Am I the only one who doesn't want humor in his horror?

[Hugomarink]

I'm totally with you. Two popular movies that simply didn't work for me are "Army of Darkness" and "Dead Alive." I liked "Evil Dead 2" even though it was more campy than the first one. But the humor in ED2 was still pretty sick whereas "Army of Darkness" and "Dead Alive" are just absurd. You might as well be watching "The Three Stooges." In my book, when it comes to horror, dark and disturbing is always better.

[Max Gardner]

Humor has its place in horror, but it should know its limits as well.  I enjoy witty horror films such as Dog Soldiers, Evil Dead 2 and most of Peter Jackson's early work.  Still, if I'm in the mood for something genuinely creepy and disturbing, the last thing I need is some idiotic one-liner dropped in exactly the wrong place.

[Kory]

I love humor/horror movies like ED2 and Army of Darkness, but when I'm in the mood for sheer creepiness I usually watch Japanese movies.  My favorite is "Ringu"- WAY WAY WAY better than the Americanized version "The Ring".  Another decent one is "The Eye" (also Japanese).   I find that foreign horror movies don't try to incorporate humor and love stories as much as American flicks do.

[BeyondTheGrave]

i have to agree with kory. i go to the japanese horror when i need a serious scare. also kory try the JU-ON series for some scares. i just bought from ebay its really good.

"I know I know ive been exposed permeant psychoses..
at least the colors are nice"- Aeon Flux

[lester]

PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES

[Max Gardner]

I was seriously disappointed in The Eye, because we all saw it five years ago when it was called The Sixth Sense.  The Pang Bros. borrow whole-cloth from Shyamalan - sometimes line for line.  That is, until we shift gears about an hour into the film and it becomes a direct rip-off of The Ring.  And to wrap it all up, we have a ten-minute finale lifted straight from The Mothman Prophecies.  I actually found it impossible to view The Eye as its own film; it's like watching bits and pieces of three or four other, better movies stitched together as awkwardly as possible.

[Kory]

Rich Andrini-

Thanks- I'll have to check those out!


Max Gardner-

I agree that "The Eye" isn't the best one I've seen, but I found it to be better than all those american flicks put together.  Ours seem so cookie cutter- the best example being "Ringu" (the original) vs "The RIng" (american remake).

[TheEvilDoctor]

1st of all: I wouldn't call AoD and Braindead/Dead Alive horror movies.
2nd: I like humor in horror movies most of the time. But sometimes scary movies are nice too. You've probably seen them already but it can't get any darker and more mysantrophic as the first 2 Hellraisers. Sheer terror, suffering without a drop of relief.

Edit: Wow sorry guys didn't notice the date ;) I'm digging up old topics here excuse me



Post Edited (07-03-04 16:50)

[peter johnson]

The Innocents (1962), with Deborah Kerr.  Nary a giggle or comic relief that I can recall in that.
peter johnson

[Bargle5]

The one thing I don't like about "The Bride of Frankenstein" is Una O'Connor's comic relief character. She really seemed out of place in the movie. It should have been serious start to finish.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Everybody calls "Bride of Frankenstein" a masterpiece for its humor, but I hate it for that very reason. The humor just didn't mesh well with the horror in that movie.
On the other hand, I think "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" are terrific because of their comic aspects (I think "Army of Darkness" entered the boundry of straight comedy film), and those two early Roger Corman movies, "Bucket of Blood" and "Little Shop of Horrors," are also great for it.