10 Recent Horror Comedy Movies You Need To Stop Sleeping On
4. There's Something In The Barn
Just in case your summer needed a little more Christmas (don't @ us, Australia), here comes There's Something in the Barn, a surprisingly original festive shocker from director Magnus Martens.
Settling down in the middle of nowhere - or Norway, as we like to call it - an all-American family journey to their inherited home in the middle of winter, discovering that rather than a hygge hideaway, the place is more US colonial haunted home, with cobwebs and chains and, well, something in the barn.
The fish out of water setup is where the film draws most of its comedy from, putting Martin Starr and his brood up against some thoroughly northern Norwegian whose pronunciations bring back haunting memories of Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. And while that is almost enough to provide the horror, the picture goes all the way with a mysterious barn elf whose rules are made not to be broken, but which the arrogant Americans do anyway.
Sure, it borrows a few things from Gremlins, but there's still plenty of mileage in what it doesn't, pitting all the excesses of the US holiday norms against a quieter European life, to great effect. And despite few people seeing There's Something in the Barn during its short cinematic run last Christmas, it makes perfect viewing on the run up to this one - only seven months to go!