Writing Horror Comedy

From the guys who brought you "The Forty-Seven Rules For Surviving Zombieland," here are "The Forty-Seven Rules for Writing Horror Comedy… Minus Forty.

1. First off, get past the idea that horror comedies don’t work. True, Arachnophobia wasn’t the hit that people hoped. Yes, Tremors was more of a ‘cult hit’ than a ‘hit.’ But horror and comedy are less strange bedfellows than you’d think. Think back to Hannibal Lecter saying, “I’m having an old friend for dinner” in Silence of the Lambs. Remember Bill Paxton whining, “Game over, man!” in Aliens. Consider how audiences reacted when the bus flattened the girl in the first Final Destination. Big, big laughs.

Stories that mix horror and comedy are by no means uncommon. Think Shaun of the Dead, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Host, or Drag Me to Hell. Our theory is, when audience members get nervous, they get giddy, and when they get giddy, they’re practically begging to laugh. The pump is primed. It makes your job as a comedy writer that much easier. So never think of horror as an enemy of comedy, or vice versa.

Think of them as allies in the war to entertain. You are taking your audience on a roller coaster ride. Roller coasters make you gasp. Then laugh. Then gasp. Then laugh. That’s the ideal.

2. In real life, people often cope with horrific circumstances by making jokes … just to defuse tension. Humor can actually be an effective coping mechanism in scary situations. Remember this fact when your characters are staring down a monster or a murderer, particularly the characters who already possess senses of humor. Step back for a moment, and realize: in the face of danger, those characters would become more likely to start cracking wise, not less. Comedy can be a survival strategy. In terrifying times, the person who can laugh at his own dangerous predicament, even sardonically, is less likely to spiral toward despair.

3. Ask yourself, where is ‘comic relief’ more necessary than in a film that is ominous and spooky and oppressive? Not every great scary movie is funny, certainly. Seven was not exactly a laugh riot. But why not take pity on your viewers and give them the chance to blow off a little steam?

4. Never forget the power of physical humor. Slapstick is our favorite kind of comedy. It is comedy distilled to its essence … simple, broad, and pure. It worked in the days of cavemen … it worked in the days of silent movies… and it works just as well now, maybe even better, because it’s less common. Horror movies are by their nature very physical. Things are big and frantic. People run from danger. Fight. Fall down. Stand back up. Get separated from their heads. Etc. There’s often a lot of fluid on the ground, so there’s plenty of opportunity to slip and slide. Since circumstances are already taking place on such a broad, visual stage, why not mix in some physical comedy?

Spoilers ahead… in Zombieland, we feature pianos dropping on zombies’ heads, people getting smacked with golf clubs and golf balls, slow-speed motorcycle wrecks, messy corpse disposal, zombies flattened by amusement park rides, people unsuccessfully fighting zombies with cotton balls and toilet paper, little girl zombies dragged behind automobiles, and all sorts of senseless destruction of property … worked in around all the more traditional horror deaths… bites, gunshot wounds, etc. When it comes time to write your horror comedy, think of your workspace as a big sandbox filled with toys. You get to use whatever toys you want to evoke fear and laughter. Go nuts. The bigger, broader, and more memorable, the better.

5. Horror is particularly susceptible to the rats-in-the-maze problem. You spend a ton of time constructing the perfect frightening predicaments for your characters – their maze, if you will. The problem being, once you drop your metaphorical rats into the maze, you don’t pay enough attention to the rats themselves. Your characters become alike – same long tails, same white fur, same pink eyes. They react similarly to various horrors, not because the horrors are similar, but because the characters themselves are too similar, indistinct, unmemorable. In order for your horror comedy to be scary and funny, you have to take as much care with the rats as you do with the maze.

6. Food is funny. For some reason it just is. Work it in somehow. We made Twinkies a central component of Zombieland. This doesn’t just go for horror comedies. It goes for all comedies.

7. Above all, realize that it’s the interaction between the people in your story that will provide the biggest laughs. It’s the same with any comedy. You throw in characters who are unalike and then watch as they repel and attract one another. In Zombieland, we started with two characters at polar opposites… one who is beset by fears, the other who has no fears. We found humor in that dynamic. One guy wants to run frantically from every scary situation. The other guy wants to charge into every scary situation. Their push-pull is at the heart of the story. Toss in two very untrusting and untrustworthy women, and you’ve now got four little electrons bouncing off one another.

Ideally, you want your comedy to work even in absence of any horrific story elements. We always felt that Zombieland would be a pretty funny road movie even without the zombies. The zombies only serve to make things funnier. The horror works in service of the comedy, amping it up. The horrific setting places the characters under duress. It introduces energy to their world. It forces them into small spaces together. And as such, it heightens their interpersonal conflict. Never forget, conflict heightens comedy. And then, in turn, comedy heightens horror. Think about it, you’re much more likely to fear the death of a character if that character has made you laugh than if they’re dull and humorless. The comedy makes you care. And then the caring makes you afraid.

In summary, don’t worry about comedy detracting from horror, or horror detracting from comedy. The two can coexist and thrive in each other’s presence. The very same movie should be able to make us gasp and laugh. There’s a reason people love roller coasters.