{"id":162657720,"date":"2025-10-22T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657720"},"modified":"2025-10-20T19:16:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:16:41","slug":"sub-genre-slam-horror-comedy-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657720","title":{"rendered":"Sub-Genre Slam! Horror Comedy Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Yes she was in a great deal of pain but then we cut off her head and put a stake through her heart and she found peace&#8221; &#8211; Dr. Van Helsing, &#8216;<em>Francis Ford Coppola Presents Bram Stoker&#8217;s Dracula<\/em>&#8216;<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh boy, we&#8217;re building to something in <em>Behind With Knife<\/em>! Wonder if whatever happens at the end of this week, the penultimate week, will have consequences for what happens in next week&#8217;s round of chapters. It&#8217;s all building to Halloween Friday, so catch up now! This week, we&#8217;ve had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657718\">chapter 16<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657730\">chapter 17<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657728\">chapter 18<\/a> so far. Here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657621\">chapter 1<\/a>, if you haven&#8217;t started but want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now, who&#8217;s ready to <s>get scared<\/s> laugh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-4-1024x512.png\" alt=\"Tim Curry as It, the titular scary clown, smiling with jagged brown teeth and wild eyes\" class=\"wp-image-162657722\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-4-1024x512.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-4-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-4-768x384.png 768w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-4.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">oh, not like that, Tim, I\u2014I see where you got the idea, but your services are needed a different day, thanks (credit: Lorimar Televsion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey, not to bring up real life, but do you laugh anymore? Hopefully that\u2019s a stupid question. I laugh all the time, and not just because of weed. Increasingly, though, entertainment doesn\u2019t really make me laugh. It\u2019s popular to talk about how Hollywood doesn\u2019t make comedies any more. Partially because they barely do, but also because the incoherent loser refrain of \u201cyou cant say anything any more\u201d and \u201cyou couldn\u2019t make <em>Blazing Saddles<\/em> today&#8221; will never die. There are exceptions\u2014Danny McBride and Tim Robinson\u2019s work is excellent, and I do like what <em>Dropout<\/em> does. Even <em>Dropout<\/em>, though\u2014I know for a fact that I would be enjoying <em>Dropout<\/em> a lot more, like, six or seven world-altering tragedies ago. Speaking of things I know I would\u2019ve enjoyed a lot more 10 years ago, let\u2019s get into <em>Werewolves Within<\/em> and <em>Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Werewolves Within - Official Trailer | HD | IFC Films\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X0WzPQNIBJ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Werewolves Within<\/em> is a movie I feel like I should like. It\u2019s about werewolves, for one. It\u2019s got two great leads: <em>Detroiters<\/em> and <em>I Think You Should Leave<\/em> superstar Sam Richardson, and Milana Vayntrub, whom I\u2019ve been cheering for ever since she starred in a Cracked.com video about how men should be nicer to women on the internet (what a time 2013 was). The set up is pretty straightforward: Richardson&#8217;s Forest Ranger Finn is the stranger who comes to town, Vayntrub&#8217;s Cecily the manic pixie dream girl who befriends him. Might as well be <em>Garden State But Snowy<\/em>, except, don&#8217;t forget: there&#8217;s a werewolf out there. Hell breaks loose, there\u2019s a mystery, and then a twist at the end.\u00a0Howl at the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It took me three tries to watch this movie because I kept falling asleep. That in and of itself is unremarkable\u2014I go to bed around midnight, and whatever Mallory and I have been watching is over around 11, with her asleep on the couch next to me. Plenty of movies take a few days to get through. This one, though? I just kept not being into it. When I finally finished, it hardly felt worth it (even if the last scene is super sick, werewolf-wise). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why didn\u2019t this movie work for me? Hard to put my finger on. I kept finding myself disgusted with Ranger Finn&#8217;s mewling lack of confidence. Quit letting Saddle Creek Records bands tell you how to be a man, dude. No, those self-help tapes won&#8217;t do the trick, either. 15 years ago, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eWymbWBpqsg&amp;list=RDeWymbWBpqsg&amp;start_radio=1\">Rivers Cuomo descendent<\/a> as protagonist wouldn\u2019t have bothered me, though, so maybe that&#8217;s me growing. Then again, the supporting cast does not lift the movie, and man, I don\u2019t know. Maybe filling out the cast with a bunch of rank-and-file LA improv people isn\u2019t the move. Or maybe it was the script. Maybe the same joke formulations&nbsp;that worked in the 2000s don&#8217;t work anymore, at least not on 37-year-old me. Does the dialogue in <em>Werewolves Within<\/em> rise to the level of <a href=\"https:\/\/vincemancini.substack.com\/p\/soy-banter-this-week-in-posters\">soy banter<\/a>? You know, that smug, MCU-style of &#8220;super wild thing happens, then character looks almost direct-to-camera and says &#8216;sooooo&#8230;.<em>that<\/em> just happened'&#8221; jokes? The style of talking that Ben Schwartz has made a whole career out of? I don&#8217;t know, I&#8217;d have to watch the movie again to really find out. It&#8217;s at least Millennial cringe humor. And maybe my patience has just run out with that style of humor. Sometimes, it reminds me of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/who-thought-this-was-a-good-idea-conservative-buries-jd-vance-for-kamala-harris-stunt\/\">J.D. Vance stalking Kamala Harris around <\/a>and talking about &#8220;I&#8217;m just making sure my plane is safe.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (2006) - Official Trailer\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7RiJDEZywlw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon<\/em> is another movie I think I would\u2019ve loved in 2006. It\u2019s a mockumentary, a la <em>The Office<\/em> or <em>Spinal Tap<\/em>. It also has Takes about How Slashers Work, a la <em>Scream<\/em> or the <em>Indian Lake<\/em> trilogy. Problem is, it\u2019s a little like someone in their first writing workshop sophomore year of college having all these ideas. Our mockumentary crew is overly credulous host Taylor and two camera-holding dipshits, Todd and Doug. Our killer, Leslie, is a Dane Cook-is-the-biggest-comedian-rn-style bro. Normally, this is a fine setup. Dipshit white men and overly credulous white women are to blame for roughly 95% of the world\u2019s ills. Taylor, Todd, and Doug are mostly starry-eyed as Leslie takes them through his planning. This includes stalking high schoolers for potential victims. On the night of the killings, the crew has an attack on conscience and tries to stop them\u2014despite being full aiding and abetting accessories up until this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe if <em>Scream<\/em> hadn&#8217;t come out 10 years earlier, or <em>Scream 2<\/em> nine years earlier, or <em>Scream 3<\/em> six years earlier, then all that post-Christian Male Feminist philosophizing about how a virginal girl will become her true self when facing a slasher would&#8217;ve been more compelling. Maybe if the twist didn&#8217;t hinge on whether or not someone can be a virgin while also knowing different sex positions. Maybe if the movie didn&#8217;t feel like something Brendan and I would&#8217;ve come up with while drunk in Spencer&#8217;s basement midway through college. What&#8217;d I compare this to up there?<em>The Office<\/em>, <em>Spinal Tap<\/em>, <em>Scream<\/em>, and the <em>Indian Lake<\/em> trilogy? That&#8217;s the &#8217;87 Lakers, &#8217;86 Celtics, &#8217;96 Bulls, and &#8217;15 Spurs. <em>Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon<\/em> is like a D-III college team that runs a gimmick offense and scores 115 points a game while playing all sub-5&#8217;10&#8221; dudes. Cool trick, but show me something compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-1024x683.png\" alt=\"a blonde woman sits backwards in a chair, staring at a young boy, while a muscular man stands behind her with a baseball bat slung over his shoulder\" class=\"wp-image-162657724\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-1536x1024.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-2048x1365.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-6-1320x880.png 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">the man in this picture is basically Leslie Vernon, except in this movie, he&#8217;s a middle reliever, rather than a starter (credit: Netflix)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I think about horror comedies that <em>do<\/em> work for me? Well, an obvious type is movies I&#8217;ve already seen. Those jokes are chicken noodle soup. I laugh at the jokes in <em>American Werewolf In London<\/em> or <em>Ash Vs. The Army Of Darkness<\/em> because I know what&#8217;s coming. Really, though, I think humor is most effective when the movie isn&#8217;t self-consciously trying to be a comedy. The epigraph for this week isn&#8217;t from a comedy, but it is the horror movie line I think about and laugh about the most. There&#8217;s something in Anthony Hopkins&#8217; deranged doctor performance, yes, but also the casualness with which he describes desecrating a vampiric corpse. It <em>could <\/em>be a wink to the audience, since the audience knows how to kill vampires. Hopkins plays it straight (as straight as that sort of kookiness can be), and it becomes hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Movies like <em>Totally Killer<\/em> or <em>Cabin In The Woods<\/em> or <em>Happy Death Day<\/em> or <em>The Babysitter<\/em> work because they are deathly serious about being horror movies, but they happen to have people making jokes throughout. Every cast member in <em>Cabin In The Woods<\/em> is naturally funny. Everyone in <em>Bodies Bodies Bodies<\/em> is reacting to an increasingly absurd situation in both emotional and sardonic ways, and it balances out. There are times where it feels like <em>The Babysitter<\/em> <em>2 <\/em>is going to fly completely off the rails, but it doesn&#8217;t, because Cole and Phoebe feel more human, more invested in surviving their situation than <em>Werewolves Within<\/em>&#8216;s Finn and Cecily do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want to laugh at stuff. I don&#8217;t think\u2014or at least don&#8217;t want to think\u2014that I&#8217;m so jaded that I can&#8217;t laugh at a comedy. And I don&#8217;t think comedies of the 2020s <em>have<\/em> to take after Tim Robinson or Danny McBride (in fact, I would really prefer people <em>not<\/em> bite those dudes&#8217; styles). There does seem to be a problem with standup comedy lately\u2014this <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/hn\/podcast\/smack-barm-pea-wet-with-eli-yudin\/id1525039108?i=1000730936606\"><em>Distraction<\/em> podcast with my old <em>Cracked<\/em> comrade Eli Yudin<\/a> does a good job of illuminating how comedy is being killed by the twin monsters of 1) comedians being overworked and 2) the Joe Rogan\/KillTony set being the biggest stars. Idk. It really seems like Hollywood doesn&#8217;t know how to make a comedy right now. Then again, from about 1987-1995, Hollywood had absolutely no clue how to make a slasher. The Paul Rudd <em>Halloween<\/em> comes out in 1995. What comes out in 1996?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Scream | Official Trailer (HD) - Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore | Miramax\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i3J6ACKQ7K0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bless you, Sydney and Tatum and Billy and Stu and Randy and Gale and Dewey. Casey, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sorry you got an email, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Yes she was in a great deal of pain but then we cut off her head and put a stake through her heart and she found peace&#8221; &#8211; Dr. Van [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162657722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,169,10],"tags":[193,31,191,51,192],"class_list":["post-162657720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-shipwrecked-sailor-blog","category-wednesday-column","tag-behind-the-mask-the-rise-of-leslie-vernon","tag-horror","tag-horror-comedy","tag-scream","tag-werewolves-within"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162657720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162657720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162657720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162657732,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162657720\/revisions\/162657732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162657722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162657720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162657720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162657720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}