Mixing genre makes things more interesting, which is why comedy-horrors are so popular. This Is The End, Jennifer’s Body, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, and Scream all have dark and gruesome murders throughout their plot lines, but they also have ridiculous scenes that you can’t help but laugh out loud at. This pendulum swinging back and forth between silly and scary makes for a roller coaster of emotions; the fun kind, though! Netflix’s new comedy-horror All My Friends Are Dead is Polish, though it is dubbed in English. It’s about a New Year’s Eve party gone deadly; it starts with an accidental shooting and ends with every single person at the party dying. Most importantly, it has all 4 elements of a good comedy-horror.
1. Outrageous Gore
A good comedy-horror comes up with the craziest way to die. It usually involves a household item that you have never thought of before as dangerous, but after seeing the movie, you can never look at it the same. All My Friends Are Dead has a double-digit body count, so there are too many good examples of gore to go through, but my personal favorite involves an exploding breast implant. Chunks go everywhere. Disgusting and hilarious.
2. Dark Humor
The best thing to relieve tension in any situation is humor. In comedy-horrors, the humor lies in the dialogue as well as the actions of the characters. The main comedic relief in All My Friends Are Dead is Jacques, a Mormon missionary from France. Mormons are not exactly known for their humorous behavior, but Jacque is quite the exception. Jacque is invited to the house party after knocking on the door to spread the good word, and he attends even though he doesn’t know anyone or speak the same language as the other party-goers. He ends up drinking, doing drugs, and having sex for the first time. All of this leads to him meeting Jesus (no really, Jesus shows up). His goofy naivety beautifully counteracts the death and destruction that surround him.
3. Sex Sex Sex
Another, uh, release from the pent-up anxiety of a scary movie is some sex. Why are people always horny when they’re about to die? Who knows. But All My Friends Are Dead is no different. There are two best friends that seemed to have shown up to try to have as much sex as they can while attending the party (they are also the ones who took Jacque’s virginity). While everyone else in the house is being electrocuted at once, two partygoers are having electric sex in another room. You know what they say, when life hands you mass murder, make some sweet sweet love.
4. A “Happy” Ending
Happy is a relative term here. Yes, everyone dies in the movie, but there is at least some sort of satisfying ending to make you feel less bad about watching all those people perish. In All My Friends Are Dead, the party-goers are reunited in a heaven that looks exactly like the house that they all died in. They throw a beautiful wedding, and they have the party of their dreams. That is until there is another accidental death, and we are led to assume the cycle will begin again. It ties up the story with a nice bow despite the fact that the nice bow is eternally being murdered.
