Characteristics of a horror comedy genre

The characteristics of a horror comedy film are usually contrapuntal music and less than credible antagonist. The diegetic music is usually quite happy when the scene is actually quite scary. An effective Horror film usually starts of with an balanced equilibrium but the equilibrium then gets disrupted and that is when the story begins. This is not the case in the hybrid genre of horror/comedy; the opening to a horror comedy has to get into the disruption of equilibrium more quickly than a horror as it needs time to add in comic effect. At the start of a horror comedy genre film the main character is usually involved in a joke or put into a funny situation. horror comedies in the noughties have expanded as most horror comedy films that are released today, often portray a lot of violence and blood but add a comedic affect to amuse the viewers. Films that portray this kind of humour in the noughties are zombieland, dead snow, Slither and Teeth. There are many horror comedy films that use cross references with other films and make a parody/spoof of them; for example Scary movie 2 have a freddy cruger jumper within the film. This is an inter-textual reference to the film Nightmare on Elm Street. The horror comedy genre uses iconography like heavy make- up for characters such as werewolves, vampires and zombies. There is a difference to the format of a horror film and a horror comedy film as the pattern of a horror film is standardized with the usual same antagonist and protagonist. As for a horror comedy their format is different as they use more than one antagonist and don’t stick to the same routine of having a final girl and a monster fodder.