by blasting them away with shotguns!
This thrilling scene is such a stark contrast to what came before (not only in the spin-off but in the rest of the franchise) that audiences couldn’t help but laugh as these hooded old ladies were blown to smithereens – a reaction that I’m fairly certain was intentional given how director Christopher Landon would later become known for his horror comedies.
5. Drayton Turns Off the Lights – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Tobe Hooper always maintained that the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre contained plenty of intentional humor, but folks were too distracted by the gritty aesthetics and disturbing villains to really pay attention (which is why the sequel is more of an outright comedy). However, some moments in Hooper and Kim Henkel’s original script are just too funny to ignore, such as the scene where Drayton Sawyer kidnaps Sally Hardesty and begins to drive away only to remember that he forgot to turn off the lights at his gas station.
Not only does this hilarious moment reveal just how desensitized the villain is regarding his criminal activities, but it also perfectly compliments the film’s recurring themes of poverty in small towns – an idea that the sequel would expand on as Drayton becomes something of a penny-pinching entrepreneur. After all, “The cost of electricity these days will drive a man out of business!”
4. The Bear – The Shining (1980)
Hardcore Stephen King fans know that the man in the bear costume who briefly appears as a ghostly vision in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is actually meant to look like a dog, but I’ve always found it curious how Kubrick chose to include this bizarre visual gag without exploring the dog-man’s disturbing backstory from the novel.
In fact, I’d argue that this oddball moment is a great example of the difference in storytelling philosophy between Kubrick and King when tackling the same narrative, with the filmmaker believing that the hotel’s haunting was more of an excuse to play around with absurdist imagery while he preferred to focus on Jack Torrance’s growing insanity.
3. “Ophelia, Call the Police!” – Us (2019)
Us may be a deeply strange movie, but no one would accuse this thrilling yarn about apocalyptic doppelgangers of being a particularly humorous experience – with the exception of that one scene where Peele couldn’t help but let his comedic instincts get the better of him through an iconic needle-drop.
Naturally, I’m referring to the moment where the Tyler family is attacked by their murderous doubles and Elisabeth Moss desperately asks her AI assistant to call the police – with “Ophelia” erroneously interpreting the command as “Play F*ck the Police by NWA.” I remember watching this scene in theaters and experiencing firsthand how the crowd went wild at the sheer insanity of this memorable movie moment, and that’s why it makes it onto the list.
2. Here Comes the Chair – Malignant (2021)
Despite presenting its absurd elements with a straight face, James Wan’s neo-Giallo thriller Malignant is an unabashedly ridiculous movie, and this dedication to exaggerated entertainment is precisely why I love it so much. One great example of the flick’s intentional moments of excess is the bonkers scene at the police station where Gabriel breaks out of jail and proceeds to beat the crap out of the entire police force, with the massacre culminating in a brutal chair-throw that has since become the subject of countless memes comparing the scene to a professional wrestling match.
And while some horror fans use this moment to poke fun at the film for being too silly, I think it’s pretty sure that Wan knew exactly what he was doing when he put an over-the-top action sequence in his slasher flick about a sentient tumor. I mean, this is the same filmmaker who once ended a movie with the reveal that one of the characters was a fleshy ventriloquism puppet the entire time, so you know the man has a wicked sense of humor.
1. Tin Foil Hats – Signs (2002)
M. Night Shyamalan is no stranger to using humor as a way of humanizing his characters even in the most horrific situations, and one of the most memorable gags in the filmmaker’s celebrated career has to be the scene in Signs where Mel Gibson walks in on his family wearing ridiculously large tin foil hats meant to protect them from aliens.
And while this odd piece of headwear is obviously meant to be taken as a joke, the fact that the family ends up resorting to believing in silly conspiracy theories also serves as a statement about how the extraterrestrial invasion changed the rules regarding what is and isn’t considered “silly.”
