Slapstick Films 2020: Subgenres of Terror

By Steve Hutchison

Included in this book are 50 reviews of horror and horror-adjacent slapstick films.

Slapstick films are cartoonish physical comedies.

Each book in the Subgenres of Terror 2020 collection contains a ranked thematic watchlist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Hutchison
• Release date: Feb 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781778870552

Steve Hutchison

Artist, developer and entrepreneur in film, video games and communications Steve Hutchison co-founded Shade.ca Art and Code in 1999, then Terror.ca and its French equivalent Terreur.ca in 2000. With his background as an artist and integrator, Steve worked on such games as Capcom's Street Fighter, PopCap's Bejeweled, Tetris, Bandai/Namco's Pac-Man and Mattel's Skip-Bo & Phase 10 as a localization manager, 2-D artist and usability expert. Having acquired skills in gamification, he invented a unique horror movie review system that is filterable, searchable and sortable by moods, genres, subgenres and antagonists. Horror movie fans love it, and so do horror authors and filmmakers, as it is a great source of inspiration. In March 2013, Steve launched Tales of Terror, with the same goals in mind but with a much finer technology and a complex engine, something that wasn’t possible initially. He has since published countless horror-themed books.

Book preview

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Tales of Terror’s

Subgenres of Terror 2020

Slapstick Films

INTRODUCTION

Included in this book are 50 reviews of horror and horror-adjacent slapstick films.

Slapstick films are cartoonish physical comedies.

Each book in the Subgenres of Terror 2020 collection contains a ranked thematic watchlist.

#50

Secret Santa

2018

7/8

During a Christmas supper, members of a family become unusually aggressive toward each other, and increasingly violent.

You’ve never seen a movie quite like this one. Brace yourself. This is an uplifting horror comedy taking place during a Christmas dinner where everything goes wrong. We keep hearing that the house is getting hotter, which could explain why the guests and hosts are picking fights left and right. There are hints of a supernatural element, but we don’t get confirmation until late in the plot.

Calling this movie violent would be an understatement. Calling it funny would be an insult. It’s those two things combined that offer one hell of a ride… and what we get is nothing less than one of the best Christmas horror movies ever made. It’s politically incorrect. It’s arrogant. It’s unprecedented. It’s a cynical perspective on the Holidays. The script is brilliant. The dialogue is exuberant.

Adam Marcus, who gave us Texas Chainsaw 3D and Jason Goes to Hell, can be proud of his film. It is spotless. The actors are amazing. The characters are colorful and are more than meets the eye. Nobody’s particularly relatable here, and that’s never a problem. Whatever budget went into this was spent wisely, because it doesn’t look cheap. This movie deserves a spot on your Christmas watchlist.

#49

Planet Terror

2007

7/8

A bio-weapon is released and turns thousands into zombies.

Planet Terror is released as a double feature with Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof and pays homage to exploitation flicks of the 1970s. It is an unusual zombie story with exceptional protagonists. There is the hypochondriac doctor, the nurse with a syringe fetish, the stripper with a riffle for a leg, the acrobat outlaw who fights with knives and the butcher who protects his secret sauce.

The screen is altered with a dust and scratch film filter that brings us back in time, but this is shot in digital. You’ll rarely see horror with such realistic gore. Planet Terror is a drama with intelligent humor. Some of the protagonists are bad guys with baggage, so there are initial conflicts. The zombies aren’t exactly simple either. They don’t appear brain dead, which is interesting.

With its catchy score, its imaginative practical effects, its extreme digital compositing, its impressive stunts and its multiple explosions, Planet Terror is way above your average zombie film. In fact, the undead are just a pretext for great characters to evolve and die in gruesome ways. Planet Terror has an amazing cast of tough men and strong, sexy women. Most actors are big names.

#48

Detention

2011

7/8

A group of co-eds try to avoid being murdered by a