I was speaking with Clown in a Cornfield writer/director Eli Craig recently. Craig, whose cult hit Tucker and Dale vs. Evil pioneered modern horror comedies, told me that we probably shouldn't be writing straight horror comedies anymore. Yeah, you read that right.They're too difficult to get made, he said, and execs tend to view them as campy or silly, which is a negative in this case.I was pretty surprised by this statement, since I love the subgenre. But instead, he advised, write a horror film with comedic elements. They're easier to pitch and market, and they won't immediately turn a reader off if they aren't sure what a horror comedy can be. Admittedly, this type of movie is extremely difficult to get right. Some of the strongest examples tend to walk a very fine line. Get Out, for instance, might be viewed broadly as comedic, although the elevated social commentary and equally serious subject matter would land it more squarely in horror territory for me. It has funny moments but is serious enough to win an Oscar.Many movies of the 1980s could be campy one moment and deathly serious the next. Think An American Werewolf in London or Fright Night. They have moments of grim humor but are pretty dark, still.All this to say, horror comedy is really hard. And it might be easier, these days, to sell your script as straight horror (and then sneak in some humor where you want it).So after sharing that advice, we wanted to...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday