Comedy horror

Comedy horror, also referred to as horror comedy, is a literary and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Horror comedy has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." The genre almost inevitably crosses over with the black comedy genre. Comedy horror will often use satire on horror cliches as its main source of humour or take a story in a different perspective, such as The Cabin in the Woods and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

Author Bruce G. Hallenbeck cites the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving as "the first great comedy-horror story". The story made readers "laugh one moment and scream the next", and its premise was based on mischief typically found during the holiday Halloween.

In literature

Horror and comedy have been associated with each other since the early days of horror novels. Shortly after the publication of Frankenstein, comedic parodies appeared. Edgar Allan Poe put humor and horror on the same continuum, and many nineteenth century authors used black humor in their horror stories. Contemporary author Robert Bloch called them "opposite sides of the same coin".