My final horror sub-genre is a kind of movie that crosses all the other sub-genres I’ve covered — the Comedy Horror. These movies can be about monsters, demons, slashers, you name it… what sets them apart is that they are just as interested in laughs as scares.

Last year gave us two great examples in The Menu and Bodies Bodies Bodies, the former a darkly humorous psychological horror about a high-end chef whose disdain for his customers is revealed in increasingly murderous fashion, and the latter a Gen Z satire in which a group of friends are trapped inside during a hurricane with a possible killer among them.

I really enjoyed 2020’s Freaky, in which a high school girl swaps bodies with a serial killer. Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn have a blast in the dual roles. And I highly recommend Ready or Not (2019), in which a young woman (Samara Weaving) marries into a family with a very twisted take on game night.

Jennifer’s Body (2009) was misunderstood and dismissed upon its release but has since found a fervent cult following. The film was marketed as an exploitative romp featuring a hot girl (Megan Fox) possessed by a demon. It’s actually a smartly feminist film about sexual assault and female friendships. Screenwriter Diablo Cody delivers the laughs and the subtext.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) tweaks the slasher genre by focusing on a pair of sweet hillbilly best friends mistaken for Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style killers by a group of college students. Misunderstandings, and corpses, pile up as Tucker and Dale try to defend themselves from the city folks’ prejudice.

Another cult classic I recently caught up with is 2007’s Trick ‘r Treat, an anthology film that tells four distinct but interconnected stories over the course of a Halloween night in an Ohio suburb. The film plays like a series of spooky campfire tales, with jokes.

I don’t know exactly how to classify House, a 1977 experimental Japanese horror movie. It’s more surreal and goofy than scary, and features some marvelously handmade special effects. It’s the kind of movie made for midnight showings where the audience shouts back at the screen.

Finally, my favorite horror comedy has got to be 2011’s The Cabin in the Woods, directed and co-written by Drew Goddard. It’s a brilliant puzzle movie that deconstructs the horror genre and introduces some glorious twists. If you aren’t familiar with this movie, fire it up and make sure you don’t read about it ahead of time. It’s so much fun.

That wraps up my horror movie deep dive, which featured ten sub-genres and nearly 100 movies. I thoroughly enjoyed my Year of Horror, which allowed me to catch up on about 35 years worth of missed opportunities. While I managed to check a lot of blindspots off my list, I ended up with a list just as long as movies I still want to see. Maybe next October I’ll do this all over again.