OR ARE HORROR FILMS TRYING TOO HARD TO BE FUNNY?

Hollywood has been serving up its fair share of horror remakes over the last few years, reintroducing classic villains to new audiences. But there now seems to be a trend of updating these stories so that they cross over into the comedy genre, too.

Shane Black’s 2018 franchise pretty much has a joke locked and loaded in every scene, as we follow a group of PTSD-suffering military men who team up to take down the titular menace (and let’s face it, most of those jokes didn’t land). With Black on directing and writing duties, there was no doubt his trademark wit would be built into the script, but seemed so far removed from the 1987 original, in terms of tone, actual scares and carefully deployed humour, that it’s hard to accept they exist in the same series.