While many of us like watching horror movies, some folks get scared by a pure horror film. However, if a bit of humor gets added to a horror movie then it suddenly becomes watchable for most of us. Here today we have compiled a list of the 40 best comedy horror movies of all time that you can enjoy with both screams and laughter:
40. A Haunted House 2 (2014)
It’s a humorous movie starring Marlon Wayans as Malcolm, who loses his once-possessed wife in a car accident and starts his new life by marrying a mother of two children. Paranormal activities start happening again when her back-to-life ex moves into the neighborhood.
Although the film was panned by critics, Marlon will do anything to make you laugh and he screams like a girl in the movie. This movie, being a spoof comedy, has many adapted scenes from Insidious, Conjuring, and some other recent popular horror movies.
39. Bride of Chucky (1998)
Chucky is undoubtedly one of the best horror movie characters out there and in this part, Chucky gets sewed back and brought to life again by his ex-girlfriend Tiffany. Chucky, however, electrocutes Tiffany to death uses a voodoo chant, and transfers Tiffany’s soul into a bridal female doll.
They both then go on a fun thrilling adventure, killing people and finding Chucky’s amulet that can turn them back to humans.
38. Scary Movie (2000)
Copyright: Dimension Films
The word “scary” has nothing much to do with this movie as it’s a comic spoof of other films like; I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Sixth Sense, Scream, and The Blair Witch Project.
The plot revolves around some dumb friends who accidentally kill a guy while driving, and a year later, a serial masked killer starts hunting them. Now, they must survive this killing spree and find out who the killer is.
37. Feast (2005)
A group of people gets locked inside a bar in the middle of nowhere. Outside the bar, some monsters will do anything to get in the bar and kill every person there.
A thrilling fight to the death ensues between the humans and the monsters and only time will tell how many humans can survive.
36. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)
About 30 years ago, Cassandra Peterson debuted as Elvira in this film who quits her horror TV shows and claims her inheritance of a haunted house and a recipe book that her late aunt left for her.
She gets a lot of attention and trouble from the town folks, and her greedy uncle wants the recipe book she inherited to rule the world.
35. House (1986)
Roger Cobb is a horror novelist whose son mysteriously disappears from his aunt’s house, which Roger later inherits after his aunt dies, and the search for his son destroys his married life.
This William Katt film is a classic haunted house film that has a lot of horror scenes nicely blended with funny elements.
34. Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)
When a popular fast food franchise by the name of American Chicken Bunker builds a restaurant on an ancient burial ground, the dead get seriously pissed and infect every last piece of the genetically modified poultry and take control of whoever eats it.
Although there are funny moments in the film, viewers with a rather soft heart should avoid this movie as it contains some of the most gruesome scenes that have ever been filmed in Hollywood.
33. Motel Hell (1980)
Farmer Vincent and his ugly sister Eda who owns the Motel Hell, are capturing and burying tourists, but not killing them. They first feed them till they get healthy enough and then they slaughter them and cook them as smoked meat which the whole town has been eating for years.
This horror-comedy portrays the farmers using specially processed human meat in their treats in the most gruesome possible way.
32. Piranha 3D (2010)
50,000 partygoers are enjoying the annual spring party at Lake Victoria when, after some sudden underwater disruption, a bunch of ancient man-eating piranhas gets awakened from their sleep.
Now, there’s nothing between them and hundreds of poor swimmers.
31. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Joe Dante’s sequel to the original Gremlins is probably the best light-hearted horror film that you will ever come across. The cartoonish violence of the cute-looking Gremlins is just plain fun.
The plot this time around focuses on Mogwai which creates an army of these malicious tiny creatures that take over a high-tech skyscraper and start creating havoc throughout the building. Now, Mogwai’s owner has to join forces with the head of the corporation to regain control of the building and to stop the ‘Gremlins’ from escaping.
30. Dead Snow (2009)
Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow is an extremely interesting intersection of two very different genres; war (World War 2 to be precise) and horror (zombies to be specific). The film though has its flaws but is still quite fun and unique in its own right.
The story centers on some medical students who for fun skiing time hit a cabin in the snowy woods. However, their fun trip turns into a fight for survival when they stumble upon a battalion of undead Nazi soldiers.
29. Grabbers (2012)
When Lisa Nolan, a police officer, comes to take charge of a remote Irish island, some bloodsucking aliens called ‘Grabbers’ also step foot in the same area and slowly start killing the inhabitants.
Lisa, with the help of some other survivors, discovers that the high alcohol level in the bloodstream is toxic for the blood-sucking aliens and that the only way to save people from the gruesome death is to stay drunk all night. Now, is there anything funnier than having a lot of drunk people together awaiting death?
28. Fright Night (2011)
This movie is a remake of the original classic horror-comedy Fright Night (1985) and is arguably one of the best remakes that the industry has ever seen.
The plot focuses on a teenager who suspects his neighbor of being a vampire and eventually decides to go after him with the help of a so-called vampire killer when a number of his friends go missing.
27. Army of Darkness (1992)
The third Evil Dead installment takes off right from where Evil Dead 2 left off. Ash gets transported back in time to 1300 A.D. from where he can only escape and return to his own time by finding the Book of the Dead, Necronomicon.
Ash being Ash, unintentionally awakes an entire army of the dead while getting the book and now has to stop it from acquiring the Necronomicon.
26. Cemetery Man (1994)
Cemetery Man is an Italian cinema masterpiece that is based on the novel of Tiziano Sclavi and focuses on the life of Francesco Dellamorte who works as an administrator in a cemetery along with another gravedigger in an Italian town known as Buffalora.
For some unknown reason, every buried corpse in the cemetery turns into a zombie after seven days of being buried and both Francesco and Gnaghi (the gravedigger) have to hunt them down. Things soon take a drastic turn when the deceased people they love turn into zombies.
25. Scream 2 (1997)
Two years after the incidents that occurred in Woodsboro, Sidney is off to Windsor College to forget the past, but little does she know that there is another serial killer on the loose who is using the same Ghostface costume and trying to recreate Woodsboro events.
If you liked the original Scream, you’ll love this one as it’s one of the finest horror movie sequels out there.
24. Creepshow (1982)
If you like the 50’s EC horror comics then this is the movie for you as George A. Romero and Stephen King combined forces to bring to life five different EC comics-inspired short stories that are both scary and hilarious.
23. Night of the Creeps (1986)
When an alien dumps its experimental subject into space, it crash lands on Earth and infects a teenage guy. 27 years later some college teens visit a mortuary to steal a corpse to fulfill a dare and accidentally expose the alien-infected dead body that in turn releases alien slugs that start turning human beings into killer zombies.
Now, it’s up to the two socially awkward freshmen, and a cop, to stop the zombies before it’s too late.
22. You’re Next (2011)
One of the smartest and most terrifying movies from Pop Skull (2007) by famed director Adam Wingard You’re Next, reinvents home-invasion horror.
The story centers around Davison’s family which gets attacked by a gang of masked and ax-wielding thugs and the situation suddenly looks grim for the family. But things get interesting when a guest of the family takes a surprising stand against the attackers.
21. Bubba Ho Tep (2002)
Mummies are somewhat scary and an Egyptian mummy is the main antagonist in this film. If you are a Bruce Campbell fan and like mummy films, then it’s a classic that you shouldn’t miss.
The film focuses on Elvis Presley who befriends a delusional patient Jack, who thinks that he is John F. Kennedy while living in a nursing home. These two courageous old fellows prepare to face off against a mummy that threatens to destroy their home sweet home.
20. The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
Also known as, “Pardon me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck”, is a story of an idiotic professor Abronsius, and his mindless assistant Alfred who travels to Transylvania to research vampires. Alfred falls in love with the innkeeper’s daughter Sarah, who gets kidnapped by a local vampire lord named Count Krolock.
Now, it’s up to the professor and his assistant, who are cowards, to begin with, to save her.
19. Fido (2006)
This Canadian zombie comedy film takes place in an Earthly world resembling the 1950s where humans and zombies co-exist thanks to a company named Zomcom that invents a collar that has turned zombies into slaves (the plot looks more like an infusion of “relation between a boy and his dog” concept into zombie universe).
A boy Timmy befriends his slave zombie named Fido but his father doesn’t feel comfortable with zombies, so Timmy has to go all out to keep Fido in the house.
18. Dead Alive (1992)
Also known as ‘Braindead’, it’s a classic black comedy and one of the early masterpieces of Peter Jackson.
Lionel takes his girlfriend there and his mother follows him. She gets bitten by that monkey which turns her into a zombie. The zombie grandmother then goes hunting people and whoever she bites also turns into a zombie. The end of the film is one of the finest in the genre where Lionel fights hordes of zombies thanks to an unwanted party at his house.
17. Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
It was largely critically panned on its release in 1975, but soon afterward became famous as a midnight movie. This movie to this day remains an ultimate cult classic and holds a record for being the longest-running theatrical release in Hollywood history.
The story is centered on a newly married couple that drives away from Ohio, stumbles upon Dr.Frank, and finds that he’s having a party, where he unveils his creation Rocky, who is a man-made Adonis, capable of breaking solid matter and projecting it through space.
It is going to be a night the couple will remember for a long period.
16. Tremors (1990)
It’s an ever-popular American Western monster film that was followed by 5 sequels, but none of them ever came close to the success of the initial masterpiece.
The plot focuses on a small town where out of nowhere suddenly 30-feet long hydra-headed terrifying underground creatures start sucking people underground. Town natives find themselves surrounded by these strange yet smart creatures that move under the desert as a fish moves in the sea. The town gets cut off from the rest of the world and now they have to find a way to get away from the desert alive without getting sucked underground.
15. Beetlejuice (1988)
Tim Burton brilliantly mixed horror and comedy genres with this film. It’s a story about a couple, Adam and Barbara, who turn into ghosts after dying in a car accident and start haunting their former house’s new residents. After failing to frighten them, they hire a ‘bio-exorcist’ named Beetlejuice to scare them off but little did they know that Beetlejuice has his own ‘dangerous’ tactics to complete this job.
The role of Beetlejuice was portrayed with perfection by Michael Keaton. The film won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup.
14. Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
This Eli Craig classic will surely make you go ROFL thanks to its plot which is a circus of misunderstanding and never-ending horror-comedy mesh.
When two best friends Tucker and Dale, on a vacation at their wrecked mountain cabin, are assumed to be chainsaw-wielding killers by some preppy kids, it leads their vacation to some bloody and hilarious turn of events.
13. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
The plot focuses on two American students Jack and David, who are bitten by a werewolf in London. Jack dies and David wakes up in the hospital. Shortly after, he is visited by the undead Jack who informs David that if he doesn’t commit suicide then he will turn into a werewolf on the next full moon.
The film is a visual treat and features one of the best men to werewolf transformations in Hollywood history, and won the very first Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Make for a reason.
12. Slither (2006)
It is a delightedly nasty and skillfully twisted film that resides over brain-eating alien slugs that turn people into zombies.
A college student Grant becomes a victim of an alien slug that controls his brain and turns him into a zombie. He infects many people in the area, and it is now up to Sheriff Bill Pardy and his team to save the town.
11. Gremlins (1984)
Joe Dante’s movie is a perfect example of ‘looks can be deceiving’. In the small town of Kingston Falls, a boy pets a cute little creature that should never be given water, food after midnight, or exposure to bright light.
These rules, however, get broken and the adorable little creature spawns a lot of cute-looking tiny beasts that unleash their terror in the town.
10. Zombieland (2009)
Directed by Ruben Fleischer, the film brings us a modern and well-balanced slapstick zombie film that impressed audiences and critics alike and went on to become one of the most successful zombie films ever.
When a zombie apocalypse hits America, a shy and inexperienced college boy trying to reach his parents, a tough zombie killer trying to find the last Twinkie, and two sisters, join together to fight their way through the zombified America.
9. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead is one of the best zombie apocalypse films that have ever been produced, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, two well-known comedy actors, as Shaun and Ed respectively.
Shaun and Ed join hands to fight the zombie apocalypse that occurs in their small town. Simon has to save his ex-girlfriend and her parents and go all out to fight the zombies to protect his loved ones.
8. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
This movie goes against everything you would expect from a typical horror-thriller-comedy film and is a one-of-a-kind movie with no similar counterparts in the entire horror-comedy genre. You might think you know what’s going to happen in the next scene, but no matter how good of a horror fan you are, this film will surprise you for sure.
The plot focuses on five friends who go to a cabin in the woods, where they find an odd assortment of relics and ancient books, when Dana reads from a book, it awakens a family of deadly zombie killers.
Sounds too typical? This is merely a trailer for the suspense-filled story that unfolds later and there is a lot more going on than what meets the eye in the initial half of the film. It was one of the most well-received films of 2012.
7. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Little Shop of Horrors is a horticulture horror movie that revolves around a nerdy flower shop worker Seymour Krelborn who has a crush on a co-worker, Audrey. He buys and raises a weird-looking plant that eats human flesh. He uses the plant to kill Audrey’s boyfriend but its hunger goes out of control. Now Seymour has to get rid of the plant before it’s too late.
The film uses non-stop musical momentum, especially with a few old Disney Time tunes, to add a unique effect that complements the story extremely well.
6. Fright Night (1985)
The original Fright Night whose remake came in 2011 (mentioned earlier on our list) is arguably one of the best vampire movies to date.
The film chronicles the life of a teenager who suspects his neighbor of being a vampire but no one believes him. He joins forces with a so-called vampire hunter to get rid of the vampire when most of his friends go missing.
5. Return of the Living Dead (1985)
This black comedy and satirical zombie film from Dan O’Bannon is a story about two clumsy medical supply warehouse employees who accidentally release a mysterious chemical gas in the air causing the dead to rise again and bring chaos to the city seeking their favorite food, brains.
4. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Directed by Charles Barton, the film features the ‘big three’ universal monsters; Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolfman.
The plot focuses on Dracula, who escapes the horror house with the weakened Frankenstein whom he re-energizes with a new brain. On the full moon, all hell breaks when Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein bring chaos to the city.
3. Housebound (2014)
Housebound is a rare film that succeeds in being funny without neutralizing any of its scary factors. The suspense is held in such a way that you can’t help but appreciate the way the plot gets revealed.
The story focuses on a woman Kylie Bucknell, who gets sentenced to house arrest by the court. Her mother Miriam is convinced that the house is haunted and Kylie too starts hearing unexplained whispers and noises in the night that force her to check her perception.
2. The Old Dark House (1932)
This well-executed thriller is by the director of Frankenstein and is based on J.B. Priestley’s novel Benighted. It features the very first horror role for Boris Karloff, as the disfigured Butler.
The story is about a group of stranded travelers, seeking shelter from the storm, who stumble upon a strange old house, that belongs to a dangerous Femm Family.
1. Evil Dead 2 (1987)
The sequel to the original Evil Dead (which is, without a doubt, one of the greatest horror movies of all time), is arguably the best horror-comedy movie planet Earth has ever produced. It continuously introduces new characters throughout the intriguing plot and keeps on adding new thrills to the very last frame.
The story features Ash and his girlfriend Linda, who visit a cabin in the woods where they find a tape on the Book of the Dead (Necronomicon Ex-Mortis) which when played awakens dark sinister forces in the woods. The evil spirits turn Linda into a zombie and she then tries to kill Ash. More characters join the plot and try to survive the night but start getting possessed one by one.
Honorable Mentions
We can’t resist but mention these two classic horror-comedy films also:
- Student Bodies (1981)
- Detention (2011)
Did we miss any classics on our list of the best comedy horror movies? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
