Rule of Horror & Comedy

Here is an interesting rule I discovered about movies:

A bad horror movie can be funny, but a bad comedy can never be scary. 

For example, "Alone in the Dark" with Terra Reid was an awful horror movie.  It fails in every way as a horror film, yet some how manages to succeed on a comedic level. It's funny, but on an unintentional level.  This provides a kind of "Plan B" for horror movies.  I guarantee if you watch Alone in the Dark as a comedy movie, it totally works.

She's supposed to be a brilliant scientist in "Alone in the Dark"  Funny, amirite?

Another notorious example of this is Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space" - it was supposed to be a Sci-Fi horror movie about aliens raising the dead, but it was so incompetent that there was nothing scary about it at all.  Yet, it remains a cult favorite because of it's unintentional comedic value.

The late, great, Vampira.  Way sexier than Tara Reid....

On the other hand, if you try to make a comedy and it doesn't work out, it will have nothing to fall back on.  For example, "Gigli" with Ben Affleck failed as a comedy movie, and it will never, ever work as a horror movie.

Ben Affleck during his "Voyage of the Mimi" days, before the stain of Gigli was upon him

Another example is the notorious "Corky Romano", a comedy starring Chris Kattan that has been described by a critic as "about as funny as watching a colon examination".  I've watched this movie, and it's bad, oh it's very bad.  There is nothing funny in it and it will never, ever work as a horror movie.

Do not want

So, if you are a producer and you are deciding whether to fund a horror movie or a comedy movie, always go with the horror.  It's a much safer bet.