‘A Haunted House 2′ – We’ve Seen This Movie Before, Right?

The Wayans Brothers did a hilarious parody of Blaxploitation films with ‘I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,’ and ‘Scary Movie’ was an outrageous piss-take on teen horror films like ‘Scream’ and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer.’ Some of the humor is so wild, you wonder how this movie got away with an R rating, and like the best irreverent comedies, nothing is sacred. Despite the fact that many of the movies ‘Scary Movie’ makes fun of are yesterday’s news by now, it’s still a hilarious movie to go back to today.

When John Landis was trying to get ‘American Werewolf’ made, the studios he pitched it to just didn’t get it. They told the director it was too funny to be scary, or too scary to be funny, and they didn’t understand it was supposed to be both. A lot of critics and fans were also confused by the film’s constantly changing tones from serious to gory to hilarious, but a lot of movies today are able to shift gears like this -- ‘Pulp Fiction’ certainly comes to mind -- and they have ‘American Werewolf’ to thank. Not to mention that Rick Baker’s incredible makeup effects, which earned him his first of many Academy Awards.

There are many fans who don’t like horror mixed with humor, arguing that they don’t go to a scary movie to laugh. Yet ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’ still proves that you can bring the two together successfully ... and hilariously. Universal brought their classic monsters together with their No. 1 comedy team because both of them needed a boost at the box office, and the film was indeed a major money maker that drove the fans wild. It also provided a nice send off to Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr before their careers slid into schlock.