Some of the most fun monster movies are the ones that make you laugh instead of scream. In the 1940s and ’50s, Abbott and Costello rode such a formula to a box-office bonanza, and this past decade, Anna Faris became a star on the strength of four SCARY MOVIEs. All those and nearly everything in between are covered by Bruce G. Hallenbeck in COMEDY HORROR FILMS: A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY, 1914-2008.
To be clear, Hallenbeck states he’s not including movies that are funny because they’re woefully incompetent. To make the cut, they had to be funny — or at least tried to be — on purpose. Don’t worry: That still leaves more than 200 motion pictures ripe for discussion.
Each movie is summarized, but fairly quickly, thank goodness, because few things are more boring than reading start-to-finish plots. Of markedly more interest are the behind-the-scenes stories Hallenbeck weaves into each piece, as well as how well (or not) the film was greeted upon release and what influence it had (if any).
With lotsa photos, the book encompasses the silents, the “old, dark house” pictures of the 1920s, the Roger Corman productions of the 1960s, the big-budget GHOSTBUSTERS of the 1980s to today’s self-knowing parodies, such as SHAUN OF THE DEAD (which gets my vote for one of the most consistently overrated movies of this new millennium). Since the chapters are separated by decade, it’s interesting to note how the 1980s were a golden age for this subgenre, perhaps aided by the VHS explosion — witness enduring gems like EVIL DEAD II, HOUSE, RE-ANIMATOR, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and NIGHT OF THE CREEPS.
Hallenbeck knows his stuff, so the history lesson is an engaging one for film fans. There are only a couple of jarring mistakes, most notably that LOVE AT FIRST BITE director Stan Dragoti didn’t go on to helm MRS. DOUBTFIRE; that was Chris Columbus’ baby.
Those minor transgressions can be forgiven, because they number so few, but there’s one big problem that cannot: The book is incomplete. When you don’t include outright parodies like STUDENT BODIES, SATURDAY THE 14TH or TRANSYLVANIA TWIST, but you do include campy but more serious fare like BLOOD FOR DRACULA, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM and VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN, something’s off. That’s the one thing that keeps COMEDY-HORROR FILMS from being shelf-essential. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Horror Films of the 1980s
- Mexploitation Cinema: A Critical History of Mexican Vampire, Wrestler, Ape-Man and Similar Films, 1957-1977
- The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s
- Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies That Changed History
- King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson
