44 Horror Movies That Will Also Make You Laugh

When the original Scream came out in 1996, it was a runaway hit. Yes, it was a pitch-perfect genre film, jumpstarting a mid-90s renaissance for the slasher subgenre of horror movies, but the reason Wes Craven's film really worked (along with its subsequent sequels and spin-offs) was its unique tone—it wasn't just scary, but self-referential, and quite funny too. It wasn't just a slasher film (though it was masterful even at just that), but a deconstruction of the entire idea of slasher films. It represented the duality that all the best spoofs do: it poked fun at certain aspects of a genre, while simultaneously itself being a more-than-worthy entry in that very genre. Scream represented two moods that often go together like the yin and the yang: very funny, and very scary.

The combination of funny and scary didn't start with Scream, though. Not all horror comedies have to work this way. Sometimes it can just be a memorable bit of comic relief in an otherwise heavy movie. Other times it can be just a general "how did we possibly get here" feeling. Some might be comedy by design, using the backdrop of a horror or a monster movie to make some juxtaposition magic. A lot of movies aren't necessarily "funny" on purpose, but the camp factor make it impossible to not watch, embrace, and love for the imperfect mess it is. There are a lot of ways to get there, but it's not uncommon to be gasping with terror and laughing from your belly within the same breath.

S0 we pulled together a list of some of the best movies that have the capability of doing both things—making you scared, and also making you really crack up. Embrace the funny, embrace the horror—it's fun, we promise.