{"id":229,"date":"2010-11-02T11:07:54","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T16:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/?p=229"},"modified":"2010-11-02T11:07:54","modified_gmt":"2010-11-02T16:07:54","slug":"on-humor-and-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/?p=229","title":{"rendered":"On Humor and Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like a good laugh to along with my bloodbaths, which is why some of my favorite horror movies are also very funny. <em>An American Werewolf in London<\/em>, <em>Shaun of the Dead<\/em>, <em>Fido<\/em>, (interesting that zombies lend themselves so well to both terror and comedy, isn\u2019t it?) and of course, the gold standard of comedic horror, <em>Evil Dead II<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>\tThere\u2019s an incredible sense of release that comes with a laugh before, during or after a good scare.  It leavens some of the tension without making the horror any less horrifying. The marvelous \u201cWho\u2019s laughing now?\u201d sequence in <em>Evil Dead II<\/em> is a great example of this. Ash\u2019s hand is possessed and is trying to kill him, and Bruce Campbell\u2019s acting in this scene is wonder of physical comedy.  But as the scene comes to a climax and Ash is finally forced to use a chainsaw on his own appendage as he maniacally asks, \u201cWho\u2019s laughing, now, huh? Who\u2019s laughing now?\u201d I always find myself horrified that he has been pushed to this edge. It\u2019s funny, and it\u2019s also terrifying, and that\u2019s why it works.<\/p>\n<p>\tI like to lighten the darkness in my own novels with a little humor. It dissipates some tension while at the same time heightening it. A well-placed humorous comment can take some of the edge off a scene. Later, the contrast of the humor and the horror makes the awful seem even more so, and the reader understands that Maddy wisecracks so that she can deal with the monster before her. If she didn\u2019t, her mind and will might just degenerate into gibbering terror, and where\u2019s the fun in that?<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like a good laugh to along with my bloodbaths, which is why some of my favorite horror movies are also very funny. An American Werewolf in London, Shaun of the Dead, Fido, (interesting that zombies lend themselves so well &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/?p=229\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urban-fantasy","category-writing-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christinahenry.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}