Items27The creator’s order
  1. 1Shaun of the Dead (2004)Shaun of the Dead (2004) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 9, 2004The benchmark, because it never lets the jokes protect you. Edgar Wright cuts the first half like a slacker comedy, all hangovers and pub plans, so the moment the dead arrive the same quick editing starts working against you. The record-flinging scene is pure slapstick; the siege at the Winchester…0
  2. 2An American Werewolf in London (1981)An American Werewolf in London (1981) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Aug 21, 1981John Landis gets laughs from awkwardness rather than gags: a pub full of hostile locals, a dead best friend who keeps visiting in worse and worse condition, a naked man waking up in a zoo. Then the horror turns brutal. The transformation scene, played in full view with nowhere to look away, won…0
  3. 3Evil Dead II (1987)Evil Dead II (1987) 7.6/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 13, 1987Sam Raimi remade his own cabin nightmare as a Three Stooges routine without draining any of the menace. Bruce Campbell fights his own possessed hand, gets battered by furniture and laughs along with a room that has started laughing at him, and the physical comedy is so committed it becomes…0
  4. 4Gremlins (1984)Gremlins (1984) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 8, 1984The friendliest door into the genre, though it bites harder than its reputation. Joe Dante sets it in a snowy, Capra-style small town and lets the gremlins behave like drunk party crashers, trashing a bar and taking over the local movie theater. The kitchen fight, where a mother takes them on with…0
  5. 5Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 22, 2010The best comedy of errors horror has produced. Two sweet-natured hillbillies fix up their vacation cabin while a group of college kids, raised on backwoods slashers, decide they must be killers, and every panicked attack ends in a gory accident that makes the pair look guiltier. Alan Tudyk and…0
  6. 6The Cabin in the Woods (2012)The Cabin in the Woods (2012) 7.0/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 12, 2012Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon build two films at once: a creepy cabin story with every cliché in place, and an office comedy about the people making sure those clichés happen. The jokes come from the gap between them, with bored technicians placing bets while teenagers die. Best watched knowing as…0
  7. 7Ready or Not (2019)Ready or Not (2019) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased Aug 21, 2019A wedding night turns into a deadly game of hide-and-seek through a rich family's mansion, and the comedy comes from how bad the in-laws are at murder: fumbled antique weapons and servants caught in the crossfire. Samara Weaving plays the bride's terror straight, so the chase stays tense even while…0
  8. 8Housebound (2014)Housebound (2014) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 4, 2014The best haunted-house film you may not have heard of. A surly young woman is sentenced to home detention in her mother's creaky New Zealand house, and the comedy is domestic: a mother who never stops talking, and a man monitoring her ankle bracelet who turns out to be a ghost enthusiast.…0
  9. 9Scream (1996)Scream (1996) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 20, 1996Scream is a real slasher first and a comedy second, which is why it belongs here instead of with the parodies it inspired. Wes Craven's opening phone call is among the most frightening sequences of the 1990s. After that, teenagers who have memorized the rules of horror movies discuss those rules…0
  10. 10Tremors (1990)Tremors (1990) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 19, 1990A creature feature for people who hate being scared senseless. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward play two handymen in the tiny desert town of Perfection, bickering like an old married couple while giant worms hunt by vibration underground. The rule that you cannot touch the ground turns every scene into a…0