The 80s reinvented horror movies by introducing the viewing audiences to a plethora of iconic franchises filled with terrifying slashers and demonic forces. As franchises like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Scary Movie franchise were produced.
The horror-comedy sequels of popular 1980s horror franchises like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Bride of Chucky differ from horror-comedy movies like Shaun of the Dead or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. The later films were designed to be comedies from the start, whereas the comedic horror sequels evolved from the purely horror-based source material. Franchises like Friday the 13th and The Evil Dead Movies grew away from their strictly horror-centric origins to insert sight gags, jokes making fun of their established tropes, and stretch the limits of how absurd they could make their sequels. Every major horror franchise from the 80s managed to produce a comedic sequel; even Freddie Krueger became a quipping comedic monster before the original A Nightmare on Elm Street series came to a close. Eventually, these comedic horror sequels evolved into a new trend of self-aware/self-satirizing horror films like Scream.
These 80s horror franchises produced comedic sequels because they allowed the filmmakers to expand the franchise’s mythology, increase the film’s impact on the audience, and become more marketable to more people. At first, it seems impossible to combine two genres meant to elicit opposite emotions. Most films that dabbled in this territory were comedies that contained horror tropes (like Young Frankenstein) or horror movies with slightly comedic elements (like The People Under The Stairs). However, these horror sequels inspired by 80s slashers proved the two genres could co-exist simultaneously and successfully for three fundamental reasons.
Comedic Tones Forces Horror Franchises To Re-Examine Mythologies
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Tobe Hooper removes the Sawyer family from the isolated Texas countryside and moves them to a more urban area, where they can participate in chili cookoffs and invade radio stations. By leaning into horror-comedy, Tobe Hooper created a distinct sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that highlighted the differences between itself and the original movie and avoided becoming redundant.
The Relationship Between Humor and Horror
Horror franchises also utilized comedy because the two genres are more similar than audiences might first expect. Although Comedy and Horror are hypothetically supposed to create opposite emotions in the audience (Comedy creates delight whereas horror creates fear), they both utilize tension and release to accomplish their goals. Whereas a joke has a setup and a payoff, a horror movie has the build-up of suspense and then the release when the scare is executed. Sam Raimi combined horror and comedy and their methods of tension and release in Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, wherein he combined the setup for the joke with the suspense for the scare and the payoff with the scare itself. For example, in Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, Ash is running from the reanimated corpse of his dead girlfriend, Linda. The setup for the joke/scare occurs when Ash looks for a chainsaw and finds it is missing. The payoff/scare occurs when the headless corpse of his girlfriend begins to chase him with the chainsaw. By combining comedy tropes with the pre-established horror tropes in a dramatically heightened environment, horror-comedy sequels can create an even stronger audience reaction than their predecessors.
Horror Comedy Builds a Broader Audience
Bride of Chucky combined comedic elements with horror elements, it became appealing to a broader audience. By combining horror and comedy, Bride of Chucky became the highest-grossing movie in the Chucky franchise.
Horror Comedy sequels of popular 80s horror films broadened the cult following of the original films while allowing the creators to challenge themselves. These savvy, hilarious sequels were able to redefine their respective franchises and solidify their iconic status in the horror genre. These horror sequels may also be responsible for the clever satirical horror movies that are so prevalent today. For example, smart modern satirical horror-comedy films like Ready or Not, Happy Death Day, and Jennifer's Body may have never existed without the popularization of horror-comedy sequels within iconic horror franchises. Thanks to the inclusion of comedy in films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, and Bride of Chucky, the horror movie genre became more creative, more impactful, and more accessible for all.