In the journal article “Horror and Humor”, Noël Carroll says that one of the major parts of humor resides in incongruities: she argues that “the incongruities that underlie comic amusement are contradictions” and that “the relation of horror to humor begins to emerge where impurity, in turn, is to be understood in terms of violations of our standing categories, concepts, norms and commonplace expectations” (p. 154). When I read this passage, the first comedy horror film that came to my mind was What We Do in The Shadows (Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, 2014): this mockumentary tells the story of Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr, four vampire housemates who have to deal with modern life.
What makes the film funny is, as Carroll said, the incongruity: while acting like vampires (they do not go out during the day because of the sunlight, for example), they also have to cope with everyday life, such as doing the dishes. You would expect vampires to be scary and lonely but Viago, Vladisav and Deacon are pretty friendly and nice (Petyr is the only one of them who is more vampire than “human”). Even when they have to drink human blood to sustain, they (sometimes) ask for permission first!
When they befriend a human named Stu, they decide not to eat him (even though they wanted to at first): Stu teaches them how to use technology and they start using computer and mobile phones for the “silliest” reasons, such as looking at videos of the sunrise on Youtube.
Using Carroll’s words, incongruous juxtaposition include “branches of norms of propriety where an inappropriate, rather than an illogical, behavior is adopted” (p. 154): their behavior would be appropriate if they were human, but it is not since they are vampires and this is what makes the film so funny and entertaining.
What We Do In The Shadows is a great example! It’s a complete subversion of Carroll’s ‘monster’ – which he states is an aspect integral to all horror movies – by removing the vampires from their fantasy setting and immersing them in a mundane world, thus stripping them of their horror potential.
I really enjoyed your analysis of What We Do in the Shadows! I think it’s the great example of horror/ comedy as whilst vampires should be frightening creatures, by making them do mundane tasks, it makes them seem far less threatening. Humanising these creatures also has a comedic effect as it subverts audience expectations of how a vampire should act.
I really agree with you that the incongruous mix of human social behaviour and vampire lore generates a great deal of humour throughout the film. I think you can see this in the TV adaptation too; the characters’ relationship to archetypes is amusing- the alternation between close conformity and transgression provides an interesting social commentary.