A broader framework for the horror comedy: Alternation, conflation and multiple genre hybridities

Few studies have assessed the tonal construction of horror comedy films and those that have provide narrow frameworks for analysing individual films. This article argues for a broader approach to the horror comedy which accounts for both horror studies and humour studies theory as well as the multiplicity of tonal hybridities that exist in individual films. To approach this broader framework, three case study films – The Gore Gore Girls (1972), Society (1989) and All My Friends Hate Me (2021) – are analysed using two dominant theoretical frameworks. The first is characterized by tonal alternation , in which a film’s tone rapidly shifts from horror to humour or vice versa. The other is characterized by tonal conflation , in which horror and humour operate simultaneously. By borrowing from these existing theoretical frames, this piece makes the case for a horror comedy studies that takes a more holistic approach to the complex blending of tones that occurs within individual films.