Original subtitles

[ominous music]

Mother pus bucket.

JONAH RAY: The whole thing about horror comedies

is that they shouldn't work.

People try to make them all the time,

but, like, they rarely are ever good.

It's like, you know, two great taste that taste great together.

My vegetable medley.

JONAH RAY: But sometimes it's just much of both things.

ALEX: Scientists talk about laughter having come originally

from a fear response as a way of mitigating

fear or shock, a negative, as opposed to a joyful thing.

And I think maybe that's why I like horror comedies that

destabilize me in that way.

And I think that a really good horror

filmmaker knows that they kind of have

you riding the line of a laugh.

MICHAEL: They're not for everybody.

Samba.

MICHAEL: But I find that the people who

understand and enjoy horror comedies

are the best kinds of horror fans.

What are the must-see horror comedies?

The Necronomicon Ex-mortis, roughly

translated book of the dead.

For me, the greatest horror comedy of all time

is Evil Dead II, which is a masterpiece,

and one of the most influential films of the modern film era.

TED: Splatstick is a term coined by Sam Ramey, talking about,

like, it's so gory that it becomes the Three Stooges.

I mean, essentially, Evil Dead II

is just one big Three Stooges bit for 90 minutes

and tons and tons of blood.

PATRICK: The movie will veer between genuine scares

and, like, real suspense, and astonishing physical comedy,

like seconds apart.

The perfect representation is when Bruce Campbell goes

to the woodshed looking for some kind of weapon,

and he pulls back a curtain.

And on a shelf--

ASH: Chainsaw.

They have drawn on the wall an outline of a chainsaw

to indicate where a chainsaw should go, but it's not there.

And so you have this funny, little sight gag.

And then, suddenly, the door gets kicked in,

and the decapitated corpse of his girlfriend

charges in with a chainsaw, attacking him with it.

And he manages to knock it out of her hands

and then saws the body in half while blood sprays

up, like, onto the light bulb in the room,

just like casting the entire thing bright red.

And it has this gonzo energy that few other movies

ever made managed to have.

[demonic laugh]

RICKY: I feel so bad for what happens

to Ash throughout that movie, but I

have so much fun watching it.

He's such a great crier to the heavens.

[laughs]

[CRYING] Get me back my hand.

RICKY: Every time something horrible happens in that movie,

he just, like, falls on his knees

and cries to the heaven asking why, why.

You just feel for him so much, you know.

[groaning]

Who's laughing now?

I think Evil Dead II is so funny

because it's just constantly surprising and inventive.

All of the work that they do with the hand,

with the chainsaw, with the various zombies that show up,

how they show up, the sort of subject

use of the camera, where it's really

barreling along through the woods at 100 miles an hour.

And you don't know where it's going to end up.

And you're kind of the bad guy for a moment.

And then, like, to get a joke out of it, at one point,

Demon doesn't know where Ash is.

It's just kind of like looks around,

like, where did that dude go?

I'll be back, dawg.

I'll be back.

And just pulls right back out of there.

The masterwork of Evil Dead II is the combination

of Raimi's cinematic genius and Bruce's physical comic prowess.

I mean, I don't think it's overstating it to say.

Like, it works like a Buster Keaton movie.

It works like any classic film involving a kind

of theatrical performance.

But then you have this extremely sophisticated,

modern, cinematic approach.

It's a masterful combination of kinetic camera

work with kinetic performance.

[demonic laughter]

PATRICK: Unsurprisingly, given my love of Evil Dead II,

I really love Dead Alive.

TED: Dead Alive is a splatstick movie.

It's essentially Raimi up to 100,

and it goes so over the top.

It's never not funny.

There's like a glee to that movie of just like

what he's getting away with.

Taking, like, what is on paper a horror story, but just, like,

cranking every element way up until it

reaches like these insane cartoonish levels and just

becomes funny.

Oh!

I just mowed the lawn.

Does this look like a well-maintained frontage?

TED: You have this really twisted

mother-and-son relationship that's

kind of at the heart of the movie,

and it sort of deals that sort of, like,

not being able to cut the purse strings, you might say.

But it keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

Oh!

Oh.

[yelling]

Mom.

The protagonist mother has been bitten, and she's infected.

And she's slowly turning into a kind of a zombie creature.

And they're having this little meal.

And she's eating this kind of disgusting-looking custard.

And her ears slowly falling apart

and falls into the custard.

And her earring gets stuck in there.

And she keeps eating.

And she's just completely oblivious to it.

It's just so, so gross.

[chuckles]

TRACEY: And then when the infection just

grows to everybody in her circle, it just--

it's one of the grossest movies I think I ever saw right

off the bat, but it's also one of the most

funniest movies you've ever seen right off the bat.

HOWARD: I just loved the last half hour.

I don't think I've ever seen anything even like it

since then.

It's like a ballet of bodies being Cuisinarted.

At the time, I think there probably was just

the wettest movie ever made.

I mean, the amount of fluid that gets dumped all over the cast

in that movie, it outdoes the first Evil Dead.

It's so choreographed.

It's like a musical.

It's like lavish dance numbers.

It's just brilliant, brilliant movie.

[high-pitched laugh]

JOE: Stuart Gordon's e-Animator, well, it's probably

the best Lovecraft adaptation.

It's certainly the funniest.

It's absolutely the most fucked up.

[growls]

That was one that I think kicked out a lot of doors.

It was unrated.

No one under 17 admitted.

And it showed just how far you could

go with the mixture of comedy and horror

and gore, but also have a really smart, well-crafted, well-acted

film as well.

MAN: Didn't we meet this morning?

You're--

West.

Herbert West.

Jeffrey Combs plays Herbert West,

and he's up to some secret stuff.

He has discovered a special serum that

brings the dead back to life.

Stop.

I'll show you.

They start off by using it on our main character's cat,

but that goes awry.

And soon enough, they're using it on humans, including

one of their professors.

Your theory on the location of the will and the brain is

interesting, though derivative of Dr. Gruber's research

in the early '70s.

So derivative, in fact, that in Europe,

it's considered plagiarized.

Dr. West and Dr. Hill are two sides of the same coin.

Perhaps it take--

CHELSEA: That's what makes them such good foils for each other.

They are both kind of married to science in a sense,

but they have very different relationships with it.

I will be famous.

DANA: So much of Re-Animator is just Jeffrey Combs.

Plagiarist.

DANA: He is so much intensity, and those eyes

are always working.

That performance takes that movie to a place

where it shouldn't be.

[laughing]

DANA: And then there are scenes in that movie

that go places where you can't imagine they're going.

You know what I'm talking about.

MICHAEL: You're just sitting there going, what am I watching?

Who thought this up?

This is insane.

And yet it is all of a piece of the story.

It follows from what we know about the characters

and Dr. Hill's lust for Barbara Crampton's character.

And it just takes it to the ultimate level.

Gordon wanted to take us places we had not gone before.

[yelling]

You know, he wanted to upend our normal expectations

for a horror film or for a comedy,

and he never did it more brilliantly

than he did in Re-Animator.

[projector whirring]

The end of the world is going to happen, you jerks,

while you are sitting on your asses watching your television.

[gunshot]

[groaning]

No!

Oh my god!

To be or not to be.

That is the question.

[yelling]

Hell is a teenage girl.

Please don't demonetize me with it.

This is an intense situation.

Hey, get away from that record press.

DRACMORDA: I think what makes a camp horror movie is when you're

at a theater and the crowd is just laughing and wincing back

and forth at the same time.

When I see a movie like that, I know that I'm

in a camp horror movie.

Just look at me.

I'm soaking wet.

Camp is hard enough to define, let alone be fluent in.

And I think Akela Cooper, who wrote Megan,

understands how to write camp.

Now, when Megan is revealed, I don't

want to see any blank faces.

DRACMORDA: Megan.

What's not to love?

She's gorgeous.

Her hair is flawless.

Her skin is flawless.

And whoever came up with that dance, I mean,

they need to get a raise because that dance

put a chokehold on everyone.

I think the dance scene alone makes it a camp classic.

CHELSEA: Megan is about a toy developer played by Allison

Williams, who unexpectedly ends up getting custody of her niece

after her sister and brother-in-law die

in an accident.

And she is having such a hard time connecting with this girl.

She ends up inventing this life-sized doll named--

ALLISON: Model three generative Android.

Megan for short.

And kind of introduces her niece to Megan to help

her niece with her grief.

Shall we draw?

And so the doll and her niece develop

this very toxic friendship.

I love it.

MAN: I want you all to remember this moment,

the moment we kicked Hasbro right in the dick.

EMILY: There's just something really

fun about a campy horror movie that sets up the premise

really well.

It's like we know this doll is going to be a bad idea.

There's no doubt about what the end result of this idea

is going to be.

But then like the twists and turns of it,

the jump scares, the sort of slow

build up psychologically of what's going on,

it just is very knowing but done in a very skillful way.

We'd have to shut her down.

Jeez!

That's great.

That was great.

I personally wouldn't want a Megan doll in my house.

Even before she goes bad, her whole design is unnerving.

Like, those eyes are just a little bit too big that, like,

perfect smirk.

I can see how, as a kid, it would be cool to have a robot

friend that's like your size that does everything

that you want.

WOMAN: If you make a toy that's impossible to let go of,

then how do you ever expect a child to grow?

It's just that when it goes bad, it goes really bad.

[tires screeching]

SWANTHULA: The best camp is delivered straight-faced.

Did you hurt someone?

God, I hope not.

Because if I did, we'd both be in a lot of trouble.

SWANTHULA: So Megan is giving her performances.

And everything that she's saying, it's so out there,

but she says it dead serious.

If heaven exists, it wouldn't be for boys like Brandon,

would it?

SWANTHULA: And I think that's where

the comedy just hits just the right tone,

and people really tap into that.

It was horror camp at its best, I think.

I have a new friend who are user now.

Me.

NATHANIEL: Addams Family values the movie

that proves that the sequel can outdo its predecessor when

it comes to horror comedies.

Oh.

And what's this?

Mom.

I think the secret sauce with Addams Family values

is, well, two things.

First of all, they realized what a treasure

they had in Christina Ricci.

And so they built an entire subplot

around her, justifiably so.

And then you introduce John Cusack as a serial killer.

Hi.

Addams residence.

Ooh, it's old.

One of my favorite serial killers in film history,

I think. - Are you the mom?

I am Mrs. Addams.

I love your dress.

It's so tight.

But she is so unhinged in this film

that she is playing just this outright psychopath

who's just murdering men for their money left and right.

Bachelors, beware.

Debbie.

I'll think of when I think of

Addams Family values is Debbie,

and I love Debbie.

Number one.

Like, I feel like Marilyn Munster crawled so Debbie could

run all the way to Addams Family values

and just like make everybody fall in love.

I'm good with my hands.

Debbie was kind of a drag queen too.

She was so over the top and the hair and everything,

and her practicing her lines in the car definitely

inspired my drag, I'll say.

I was never a crazy fan of the Addams Family

because to me, it was always just

the same joke being told over.

It's raining what a lovely day, let's have a picnic.

[snores]

But the stroke of genius in Addams Family values

was they put the kids in summer camp,

and they gave the kids something to play against.

Hey, listen up, everybody.

I'm Gary Granger!

And I'm Becky Martin Granger!

DANA: And they made the Addams Family the sane ones, as

compared to the people in camp.

We're the owners and directors here at Camp Chippewa!

And we're all here to learn, to grow,

and to just plain have fun!

Because that's what being privileged is all about!

[applause]

JUSTINA: Wednesday and Pugsley, they were just being them.

They didn't want to be a part of this superficial stupidity,

and the best example of that is the Thanksgiving play.

That was perfect.

Of all the popular kids are the pilgrims,

and all the misfits and quote, unquote,

"losers," are the Indians.

And what we see with Wednesday playing

Pocahontas is she's not going to take pilgrim crap

because she explains bluntly what has happened

to Indigenous Americans.

You have taken the land, which is rightfully ours.

And how they wind up suffering at the hands of colonization.

Years from now, my people will be

forced to live in mobile homes, on reservations.

We will sell our bracelets by the roadsides.

You will play golf and enjoy hot hors d'oeuvres.

So basically, to hell with it, set it all on fire.

[yelling]

They really took the Charles Addams's sense of humor,

like, just, they went with it.

Like, you didn't really question the logic of it.

But I mean, she basically kills half the summer camp

and presumably kills her boyfriend in the very last shot

too.

It ends with him screaming, and she's smiling.

And it's, like, OK, so she killed him.

KATE: When we talk about horror comedies,

the only one that counts in my mind is Beetlejuice.

And I'm only going to say it once because I

do believe he'd show up.

You have to give us the Beetlejuice,

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

[laughter]

It's showtime.

KATE: It's an achievement in world building

that I haven't seen since, maybe.

The character design, the home design, the comedy, the terror,

the things we all still remember,

like the huge open mouth and the eyes and sighed,

or the woman who's half and half with her legs crossed.

Obviously, the Tim Burton style is fantastic.

SWANTHULA: Tim Burton was able to take some material that

was really freakish and really otherworldly,

and make it acceptable and comedic.

And you know, you could watch that with your family,

and nobody flinched at it.

But the subject matter was so gruesome.

It's interesting how he was able to do that.

[yelling]

My god.

We just have to pray the other closets

are bigger than this one.

That movie's all about gentrification to me.

[chuckles] The Maitlands live in that house.

They do not want to leave that house.

That is where they are at their happiest.

They don't want anything huge or fancy around them.

They just love their quaintest little spot.

Maybe this is heaven.

RICKY: And then here come these rich-ass people who show up,

and they're, like, you know what would be dope here?

We just tear this idea of normalcy that you have

and just throw money at it.

Let's just throw money at it, and that

will make everything better.

That will make everybody happy.

This is my art, and it is dangerous.

Do you think I want to die like this?

And it's just, like, nah, dawg.

That's not what we want.

You got to say my name three times.

When we're dealing with the supernatural or the horrific,

we need to have boundaries, firm boundaries,

so we know how it works.

Say it once.

Say it twice.

Third time's a charm.

And Beetlejuice sets out those rules so

cleanly that it's become part of the vernacular of everybody

who talks about movies, that Beetlejuice,

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

OK, we're fine.

And so the rule building is really excellent there.

It's a great structural tool used over

and over again in that story.

Michael Keaton is Beetlejuice.

What?

Excuse me.

Really goes for it.

We're going to have some laughs.

But everybody plays it larger than life,

just like the story and the aesthetic of it

is larger than life.

Everything in the performances is a little bit bigger as well.

If you don't let me gut out this house and make it my own,

I will go and say, and I will take you with me!

I remember wanting to be every single person in that movie.

Uh, to be Lydia Deetz.

SWANTHULA: I think in Lydia Deetz,

we have a character that tons of horror fans can relate to.

I could live here.

SWANTHULA: Because they're an outsider.

They're artistic.

They move around a lot and lonely.

Maybe not too many friends.

My whole life is a dark room.

One big dark room.

SWANTHULA: I do think a lot of people

that love horror can see themselves in Lydia.

Did you see yourself in Lydia?

A little bit, because I, too, am strange and unusual.

NATHANIEL: [laughs]

Yeah, I guess Lydia was like the first goth queen, right?

She married a demon.

How much more gothic can you get?

Oh, what a perfect film.

[yelling]

[clanking]

DAVID: One of those films that if you haven't seen,

I'm begging you to find immediately and put on, have

a glass of Burgundy or whatever you imbibe, and sit back

and watch Robert Fuest's The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

HOWARD: Dr. Phibes is definitely a product of its era

and more so of where it was made.

It was definitely a British film and its sense of humor.

A brass unicorn has been catapulted

across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon.

HOWARD: It was erudite, and at the same time, low brow.

Easy, does it?

I think it's a left-hand thread.

Is it is?

[door creaking]

DAVID: I think a lot of people look at it as just

a goofy, weird technicolor kind of psychedelic comedy,

but it's one of my favorite pieces,

especially from that era.

You've got a man who's in mourning.

I am already dead.

Broken by the loss of the love of his life.

MAN [ON PHONE]: Nine killed her.

Nine shall die.

In what he believes was malpractice by the doctors

who were trying to help her.

You murdered her.

No.

Murdered her.

DAVID: So he has looked as all good vengeful killers

do to a wonderful source of inspiration for murder--

the Bible.

And he has plucked the great plagues as inspiration

for his vengeance.

It has some of the most bizarre murders you'll

ever see in a horror film.

The curse of the locusts.

A curse of hail.

I am not one of those horror hounds

who is cheering on the monster.

I'm a psychiatrist, actually.

Head shrinker.

DAVID: But I am 100% on Vincent Price's side,

as he goes about this very creative, very artistic

way of offing his enemies.

And the police are so inept that it

also makes it even more funny.

Any more news on this fellow Feebs?

The Phibes, sir.

Are you in the habit of contradicting

your superiors, Bream?

DANA: Vincent Price knew who he was, was not afraid

of making fun of himself, and was having a great time,

and it's really fun to watch, and the way

that he has to plug that thing into his neck to articulate.

The man utters not a word of dialogue through his mouth.

It is all done through expression and with this wildly

cool makeup on when you reveal what's

underneath the construction of his disguise.

It's such a powerful film because the world that it

transports you into is so well-executed through production

design, through lighting, through color,

the way it's dressed and painted,

and all the wardrobe and makeup.

Really funny movie, but also incredibly

tragic and totally perversely entertaining as a horror film.

It was kind of creepy and scary at the same time.

Dr. Phibes is a fever dream.

DAVID: I think it is master cinema on the highest level.

[projector whirring]

[yelling]

Oh, I kick ass for the Lord!

We got a job to do.

Let's do it.

And keep quiet, OK?

Styrofoam cup?

Everything was fine with our system

until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.

They caused an explosion.

Is this true?

Yes, it's true.

This man has no dick.

Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a 7-

and 1/2-foot long, 54-inch wide gorilla?

What?

[YELLING] Is that what you're telling me?

[power saw whirring]

[clinks]

Groovy.

[yelling]

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Well, first of all, it's the silliest film ever made,

you know.

And it's having so much fun being silly.

Don't you know what's going to happen now?

I'll bite.

Oh, no.

I will.

MAN: I guess it was the end of the universal monster cycle.

They had made so many Frankenstein movies,

so many Dracula movies, so many mummy movies.

They didn't know what was left but to turn it into a comedy.

STEVE: I mean, Costello play shipping clerks.

Answer that phone.

Answer the bell!

[phone ringing]

Answer the phone!

Which one do you want me to answer first?

Both of them.

Hold the line, please.

Thank you.

And two of the things that they have to deal with

turn out to be Frankenstein in his box.

Wow!

STEVE: And Dracula in his coffin.

And Dracula actually brings Frankenstein back to life.

Master.

Yeah.

They want Costello's brain to transfer into Frankenstein,

to give him a calmer brain.

There you go.

I mean, what more plot do you need?

I wonder if Dracula's really in there.

It's kind of a unique case in Hollywood

because that's where your characters really understood

that they were inside a horror franchise

and that there was an audience for these films.

I know there's no such a person as Dracula.

You know there's no such a person as Dracula.

But, does Dracula know it?

And there were certain boxes that had to be checked in order

to make your audience happy.

And what's amazing is that it works as a comedy.

And it still works as a horror film.

If you watch it and you're a fan of the Wolfman,

you get exactly what you came for.

You get a great transformation scene.

You get tall but running around, you know,

causing all this mayhem, covered in fur.

[growling]

That's my conversation, a guy growls like a wolf.

And you get some good Frankenstein action.

And you get some Dracula.

I mean, you get everything.

You even get a little bit invisible man at the end.

[man laughing]

DANA: Kevin Costello were not great film comedians.

They were vaudeville comedians.

They were only as good as their gags.

This movie happened to have a ton of great ones.

It's also Abbott Costello, like, right in the pocket,

where they were just so funny.

And their go-to jokes weren't, like, stale yet.

If you want me just holler.

Holler oh, Chick.

You understand? - Oh, Chick!

- What do you want? - What kept you?

JONAH RAY: And so it gives Costello just

like these opportunities to be scared.

Chick!

JONAH RAY: There's like nothing better because that's

what he's so good at.

[WHISPERING] Chick.

Chick.

NATHANIEL: And a lot of horror spoofs.

It's almost like, well, it's a down market franchise.

And so we're just kind of going to goof

around and make fun of it.

But this one doesn't do that.

It really loves the genre, and it embraces it at the same time.

Not unlike The Ghost and Mr Chicken,

a great haunted house movie that should not be as funny as it is.

But it's just great gag after great gag after great gag

after great gag.

To me, that first night in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,

there are more scary moments in that than in The Shining,

front to back.

[music playing]

But.

[piano playing]

RYAN: Fright Night is my favorite horror movie of all.

That's the first horror movie I ever saw in a theater.

And I was scared because it's called Fright Night.

But what it taught me was, horror can also be funny.

Yeah!

[giggling]

Fright Night came out in 1985, and it's

kind of a twist on rear window.

It's about this teenage boy, Charley Brewster,

who becomes convinced that his neighbor, Jerry Dandrige,

is a vampire.

And nobody believes him.

He's a vampire.

A what?

A vampire.

Damn it, haven't you listened to anything I've said?

He's got a love interest that Jerry starts to covet.

And the more he kind of investigates,

the more he puts his friends into trouble.

It's a horror story.

It's a comedy, but it's also a story about protecting

the person that you love.

And you know, being a teenager and the adults

not believing you.

What's he doing here?

I invited him over.

Why?

What's the matter, Charlie?

Afraid I'd never come over without being invited first.

[laughs]

So there's a lot of elements and layers to it.

Charlie, Peter Vincent's on.

TOM: The minute I had the idea of Peter Vincent,

I couldn't wait to get home and write the script.

Really?

TOM: I wrote it really quick and I

was laying on the floor laughing hysterically

as I wrote the scenes because some of them

were really funny, because the ea that I had for Fright Night

was intrinsically humorous.

MAN [ON TV]: There are a lot of people who do not

believe in vampires, but I do.

TOM: Well, it all comes down to what

a horror fan kid who's watching the Friday Night

Frights, which is what I did.

If there was a vampire next door, what would he do?

Mr. Vincent.

TOM: He'd go to whoever the horror host was

of the Friday Night Frights.

I believe in vampires.

I have one living next door to me.

Would you help me kill him?

Pardon me?

Humor is great in horror if you have building suspense

and if you do have scares because it gives an audience

a chance to let the terror go, which

sets them up for the next even worse scary part.

Hello, everyone.

Chris Sarandon's vampire was probably the first time I was

actually afraid of a vampire.

I got that combination of sort of the sensual allure

that the mom sees in him but the fear that her son sees in him.

And both of those things are true.

He's hot, and he's very scary.

And I was, like, I get it.

I finally get vampires.

I get what people are attracted to about vampires.

I'm gay, and I'd certainly come

out to myself at that point.

But that was kind of one of the movies that was safe to kind

of watch with my friends because the relationship

between the vampire and his familiar

was a little homoerotic, but not over the top

that people would be, like, why are you watching this stuff for?

So you know, you take what you can get when

you're at that time and place.

Like, two days before I'm shooting, I get a call.

You can't have this ending.

And the ending I had was that Charlie

and Amy are back in his bedroom, and

they're making out on the bed.

And they're looking at Peter Vincent on the screen.

And as Peter Vincent is talking, he

starts to turn into a vampire.

And I thought it was a hell of a cliffhanger.

And I said, you can't do that.

You've got to have a happy ending.

So I gave him the happy ending, and the rest is history.

[laughing]

In the summer of 1984, two movies

came out that shocked and horrified parents to the point

that the ratings board had to change the ratings

and create a new rating, PG 13.

And those two movies were--

[yelling]

DANA: --Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins.

[SINGING] Christmas

JOE: Gremlins is the classic Joe Dante film.

It's an absolute masterpiece of Christmas horror.

Kate, what are you doing in there?

Don't ask.

It's tremendously funny.

[squirting]

I'll never forget watching gremlins in a theater

because I was 10 years old, and we thought we were in store

for, like, ET Part Two.

Hey, Dr. Morell.

Morning, Billy.

MICHAEL: No, it starts like this very

magical Amblin-style, boy-meets-creature kind

of movie.

Has it got a name, Dad?

Mogwai.

Cute.

And then it just goes to hell in the best way possible.

What's going on here?

You know, there's some things I forgot to tell you guys,

and they're really important.

GIGI: In the world of gremlins, they set you

up with the three main rules--

keep it away from lights, don't get it wet--

Great.

Thanks a lot.

And don't feed it after midnight.

On the hatch.

Get out of the house.

Setting up a movie like that right away,

you know you're only in for a ride, because you

know those three rules are going to be

broken over and over again.

And I'll never forget the audience's reaction

as the shit hits the fan.

[grimlin squealing]

MICHAEL: And the cute and cuddly Mogwai's

evolve into these, like, reptilian

sharp-toothed, clawed creatures that

are attempting to kill a mom.

[grunting]

MICHAEL: Or taking out the school of science teacher.

[yells]

What the hell is going on?

GIGI: Between Gremlins and Gremlins 2.

[yelling]

GIGI: You put the two movies together,

and it's easily over 230 kills.

I mean, it's fantastic.

What better family movie could you ask for?

[laughing]

HOWARD: This is what is classic cinema.

You don't expect these things.

Someone has to go in a direction that no one

either thought of going before.

[yelling]

HOWARD: Or was told not to, like a naughty boy.

Joe Dante, he did his job.

He screwed some kids up back then.

[gremlin laughing]

[thunderclaps]

[projector whirring]

No!

Hurry!

Help me!

Help!

Hey, Mister.

The only thing that concerns me is the preservation of life!

Some of our clothes are from victims.

You might bite someone, and then you see,

ooh, those are some nice pants.

[yelling]

JONAH RAY: Shaun of the Dead is like one of the best

zombie movies ever made.

It's also just happens to be one of the best comedies ever made.

ALEX: There are few times when you see a film,

and you just think somebody has arrived, like, with

their own style totally intact.

And I want to see everything they do forever.

And so I think Edgar Wright kind of

has his own place in this pantheon beyond just

horror comedy.

It's almost balletic.

It really comes out of a very specific

style of British filmmaking.

Something that Edgar Wright did absolutely perfectly

was to mirror the mundaneness of being in a rut

and going to a job that you just go through the motions.

You got red on you.

CHAD: That opening is just phenomenal,

the shot-for-shot match from the normal day of going to work.

And then, also--

Hey.

You did.

CHAD:--the zombie apocalypse happening around you, and not

noticing the difference.

Nelson.

You know, all hell's breaking loose in the background,

and they're just going about their business.

They have absolutely no idea what's going on.

That's probably the biggest, I think, influence that it's had.

We've seen that in many horror comedies

since then, where people are just,

like, da da da da da, like, you know, gabbing away,

and then horrible things are happening right behind them.

This guy's going through a breakup,

so he's more concerned with that than he is with the zombies.

And so the zombies always pose an actual threat.

There is always this kind of scary element to it,

and it's the characters reaction to that which can be funny.

Dibi dibi dibi dibi di.

Ooh.

Dibi dibi dibi dibi dibi di.

Ooh.

One of the things that really works about Shaun of the Dead

is those relationships feel so real--

the stepfather that you've never bonded

with, the girlfriend that you're constantly disappointing.

That's how you know my name?

Yeah.

Smooth.

I'm sorry, Shaun.

TANANARIVE: The friend you can't quite pull yourself away from.

Oh!

[laughs] Oh my god, that's wrong.

I will stop doing them when you start laughing.

TANANARIVE: They feel like real characters,

and that's the key to creating real horror.

That's why the horror works, is because the characters

are so strong.

That movie is so much fun and so funny.

For 2/3 of the film, it's a comedy with horror elements.

I think that for me.

TED: And as soon as they reach the bar--

[bell tolling]

it becomes a horror movie with comedy elements.

That final act just kicks your ass

because you don't expect it to be as scary and as upsetting

as it is because you've just gone on this silly joy

ride with these characters.

And all of a sudden, you've got major characters

getting torn limb from limb.

You've got major characters dying,

and the stakes suddenly just, like, explode.

Come on, what's wrong?

I didn't want to be a bother.

MICHAEL: When Shaun's mother gets infected

and they have to decide what to do about her,

that's played straight, and it's played for drama and emotion.

And because the characters have been set up so well, it works.

And you have this unexpectedly moving moment in the midst

of all this comedic craziness.

I never thanked you.

For what?

For these.

The callbacks are incredible.

I'm sorry, Shaun.

JONAH RAY: The lines that come back and mirror each other

from the beginning to the end.

Oh, god!

[chuckles] That's not funny.

Stop doing it when you stop laughing.

I'm not laughing.

JONAH RAY: It's just so tightly done and so amazingly done

that you can't deny it.

It's just a perfect movie.

[siren wailing]

TED: Return of the Living Dead is the feature directorial debut

of Dan O'Bannon, who we previously

knew from having written Alien and countless other weird,

mostly sci-fi stuff.

Brains.

TED: What a way to come out swinging.

[yelling]

Like, my feature directorial debut is this, like, holy shit.

I would have killed for that to have been

my first film as a director.

How do you kill something that's already dead?

Well, how do I know, Fred? I don't know.

Let me think.

It's not a bad question, Burt.

As soon as it starts off, you have this great rapport between

these blue-collar workers.

These are split dogs.

Yep, for veterinarian schools.

Oh, we got a lot of orders for split dogs.

- That's pretty rad. - Yeah.

[growls]

Don't fool around you're learning.

NATHANIEL: And then he accidentally opened

this canister and just unleashed what is ultimately going

to be probably the apocalypse.

What the fuck?

Jesus H Christ.

NATHANIEL: But the film, it always just has this very kind

of fun, bouncy tone to it.

There's hundreds of those things out there.

100?

Stupid asshole.

Watch your tongue, boy, if you like this job!

Like this job?

But with Return of the Living Dead,

it's like you also get one of the best

punk rock movies of the '80s.

They have the different types of punks.

You have the gutter punk with the mohawk.

You have the more New Wave guy.

There's just such amazing classic lines.

No.

He got a job.

What a dick!

Oh, great, here's your friend and mine.

Hey, fuck you, ball buster.

You think this is a fucking costume?

This is a way of life.

There's enough of that kind of stuff that is so great,

leading into just all of them getting offed.

NATHANIEL: First, Linnea Quigley is

one of the all-time iconic horror characters.

The way she delivers her lines before she transforms,

it's still hysterically funny.

Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying,

you know, violently?

Every character is so vivid.

How was your day?

Usual crap.

are you crazy?

Are you on PCP?

Give me the bone saw.

NATHANIEL: And it's a horror movie, where you actually

care about the characters. You know they're all screwed.

You've seen zombie movies.

You know, they're probably not going to make it to the end,

but you just enjoy hanging out with them.

I just want to party.

JONAH RAY: You using running zombies

and talking zombies, which is something that I

would normally be very against.

But with this, it's like they use

it just to keep the energy up.

[yelling]

JONAH RAY: The fastness of the zombies,

like, really lends itself to just being exciting

the entire time.

JONAH RAY: Like, I can't think of a better example,

if you saw it as a kid, you'd think it's horrific.

[yelling]

And then as an adult, yeah, it's like you're just having

the best time of your life.

That's what makes Return of Living Dead

the most perfect horror comedy.

Can I have a piece of toast?

There are three or four ways to do horror comedy correctly,

and there are 300 or 400 ways to do it wrong.

An American Werewolf in London is to me the slam dunk of here's

how you do a horror comedy.

It has everything you want it to have.

NATHANIEL: It's about 50% pure horror.

[yelling]

50% kind of black comedy.

Holy shit.

And the lead character, you know,

he's doomed, basically, after the first 10

minutes of the movie.

Take your life, David.

Kill yourself.

NATHANIEL: Which the movie never forgets.

I'm a fucking werewolf, for Christ's sake!

Snarl.

NATHANIEL: And I think the humor,

it sort of distracts you from that a little bit.

Thank you.

NATHANIEL: I mean, when you have him running

naked through the park with the balloons,

you know, and the little kids response.

A naked American man stole my balloon.

What?

NATHANIEL: Stuff like that is great.

[yells]

But it's not really the engine that drives the movie.

You're not real.

I don't be a putz, David.

CHAD: How is this decomposition of my best friend

who keeps haunting me in my dreams

something that is entertaining?

And I think it just because they're calling

out each other's bullshit.

You're one of the undead, and I'm a werewolf.

Yes, that's right.

I will not be threatened by a walking meatloaf.

Oh, god damn it, David.

Please believe me.

It's about just seeing behind the curtain saying,

like, just stop the act.

And like, you are right now the trouble for everybody

else right now.

You need to be aware of that.

Jesus Christ!

RICKY: Seeing that werewolf transformation scene--

Oh, God!

RICKY: As the first time, I ever felt sorry for somebody, like,

going through that experience.

Just feel so bad for him.

The amount of sweat that's happening

from the pain of the transformation, it's visceral

watching his hand just grow like that.

It's, like, oh my god, it's painful, you know.

You help me!

[groaning]

And when he does turn into the werewolf,

that empathy goes away.

He's a monster.

[growling]

Then you're just feeling empathy for the people

that he killed.

Did you hear something?

- Just now? - Yes.

No.

RICKY: And then the subway sequence.

[growling]

Good Lord, what the hell.

RICKY: Oh, my goodness.

To this day, to this day, always do look around.

Once he turns into the werewolf,

the comedy pretty much ends.

That whole Piccadilly circus free

for all that ensues with the werewolf,

some people find it hilarious. I think it's pretty horrifying.

I mean, it's just nonstop carnage.

[snarling]

[yelling]

David?

Is it you?

NATHANIEL: Jenny Agutter has this look of pure sorrow

on her face that she made this one

last ditch attempt to save him.

Please let me help you.

NATHANIEL: And she fails.

[gunshots]

It kind of just stabs you in the heart,

and you don't realize it did it for a minute.

You're just, like, whoa, what?

SAM: I think an important tenet of monster movies

is the tragedy and the fact at American Werewolf in London

is as funny as it is, and still finds its way to that ending.

That abrupt no-hope-for-David ending is incredible.

Life mocks me even in death.

[snarls]

[projector whirring]

[laughter]

You'll never get credit for my discovery.

Who's going to believe a talking head get a job in a sideshow?

Oh!

[giggling]

MAN: Now, imagine what a toy like Megan

could do for hundreds of thousands

of kids, even the ones who don't have dead parents?

MAN: I am all ready dead.

Nice fucking model!

WOMAN: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

Oh, you're so cool, Brewster.

[laughs]

MAN: I approve very highly of your choice.

[giggling]

BARBARA [ON PHONE]: I don't want to cause a fuss.

We're coming to get you, Barbara.

Same attacks.

The undead surround me.

Do you ever talk to a corpse?

It's boring.

[eerie music]

What are the must-see Stephen King adaptations?

Here's Johnny.

There's some that I think really work and some that don't.

When you're adapting Stephen King,

the story is the most important thing.

♪

And there's always a darkness to it.

The ice is gonna break.

Paul: Annie, please!

♪

[eerie music]

Bad for the environment.