Thursday Movie Picks (Halloween Edition): Horror Comedies

 

For the 42nd week of 2021 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks for its Halloween Edition. We go into the subject of horror comedies as horror often takes themselves seriously sometimes yet there are films that refuse to take themselves seriously and play for laughs as there’s been a recent number of horror comedies that have managed to bring new life to the genre. Here are my three picks as they’re all sequels:

1. Addams Family Values

Barry Sonnenfeld’s sequel to the 1991 film is a rare sequel that outdoes its predecessor as it involves the newest addition to the Addams Family with Wednesday and Pugsley not happy about it until a new nanny arrives and suggests that the kids go to camp while she pursues Uncle Fester. It is an incredible film that is also educational about the ideas of conformity and not wanting to do things that everyone else does. Having seen this film in the theaters at the age of 12, it taught me a lot about the fallacies of society where kids who don’t look a certain way or fit in are often treated like shit. That is why you don’t fuck with Wednesday Addams as she manages to bring in some truth that needed to be said and also do the things that needed to be done. Yet, it still pains me and my younger sister back then that we never saw someone actually get burned but there’s always that fantasy.

2. Scary Movie 2

While it is a spoof film that makes fun of horror films and in crude ways, the sequel from Keenan Ivory Wayans features what might be one of the great opening sequences to a film in a parody of The Exorcist with James Woods in a small role as that priest as it was meant to be played by Marlon Brando. Nevertheless, Woods doesn’t just kill it in that sequence but it is the funniest moment in the film as everything doesn’t live up to it. Still, it does showcase a lot of the things in horror about how black people often die in films as the African-American characters do what they can to survive as there’s a bunch of silly shit including the always-horrible Tori Spelling having sex with an invisible ghost who realizes made a mistake.

3. Happy Death Day 2U

Christopher B. Landon’s sequel to the 2017 horror comedy is just as creative as its predecessor in not just exploring time-loops but also alternate timelines as it brings in much of the film’s original cast plus a few new players in this mystery of who is trying to kill Tree again and such. Jessica Rothe doesn’t just deliver in the role of Tree but also manages to do more funny things including a sequence where she would kill herself in creative ways so she can get the right algorithm to get back home. It is a funnier film but also knows when to play up its suspense as well as do more with its ensemble cast including Rachel Matthews as frenemy Danielle who gets to have her moments to shine.

© thevoid99 2021