10 Underrated Horror Comedy Movies

There's no sub genre quite like horror comedy to elicit a gut deep reaction from viewers.

Whether it's a tense and terrifying slasher with a sharp satirical edge like Last House on the Left director Wes Craven's iconic 1996 hit Scream or a goofy kid's comedy with occasional scares like The Burbs director Joe Dante's seminal 1984 Yuletide classic Gremlins, one thing is for certain.

The cinematic pairing of horror and comedy is a marriage made in Heaven, with comedic moments lightening the tone and offering some reprieve from the scares and the horror made more effective when the audience isn't trying to approach stories of ghosts and ghouls with stoic, stone-faced self seriousness.

Horror and comedy have been natural bedfellows since time immemorial, with the sub genre dating back to Abbot and Costello's early cinematic interactions with the stable of Universal movie monsters.

But as cinema has grown more sophisticated, so has the palate of horror comedy viewers, meaning this rundown of ten wildly underrated horror comedies runs the tonal gamut from warm rom coms which happen to feature a killer crocodile all the way to dark portraits of a serial killer who happens to a insufferably precocious kid.

Released in 2016, Better Watch Out sees The Visit star Olivia DeJonge embroiled in another twisty, ingenious domestic horror set up, although this one is a lot more stylishly shot and wittily scripted than The Sixth Sense director M Night Shyamalan's fun but overlong return to form from the year before.

Elevated by a mesmerising turn from its star, the film follows a young babysitter as she and her pubescent charges are besieged by home invaders.

Or so it seems...Featuring a stellar supporting cast including Patrick Warburton and a scene-stealing bit of comic relief from Stranger Things breakout star Dacre Montgomery, this mean-spirited Christmas horror deserved more recognition for the fantastic performances of its leading pair. Viewers be warned, however.

Despite its young cast and colourful presentation, like its ostensible hero this one is a nasty piece of work.