ABSTRACT
In terms of genre, the devilish and the supernatural find their usual home in horror films-but horror, like most genres, also has its comic equivalents, films that locate themselves in the same generic area but instead play the horror for humor more than terror.1 Both horror and comedy, after all, draw attention to taboo topics, things that disturb us to the point of screaming or laughing. Music has a well-established role in interpreting the image for the audience in mainstream cinema, so we can logically assume that music will form part of the mechanism by which this transformation from the horrifying to the comic is also achieved. This chapter examines the strategies used in a range of supernatural horrorcomedies and how the music manages to simultaneously locate the film within-or at least close to-the horror genre, while at the same time encouraging the audience to laugh instead of scream.
