10 Underrated Horror Comedy Movies on Prime Video
The Halloween season is a popular time for horror movies. Whether they’re gory, filled with jump-scares, or good old-fashioned creature features, we love pics that make us watch through the cracks of our fingers. As much as we want to experience that scary tension, though, we also like to release it from time to time, too.
Horror comedy movies serve a unique purpose like no other genre. While original ideas are so much harder to come across, the clever intersection of comedy with horror can establish new narratives and cross boundaries never seen before. And don’t let the word comedy fool you! These films can be just as scary as they are funny.
Consider the bloody gore mixed with slapstick humor in The Return of the Living Dead or the twisted romantic comedy at play in Lisa Frankenstein. And who can forget the ravenous fruit gang in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?
If you’re looking for some movies that will have you yelling out of laughter and fright, here are 10 underrated horror comedy movies worth watching on Prime Video.
Lisa Frankenstein
“People are so afraid of death because they don’t know when it’s going to happen to them. It could be an axe murderer, could be the flu, but they don’t know. And they hate that, so I’m not afraid of death anymore. But I don’t want to die a virgin,” says Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton), a teenager who’s been traumatized by her mother’s murder and her father’s remarriage. Lisa Frankenstein is a twisted romantic horror comedy. When Lisa’s dead Victorian-era crush, The Creature (Cole Sprouse), miraculously comes back to life by a lightning strike, the two form a hilarious relationship that involves electrifying tanning beds, decapitated bodies, revenge, and more.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
They’re deadly, red, round… tomatoes? After a series of mysterious cases where people and pets have gone missing, the government puts together a group of scientists to save the world from mutated tomatoes on a killing spree. As hilarious as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is, there’s plenty of horrifying scenes that will leave you on the edge of your seat. From a hilarious conference table argument, to a cop inspecting a body and yelling, “It’s not blood, it’s tomato juice!” the movie is worth at least watching once in your lifetime.
Uncle Peckerhead
The punk band DUH is in desperate need of assistance when their van gets repoed right before the start of their first tour. They decide to hire a friendly but peculiar middle-aged man name Peckerhead (David Littleton) to drive them across country, but he has a secret! For 13 minutes, every night, he transforms into a man-eating demon. Peckerhead and the band come to an agreement to sedate him every night to protect themselves and prevent his killing sprees, but will this work? Uncle Peckerhead is an amusing and suspenseful watch that takes on a bizarre, out-of-the-box narrative.
Vamps
Goody (Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (Krysten Ritter) are not your average New Yorkers. Sure, they love the nightlife the city has to offer. Clubbing, partying, and hookups, but there’s one other detail — an endless blood supply. They’re not your average vampires, in fact, they refrain from drinking human blood at all. Instead, they feast on rats and mice. Vamps is the hidden-gem of vampire movies. It delivers camp with some thrills and complications. Especially when the girls start falling in love with two men, and realize they’re being pursued by vampire hunters at the same time.
An American Werewolf in London
Things get wild when young American student tourists David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are attacked by a large wolf during their backpacking trip in London. An American Werewolf in London takes the werewolf trope in cinema to another level. As much as there is laughter, there is bloody gore. A scene depicting the metamorphism of a wolf is one of the most haunting werewolf scenes yet, making it ahead of its time compared to the stereotypical werewolf transformations during that period.
The Return of the Living Dead
“It worked in the movie!” Yells Frank (James Karen) while holding down a flailing zombie with a pick axe wedged in its forehead. “Well it ain’t working now Frank!” Burt (Clu Gulager) snaps before Freddy (Thom Mathews) cries out, “You mean the movie lied?”
The Return of the Living Dead is a groundbreaking zombie film that beautifully balances horror and comedy. When a medical supply store clerk named Frank and his assistant Freddy accidentally goof around with a military experiment kept in the warehouses basement, it releases a gas that turns the dead into brain-eating zombies. In a nearby cemetery, a group of punks waiting for Freddy are left to fend for their lives when it starts to rain, and the gas seeps into the ground. While there are some hilarious scenes, the movie does not shy away from delivering terrifying, gore-filled encounters with zombies. Not to mention there’s a well-compiled punk soundtrack that plays throughout, this ’80s cult classic is a must-watch.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The iconic and historic American comedy duo are at their best in this classic throwback Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Things get hilariously spooky when freight handlers Wilbur (Lou Costello) and Chick (Bud Abbott) discover Frankenstein (Glenn Strange) and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) have been sent from Europe to be used in a house of horrors. Wilbur is terrified when he witnesses the two monsters come to life, but Chick refuses to believe him, creating some laughable scenes, especially when the two monsters escape to meet a doctor who promises them she has found the perfect brain for Frankenstein — Wilbur’s.
Frankenhooker
When Jeffery (James Lorinz) — a New Jerseyan medical school dropout that lives with his mother — loses his fiancé Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) in a tragic lawnmower accident, he sets out to bring his decapitated lover back to life Frankenstein-style. But in a need for more body parts, he drastically decides to drive to New York City to get the necessary parts from prostitutes. Frankenhooker is everything you would expect from the title. Exploding women, a purple one-eyed brain, perverted men getting electrocuted, and many more comedic but gruesome scenes confront the viewer with the horrors of objectification and its intersection with capitalism.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Campy, silly, but also downright disturbing, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a sci-fi horror comedy about a murderous group of aliens that look like circus clowns. Teenagers Mike (Grant Cramer) and Debbie (Suzanne Snyder) witness the comet crash that brings the clowns. But when they attempt to warn the police about these monsters, everyone is convinced their story is a prank. The clowns shoot guns that encase people in cocoons of cotton candy that turn them into drinkable red liquids, and use many more circus-like weapons as they wreck havoc on the town.
Army of Darkness
After accidentally being transported back in time to the middle ages, Ash (Bruce Campbell) is punished and thrown into a pit under the suspicion that he is a spy against King Arthur (Marcus Gilbert). With the help of a chainsaw that humorously is his only friend, he is sent to recover the Book of Dead, a text that is a passageway to evil worlds and beyond. Things take a turn for the worst when he unleashes an army of dead, and must defeat them in order to go back to his normal life. Army of Darkness is perfect for horror fans that enjoy monsters, fantasy worlds, and laughter.
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