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The Laughing Dead: The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland. Cynthia J. Miller, A. Bowdoin Van Riper, eds. Rowman & Littlefield. $85. 296 pages
Usually death is not all that funny, at least when it happens to someone we know or love. However, when media incorporate such a morbid topic as mortality, especially in the horror genre, certain audiences consume this content like zombies eating brains.. Since the genre's jump to cinema, audiences have been experiencing a range of reactions, from covering their eyes while screaming advice at the screen like 'Don't open that door' to laughing at the sometimes excessive gore or intentionally cheesy effects. All of these reactions, as well as a thorough history of the horror-comedy subgenre, are covered in The Laughing Dead: The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland, assembled and introduced by editors Cynthia Miller and A. Bowdown Van Riper.
The text begins with a detailed introduction to both the horror and comedy genres, comparing and contrasting the two types of film and how they slowly merged to create a new art form. The editors cover everything from classic films to some of...