Comedy and horror map directly to the emotions of mirth and fear. Storytelling is about bringing emotions to the surface, everything else is supplemental. So, comedy and horror give young filmmakers very clear emotional targets.
Fear and laughter are the most common reactions to surprising and eventful situations. When you get jumpscared by a friend, when you're riding a rollercoaster, break the law in a small way or do something you've never done before, you get a weird mix of those emotions that makes you feel alive. Directors like Hitchcock, Lynch, Kubrick, Lanthimos, Tarantino, Aster, Raimi, Östlund or Gilliam often mix these emotions in surprising ways, which makes their movies so entertaining and unpredictable.
I am just a local stage director of radio theatre productions. But I started out directing horror, mystery, comedy, and adventure, in that order. It wasnt until my 6th show that I worked up to drama ("Little Women"). This makes total sense to me!
I think random UA-cam video creators should tell random people how they should live their lives. I stopped watching this video after the intro. If the title was worded differently, I'd consider giving it a chance. It's like the saying goes: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Do whatever you want and make whatever you want. Plenty of excellent filmmakers have made excellent dramas for their first films. If you're talented, you'll find a way. And you may fail at your first attempt, or second, or third, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try what you wanna do.
@NE-lu7tn Boy! You're just the coolest guy in the room! So cool you hipped us to your wisdom, so smart you judged a book by its cover! Wow. I wish I was as cool and smart as you.
@Stratmanable For someone mocking someone's intelligence, you should really question your own first. I didn't judge a book by its cover. I clearly stated that I turned it off after the intro. And considering that you don't know who I am and know absolutely nothing about me, it would be wise for you not to throw insults. Unlike most people watching this video and/or posting in the comments (and/or potentially making this video), I actually have 30+ film credits, including one of the biggest TV shows of this century, and one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in 2022. So feel free to choose insults and sarcasm, but considering that you don't even know who you're insulting, maybe you should try to be intelligent and read the comment at face value, coming from someone who actually makes a good living in the industry.
Even the director of Lights Out started with a short horror film. He has a UA-cam channel called Ponysmasher. He explains in depth how he started from a low budget and moved upto directing Shazam.
If someone makes a student film that isn’t a chamber drama about them whining over a girlfriend in their dorm room, they’re pretty much automatically a dove amongst the crows.
One bit that I feel was overlooked here was the audience and marketing aspect/perspective. The deep introspective "I don't know what to feel" stories may be great oscar fodder. But. They are really hard to sell, to market and without word of mouth, you get audiences who very likely do not jive with the intent of the film. With horror and comedy, you have much, much simpler expectations to meet. Distributors know how to market them and audiences let their guards down because they know why to chose your film over the other options. And like with hypnosis, a willing participant is so much more easy to give suggestions to.
I’m on my second draft on a novel and haven’t been enjoying myself as much as when I started. I’m gonna take this advice and see if the fun comes back!
Great video, really sharp. The GET OUT scene at @5:50 echoes a sequence in MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL when John Cleese's Lancelot is running towards the guards.
A lot of great ideas here but I personally feel like upbeat music during horrific scenes takes the edge off and makes it more watchable, not more terrifying. Same thing happens in some of Rob Zombie's movies
First of all we must understand what comedy means: Tragedy. There is not such thing as "happy" comedy, Comedy is a series of events from tragedy, this is evident in the book 'Divine comedy' by dante. If we pay attention, Chaplin's comedy or any jim carrey comedy is based on inconveniences or personal tragedies. it's psychological in many ways
Funny enough I always classify Tarantino movies as comedy’s. I don’t get why people think they’re anything but. Pulp fiction is my favorite movie for many reasons but a major one is because of how damn funny it is
Do you think Skinamarink counts as transcendental horror? I think it might. I saw it, it felt slow, yet the atmosphere and anticipation was anxiety inducing. We, the audience don't even see the top half of the characters' bodies for the first half of the film. A lot of low to the ground shots. It was a really good, spooky film in my opinion.
Title made me think of John Demme's "Something Wild" starting out as a romantic New York comedy then turn on a dime with Ray Liotta into a dramatic movie. His next movie "Married to the Mob" wasn't a great comedy but "Silence of the Lambs" went full blown horror. Comedy is funny because it has a grain of truth to it.
Totally agree with you. One of the worst beginner films I’ve ever seen is Spider-Man Lotus. Controversy aside, it’s extremely boring and self indulgent. Literally like 95% of the movie is just characters being melodramatic and sad. IN A SPIDER-MAN MOVIE! This is common among beginner directors (or artists in general), they don’t care about entertaining the audience. They only care about showing off how genius their dialogue is and how high brow their premise is. They take themselves way too seriously when they still suck! Filming a comedy kind of forces you to be goofy and get in touch with your inner child. Same thing with horror. Who doesn’t have experience trying to scare their friends or family members?
Although I think you have a lot of good points about the parallels of horror and comedy, its an interesting comparison that I don't see many people cover, some horror can use dark humor for a tonal dissonance that really works well. However I think your Thesis is... flawed and clickbaity. I will agree that many new film makers shoot too high, they try to create their magnum opus in their first year and this is disastrous for them. now, where I disagree is that genre inherently will change this, Yes making B-movies(which usually happen to be horror or comedy) is a great way to start your career, but both these genres can be as over ambitious as a drama, making people laugh can be hard, making people scared can be really hard. Its possible on a small budget and little experience(like a great example you shortly showed, I actually think evil dead 2 is Raimis best movie. and that was one of his earliest) but so many people go into making a horror movie trying to be John Carpenter.
Without even watching the video I know it's because Dramas are more in depth and and require more cohesive, detailed writing which simply isn't as crucial in comedy or horror. Comedies and horror can be absurd and senseless where it's expected and accepted by most.
Hey I love that you used tarantino's and jordan peeles way of Comedy/Horror. But I think the GTA series pushes it a step forward with there uses of C/H. I think you should check that out.
Very true how close horror and comedy are linked cause I honestly found the gore added to Home Alone to make it actually funny enough for me to laugh at where as the actual version wouldn’t. I like to call it splatstick comedy. Like stuff in Dead Alive and the goofier Evil Dead installments, or as in with the example used in this video, Tarantino’s gory but funny films.
How would a horror movie typically have a cheaper budget than drama though? Drama essentially requires nothing, i think all your further points are true and very inneresting though, just genuinely wondering why comedy/horror is looked at as a "lower bar" than drama montetarily or qualitatively?
Horror can work with a limited cast, claustrophobic or cheap locations and mediocre actors as long as its concept and pacing is good. They're also pretty much guaranteed to make money with a lower budget. When you limit locations and cast in a drama, it might feel more like a stage play than a movie, which can still work wonderfully (12 Angry Men, Who's Afraid of Wirginia Woolf?), but it's not as versatile, you need to rely on exceptional actors and it can easily flop even with a low budget.
Make the kind of film 📽️ you think you should make. I can't tell you how many cliche horror films people I know have made, and a few i worked on, that just blend in with the crowd
VFX were done by Corridor and Bunni Walker UA-cam channels. They did an amazing job indeed! Sharing the links if you wanna check it out: ua-cam.com/video/ZgLqxSPIhR0/v-deo.html www.youtube.com/@bunniwalker
Actually I was wondering that, his voice noticably glitches out for a portion of the video and over all his meter sound like that of a modern voice cloning software
yep, Thesis(Filmmakers Should Start with Comedy and Horror), Body1(horror and comedy are similar), Body 2(both can be done on a low budget), Conclusion(????)
As far as i know, Peter Jackson began making Gore movies before he made The Lord of the Rings, so if i could highlight one of his early movies, I would call Dead Alive "the goriest movies ever".
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Comedy and horror map directly to the emotions of mirth and fear. Storytelling is about bringing emotions to the surface, everything else is supplemental. So, comedy and horror give young filmmakers very clear emotional targets.
Fear and laughter are the most common reactions to surprising and eventful situations. When you get jumpscared by a friend, when you're riding a rollercoaster, break the law in a small way or do something you've never done before, you get a weird mix of those emotions that makes you feel alive. Directors like Hitchcock, Lynch, Kubrick, Lanthimos, Tarantino, Aster, Raimi, Östlund or Gilliam often mix these emotions in surprising ways, which makes their movies so entertaining and unpredictable.
One of the best film theory videos ive ever seen. Fantastic video!!
I am just a local stage director of radio theatre productions. But I started out directing horror, mystery, comedy, and adventure, in that order. It wasnt until my 6th show that I worked up to drama ("Little Women"). This makes total sense to me!
the pie shootout edit was a brilliant illustration!
I think filmmakers should start wherever they want
I think random UA-cam video creators should tell random people how they should live their lives.
I stopped watching this video after the intro. If the title was worded differently, I'd consider giving it a chance.
It's like the saying goes: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."
Do whatever you want and make whatever you want. Plenty of excellent filmmakers have made excellent dramas for their first films. If you're talented, you'll find a way. And you may fail at your first attempt, or second, or third, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try what you wanna do.
you read the title read the title and took personal offense 😂
@NE-lu7tn Boy! You're just the coolest guy in the room!
So cool you hipped us to your wisdom, so smart you judged a book by its cover!
Wow. I wish I was as cool and smart as you.
@Stratmanable For someone mocking someone's intelligence, you should really question your own first. I didn't judge a book by its cover. I clearly stated that I turned it off after the intro.
And considering that you don't know who I am and know absolutely nothing about me, it would be wise for you not to throw insults. Unlike most people watching this video and/or posting in the comments (and/or potentially making this video), I actually have 30+ film credits, including one of the biggest TV shows of this century, and one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in 2022.
So feel free to choose insults and sarcasm, but considering that you don't even know who you're insulting, maybe you should try to be intelligent and read the comment at face value, coming from someone who actually makes a good living in the industry.
@@NE-lu7tnI call liar
awesome editing and design
Even the director of Lights Out started with a short horror film. He has a UA-cam channel called Ponysmasher. He explains in depth how he started from a low budget and moved upto directing Shazam.
This is a real interesting and refreshing compared to a lot of the videos about movies I watch. Super high quality as well
This is an exceptional video. I cannot believe this has less than 1k views.
If someone makes a student film that isn’t a chamber drama about them whining over a girlfriend in their dorm room, they’re pretty much automatically a dove amongst the crows.
The end scene with Louie was perfect summation of the video 👏
One bit that I feel was overlooked here was the audience and marketing aspect/perspective. The deep introspective "I don't know what to feel" stories may be great oscar fodder. But. They are really hard to sell, to market and without word of mouth, you get audiences who very likely do not jive with the intent of the film.
With horror and comedy, you have much, much simpler expectations to meet. Distributors know how to market them and audiences let their guards down because they know why to chose your film over the other options. And like with hypnosis, a willing participant is so much more easy to give suggestions to.
I’m on my second draft on a novel and haven’t been enjoying myself as much as when I started. I’m gonna take this advice and see if the fun comes back!
I am always ready to get engaged in horror and comedy films. Ken Russell proved how great potential there is.
Great video, really sharp. The GET OUT scene at @5:50 echoes a sequence in MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL when John Cleese's Lancelot is running towards the guards.
This a handy breakdown especially for when you're stuck. Thank you.
A lot of great ideas here but I personally feel like upbeat music during horrific scenes takes the edge off and makes it more watchable, not more terrifying. Same thing happens in some of Rob Zombie's movies
Novelists should start out with these too
I’m writing a drama and a comedy but for my advice is what ever works for you as long you know your story
thank you for this! i really appreciate it and i’ll be referencing this often
Thank you. This was a good wakeup call
Hey man, I really like your videos! You have good takes and insights. There's a lot of video essay channels, but yours feels fresh. Keep em comin'
Great video! But I'd argue good comedy is very hard to pull off. Horror is more approacheable
Great content! no doubts your channel will grow greatly
How is this guy on 2.2k this was amazing
I think filmmaker must just START
Dude! You caught and kept me with the first 2.3 seconds... "the drums" with that overbeat slam on I... so BlueNote style. What a signature!
Man you explained it so beautifully i used to think I'll never do comedy but this make me want to do experiment and not do serious drama right away
This is a great video that's like a masterclass
there's a reason Fargo is my 3rd favorite movie
First of all we must understand what comedy means: Tragedy.
There is not such thing as "happy" comedy, Comedy is a series of events from tragedy, this is evident in the book 'Divine comedy' by dante. If we pay attention, Chaplin's comedy or any jim carrey comedy is based on inconveniences or personal tragedies. it's psychological in many ways
That's why It Follows is so suspenseful
LONG LIVE GENRE CINEMA
The edit on this was something else
Funny enough I always classify Tarantino movies as comedy’s. I don’t get why people think they’re anything but. Pulp fiction is my favorite movie for many reasons but a major one is because of how damn funny it is
I was thinking about that too starting my debut with comedy
Do you think Skinamarink counts as transcendental horror? I think it might. I saw it, it felt slow, yet the atmosphere and anticipation was anxiety inducing. We, the audience don't even see the top half of the characters' bodies for the first half of the film. A lot of low to the ground shots. It was a really good, spooky film in my opinion.
The Django and pie part's edit was crazy😂
Title made me think of John Demme's "Something Wild" starting out as a romantic New York comedy then turn on a dime with Ray Liotta into a dramatic movie. His next movie "Married to the Mob" wasn't a great comedy but "Silence of the Lambs" went full blown horror.
Comedy is funny because it has a grain of truth to it.
I'm not falling for that one
Nothing hardest to write than comedy AT ALL
Home Alone with death and gore is just a deathtrap dungeon from old school D&D
why not both! my Movie The Instance comes out Oct 2nd 2025! and its a comedy horror!
Schindler list is literally a comedy. Watch it again.
good video! i am going to mention midsommar in mine now
very good video!!!
I think video needs blood/gore warning but overall fantastic!
Hey dude, i think the audio in this video is way louder on the left side than it is on the right. I feel like i lost hearing on one ear lol
Totally agree with you. One of the worst beginner films I’ve ever seen is Spider-Man Lotus. Controversy aside, it’s extremely boring and self indulgent. Literally like 95% of the movie is just characters being melodramatic and sad. IN A SPIDER-MAN MOVIE!
This is common among beginner directors (or artists in general), they don’t care about entertaining the audience. They only care about showing off how genius their dialogue is and how high brow their premise is. They take themselves way too seriously when they still suck! Filming a comedy kind of forces you to be goofy and get in touch with your inner child. Same thing with horror. Who doesn’t have experience trying to scare their friends or family members?
Although I think you have a lot of good points about the parallels of horror and comedy, its an interesting comparison that I don't see many people cover, some horror can use dark humor for a tonal dissonance that really works well. However I think your Thesis is... flawed and clickbaity. I will agree that many new film makers shoot too high, they try to create their magnum opus in their first year and this is disastrous for them. now, where I disagree is that genre inherently will change this, Yes making B-movies(which usually happen to be horror or comedy) is a great way to start your career, but both these genres can be as over ambitious as a drama, making people laugh can be hard, making people scared can be really hard. Its possible on a small budget and little experience(like a great example you shortly showed, I actually think evil dead 2 is Raimis best movie. and that was one of his earliest) but so many people go into making a horror movie trying to be John Carpenter.
are you a filmaker ? how many films you made this far ?
I bet that matters somehow.
@@stupendoushorrendous8258 it does the guy is telling people how they should start their career.
Start with focus on the writing and not so much filmmaking. Write great comedy and you can do anything.
RIP David Lynch, a true king of comedy, low budget and cinema
Without even watching the video I know it's because Dramas are more in depth and and require more cohesive, detailed writing which simply isn't as crucial in comedy or horror. Comedies and horror can be absurd and senseless where it's expected and accepted by most.
Now go sum up every youtube video you can find 🫡
💯. I did that. Only left it two times.
i personally think the realistic version was hilarious
Hey I love that you used tarantino's and jordan peeles way of Comedy/Horror. But I think the GTA series pushes it a step forward with there uses of C/H. I think you should check that out.
Very true how close horror and comedy are linked cause I honestly found the gore added to Home Alone to make it actually funny enough for me to laugh at where as the actual version wouldn’t. I like to call it splatstick comedy. Like stuff in Dead Alive and the goofier Evil Dead installments, or as in with the example used in this video, Tarantino’s gory but funny films.
Ironically, it's easier to produce the "serious" and "nothing happens" film than what you're suggesting first time filmmakers do😅
How would a horror movie typically have a cheaper budget than drama though? Drama essentially requires nothing, i think all your further points are true and very inneresting though, just genuinely wondering why comedy/horror is looked at as a "lower bar" than drama montetarily or qualitatively?
Horror can work with a limited cast, claustrophobic or cheap locations and mediocre actors as long as its concept and pacing is good. They're also pretty much guaranteed to make money with a lower budget. When you limit locations and cast in a drama, it might feel more like a stage play than a movie, which can still work wonderfully (12 Angry Men, Who's Afraid of Wirginia Woolf?), but it's not as versatile, you need to rely on exceptional actors and it can easily flop even with a low budget.
whats up with your audio?
The connection is that you have to suspend your disbelief for both genres
For this reason I find most horror films comical to watch
15:43 this was jeepers creepers for me.
Recommend watching this video at 2x speed - it makes the edits way funnier
well Jordan Peele started with comedy and now he’s making horror movies
Midsomer was crap. Now hereditary was brilliant.
True romance was best comedy horror 😂
3:23 "imagine this scene with visible, painful injuries"
Bro says "it wouldn't be so funny", but next makes it even funnier omg especially 3:39
Try to make me laugh. I'll bet you can't.
Where is that first clip with David Lynch from??
My film will bee A comedy/ musical
is the sound of this video paned towards left or my headphone broken?
Trick question do whatever you want because art is subjective
Make the kind of film 📽️ you think you should make. I can't tell you how many cliche horror films people I know have made, and a few i worked on, that just blend in with the crowd
3:39 it only made it funnier in spite of your point imo lol
Those death scenes from Home Alone are your edits? Man if so they are GOOD
also my god I can't stand tarantino
no it was done by the vfx channel Corridor
VFX were done by Corridor and Bunni Walker UA-cam channels. They did an amazing job indeed! Sharing the links if you wanna check it out:
ua-cam.com/video/ZgLqxSPIhR0/v-deo.html
www.youtube.com/@bunniwalker
@@noticiasinmundiciasyeah, I like maybe 2/3rd’s or less of his catalog,”-really can’t stand him personally, though.
Comedy has jokes
Horror has scares
Horror comedies work using both elements
Are you AI?
Actually I was wondering that, his voice noticably glitches out for a portion of the video and over all his meter sound like that of a modern voice cloning software
You made home alone much funnier with those injuries
What was that last song at the end
great video but not mentioning evil dead in a video about low budget comedy and horror movies is a bit of a sin
Evil Dead definitely shows up in this lol, you just weren't paying attention
I love horror but i'm not scary
I like comedies and I know they're a good way to start, but i'm not funny.
Guys, let me recommend a comedy horror movie for y’all. Chandramukhi (2005)
What a convoluted mess of an "essay". So did he ever explain why Filmmakers Should Start with Comedy and Horror?
yep, Thesis(Filmmakers Should Start with Comedy and Horror), Body1(horror and comedy are similar), Body 2(both can be done on a low budget), Conclusion(????)
As far as i know, Peter Jackson began making Gore movies before he made The Lord of the Rings, so if i could highlight one of his early movies, I would call Dead Alive "the goriest movies ever".
What's the movie at [11:22]
Once upon a time in Hollywood
I didn't find those films scary or funny.
15:41 Peele says this but then does exactly that in NOPE. He shows the fucking alien??
your making a fantastic points, but I'm seeing a sevear lack of dogs.
good
My left ear enjoyed this video.
this video felt ai generated
why?
@@fastabst both the script and the vocal performance of the narrator gave me the uncanny valley feeling
@@gingersndragons Im 90% sure the vocals are AI, I dont know about the script. but still seems like an odd choice
yeah
Filmmakers should start wherever they want lmao
Do you have an AI version of your own voice or like? What's goin on there
too bad i was cackling at the corridor digital hom,e alone edits thesis destroyed 😎
Nah the running scene in Get Out is hilarious regardless of the music.
Na it wasn't funny till he added the music because it was never ment to be funny
is this an AI fucking voicing this
This video kinda feels like its saying that making comedy or horror is easier than drama....
This is not the case
Anybody know the movie @ 14:12 ?
@@johndimelu1247 "Hana-bi" by Takeshi Kitano