Horror Cinematherapy: 10 Comedies to Ease Your Depression

I began my college career as a psychology major, and I have an AA in social science. Therefore, I am qualified to treat mental health issues…not at all. Whatsoever. Buuut I believe in the power of movies. It’s been proven that humor helps with anxiety and depression, so here are ten horror comedies that made me laugh.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Four lovable nerds (three scientists and a history/geography buff) battle ghosts. Their hopelessly incompetent but comely receptionist (Chris Hemsworth) helps, a little. I know a lot of people hated this one, but I find it gratifying that the ghostbusters are all ladies. It’s also terribly endearing how enthusiastic they are about their fancy ghost-fighting equipment. The performances are splendid; Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, whom I feel can go too far in comedic roles sometimes, are reined in here, while Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon are delightful and quirky.

Hell Baby

Jack and Vanessa, an expecting couple, move into a cheap murder house, and Vanessa becomes possessed by a demon. The movie was meant to be goofy and pointless, and the genre trope parody is combined with unexpected silliness like the characters exclaiming in ecstasy over po-boy sandwiches. Leslie Bibb is inspired as Vanessa, who switches from sweet and unassuming to wicked in a flash, and Rob Corddry is great as Jack the frazzled everyman. The supporting cast, whom you may remember as most of Comedy Central’s lineup, shines as well.

Willy’s Wonderland

A nameless, mute gentleman, credited as The Janitor (Nicolas Cage), is roped into cleaning a defunct goodtimery establishment crawling with possessed animatronic mascots (think Five Nights at Freddy’s, or if you’re old like me, Chuck E. Cheese’s–you know those things are secretly evil) in order to earn money and get his car fixed. His utter nonchalance when the malevolent robots attack him is hilarious, as is his dogged determination to continue cleaning the restaurant even while dispatching its beloved characters. Who knew Nicolas Cage could be so funny yet so restrained?

Murder Party

It’s Halloween, and socially awkward Chris (Chris Sharp) finds an invitation to the titular murder party in the street and decides to go. The soirée is being thrown by a circle of experimental artists vying for grant money by turning a killing into performance art. They’re pretentious and greedy, but still somehow likable. But Chris! He’s so sweet and fragile. When he finds his pumpkin smashed, he makes pumpkin bread and brings it to the party. And his costume! It’s cobbled together from cardboard boxes and duct tape. The scene when Chris makes up his mind about attending the gathering, based on his cat refusing to get out of his chair, is comedy gold.

The Quiet Family

*Content warning: the plot involves an attempted rape. Also, a dog is kicked by a main character; it’s offscreen, but a yelp is audible, and it’s played for laughs.

Korean movie. A family with no business acumen attempts to run a mountain lodge but is short on customers. When they finally score one, he kills himself, and their luck only gets worse from there. From the opening, a jaunty pan through the house set to a rap song with mariachi trumpets, to the end credits with The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You,” music is used incongruously and surprisingly. The film is a meditation on the lengths people will go to in the interest of self-preservation, but the family’s progressively more ridiculous circumstances are presented in a skillfully comedic way.

Black Holler

It’s 1989, and LaQuita (Tamiko Robinson Steele) is embarking on a college class trip to a scary woods where various ancillary characters meet their doom. LaQuita is a badass final girl with martial arts training and a kind heart. It’s low-budget and cheesy, but purposefully so, and the humor is so random that I watched in a sense of bemused wonder. I was tickled by Brett, who swears he’ll never change but is played by a different actor in every scene he’s in. I didn’t find it consistently laugh-out-loud funny throughout, but it was fun and worth it for the jokes that land. Plus a little unpredictability is tough to come by.

Housebound

New Zealand movie. Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) is making a long series of poor decisions when she’s caught trying to blow up an ATM. She’s sentenced to house arrest with her stepdad (Ross Harper) and her always-perky-and-well-meaning-but-occasionally-lapsing-into-racist-stereotypes (such as how Chinese people are “good wee little workers”) mother (Rima Te Wiata). Kylie is initially self-centered and angry about her circumstances, but soon she’s forced to grow up when it becomes apparent that her problems are worse than dial-up internet: the house is haunted. With the help of security officer/ghost hunter Amos (Glen-Paul Waru), she attempts to puzzle out what the apparition wants. Even at her most sullen, Kylie is still appealing, like in the scene when she’s so bored she gets out her old shoes and starts tap dancing.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Parody of ’50s sci-fi movies. Scientist Paul (Larry Blamire) and his wife Betty (Fay Masterson) head out to the woods to find a meteor and harvest its sweet sweet atmosphereum. Also hot on the trail of the space rock is evil scientist Roger (Brian Howe), his companion Animala (Jennifer Blaire), whom he assembled from mutated forest animals, and alien couple Kro-Bar (Andrew Parks) and Lattis (Susan McConnell). It’s filmed in “Skeletorama,” which I guess means black and white. It looks quite faithful to the decade, in both costumes and terrible special effects, and the actors nailed the stilted dialogue and mannerisms of bad movies from the era. Aside from mocking primitive mid-century mores, there are a wealth of amusing gags, like the dinner scene, below.

Haunted Mansion

An astrophysicist (LaKeith Stanfield) joins forces with a professor (Danny DeVito), a medium (Tiffany Haddish), and a priest (Owen Wilson) to help Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) battle aggressive ghosts in their new mansion. Despite the un-Disneyish inclusion of alcoholism, dead spouses (dead parents, that’s a Disney movie!), suicide, and, saddest of all, product placement, it’s funnier than it sounds. In fact, the themes include the notion that grief can be a doorway to joy. The cast is awesome, and the characters are likable, particularly Gabbie and Travis, who have adjusted Poltergeist-style to their living quarters and its undead inhabitants. It’s a family movie, but it’s not cloying, and there are even some well-executed jump scares.

Extra Ordinary

Irish movie. Rose (Maeve Higgins) is a lonely driving instructor with secret ghost-whispering talents who meets a widower (Barry Ward) haunted by his cranky dead wife. Also in the mix is a once-popular singer (Will Forte) making a demonic sacrifice to start a comeback. The jokes are clever and cute, and the Irish way of speaking is just wonderful. Consider this voicemail left by Rose’s sister (Terri Chandler): “All right, Sis, it’s Sailor. C’mere. You better not be on that bloody bouncy ball, eatin yogurt and listening to ghost messages. Ah, c’mere, I’m not gonna call over at all tonight, ’cause I’m just so knackered, my feet are killing me. So, you can have dinner on your own. Lasagna for one, is it? All right, go on, I’ll talk to you later. Bye. I love you.”