The Laughing Dead: The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland ed. by Cynthia J. Miller, A. Bowdoin Van Riper (review)

Usually death is not all that funny, at least when it happens to someone we know or love. However, when media incorporate such a morbid topic as mortality, especially in the horror genre, certain audiences consume this content like zombies eating brains.. Since the genre’s jump to cinema, audiences have been experiencing a range of reactions, from covering their eyes while screaming advice at the screen like ‘Don’t open that door’ to laughing at the sometimes excessive gore or intentionally cheesy effects. All of these reactions, as well as a thorough history of the horror-comedy subgenre, are covered in The Laughing Dead: The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland, assembled and introduced by editors Cynthia Miller and A. Bowdown Van Riper.

The text begins with a detailed introduction to both the horror and comedy genres, comparing and contrasting the two types of film and how they slowly merged to create a new art form. The editors cover everything from classic films to some of the latest hits in the subgenre, thereby educating readers about the evolution of storytelling and moviemaking concerning ghouls, ghosts, vampires, zombies, and other things that go bump in the night. Following this introduction are 16 chapters split into three sections that attempt to bring some organization to a spooky smorgasbord ranging from the critically acclaimed such as Nosferatu (1922) to the direct-to-DVD Gingerdead Man (2005).

In the first section, the authors discuss how comedy alters horror narratives, allowing directors to sneak in potentially controversial social commentary with laughter as an end result. More specifically, these chapters cover the visual humor and sight gags used in Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967); comedy-horror films at the threshold of World War II that helped audiences laugh in the face of death; George A. Romero’s oeuvre, which inspired ‘zom-coms’ like Shawn of the Dead (2004); Dracula’s changing living preference from reclusive to urban landscapes; and the animated film The Book of Life (2014), which made the macabre more palatable for juvenile audiences.

Section two reviews how comedy is inserted into horror stories to surprise audiences and allow them to laugh during potentially uncomfortable moments. These chapters cover such topics as William Castle’s live gimmicks during film screenings, which let audiences laugh at the vibrating seats and fake skeletons flying overhead in the theater; Bride of Frankenstein (1935) filmmakers creating a funnier sequel than most expected; comedy duo Abbott and Costello reenergizing their career as well as monster movies with a series of crossover hits; and Zombieland (2009), which used audiences’ familiarity with zombie clichés to make a series of inside jokes, thereby displaying a refreshing self-awareness.

The authors in the last section focus on film narratives set in unique locations, starting with Fido (2006), which takes place in a 1950s style alternate world, where zombies have been tamed and commercialized by a corporation to sell as servants. The section also discusses Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989) both set in New York City, using the city’s backdrops and character types to significant effect; suburbia-based zombie films that address the overwhelming feelings of peer pressure found within local communities; and a series of corpse-filled films such as Frankenweenie (2012) that take the power of reanimation away from mad scientists and allow everyday citizens to take a crack at the dark practice. The Laughing Dead particularly shines in its solid introduction and in discussions of unusual devices used in the horror and comedy genres such as the Freleng Door Gag where characters run in and out of doors during a static shot barely missing each other in the process. However, as the book is a collection of essays by different authors, it repeats itself, often references the same films, and seems to meander in some chapters, slowing...