ABSTRACT
Humor and horror have always been closely related: both involve subversions of what we expected to hear or see. In horror, that subversion produces a shiver or a yelp of surprise; in humor, of course, the result is a laugh. But both share a common structure – that of a set-up and a pay-off.
Because these two modes are linked, the horror film is often in danger of slipping into laughter. The famous French theater-of-horror, the Grand Guignol (producing plays between 1897 and 1962) acknowledged this link, by offering evenings of alternating one-acts: horror plays and sex farces. In film, going back at least to The Cat and the Canary (1927), horror films have also deliberately mixed laughs with chills, providing release from tension, before working up to another scare.
An American Werewolf in London is a notable example, startling viewers (in 1981) with sudden shifts from comedy into gory horror and back again. One danger with this technique is that the constant shifting itself becomes predictable, undercutting suspense. Modern “meta” horror-comedies like Scream are also problematic; in making self-conscious fun of the horror genre, they make it harder for audiences to invest in the fate of the characters.
