Subgenre Sampler

Show: All FilmsRental Rental DVD Rental Blu-Ray Rental VHSSales Sales DVD Sales Blu-Ray Sales VHS

Scream (2022): Dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Feat. Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega…; The fifth installment in the SCREAM series of slasher films, acting as a direct sequel to 2011's SCREAM 4, and the first to be made without the late…
Triangle of Sadness (2022): Dir. Ruben Östlund
Feat. Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Woody Harrelson…; Gilded privilege gets a stinging taste of reality in this brilliantly orchestrated Palm D'Or–winner from the dir. of THE SQUARE and FORCE…
Silent Night (2021): Dir. Camille Griffin
Feat. Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis…; A grinch of a Christmas movie that on the surface looks like LOVE ACTUALLY but has a premise as black as coal. A bunch of…
Bye Bye Morons (2020): Dir. Albert Dupontel
Feat. Virginie Efira, Albert Dupontel, Nicolas Marie…; A French black comedy about a 43–year–old hairdresser who goes looking for her adopted son after finding out she is terminally ill.…
Fatman (2020): Dir. Ian Nelms, Eshom Nelms
Feat. Mel Gibson, Walton Goggins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste; Mel Gibson indulges his curmudgeonly side as a rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus who is fighting to save his declining business. Meanwhile, a neglected…
How To Deter A Robber (2020): Dir. Maria Bissell
Feat. Vanessa Marano, Benjamin Papac, Abbie Cobb; Endearing horror comedy set in a desolate town in Northern Wisconsin at Christmas, where a stubborn young woman and her sweet but naive boyfriend…
It Must Be Heaven (2019): Dir. Elia Suleiman
Feat. Elia Suleiman, Tarik Kopty, Kareem Ghneim…; Brilliantly absurdist comedy of errors following a Palestinian filmmaker who leaves his country for the West and the promise of a new and better…
Barry (TV Series) (2018): Feat. Bill Hader, Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg…; A dark comedy starring Bill Hader as a depressed, low–rent hitman from the Midwest. Lonely and dissatisfied in his life, he reluctantly travels…
Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back) (2018): Dir. Tom Edmunds
Feat. Tom Wilkinson, Aneurin Barnard, Freya Mavor…; A struggling writer outsources his suicide to an ageing assassin on the brink of retirement (Tim Wilkinson), in this stylistically ambitious film for…
Gringo (2018): Dir. Nash Edgerton
Feat. David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton…; A mild–mannered businessman finds himself thrown into a world of crime and moral corruption when he is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel while…
Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through The Gateway Chosen By The Holy Storsh (2018): Dir. Vivieno Caldinelli
Feat. Kate Micucci, Sam Huntington, Mark McKinney…; Maverick existential black comedy about a young couple whose new LA apartment turns out to have been the site of a cult leader's suicide, and his…
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017): Dir. John McPhail
Feat. Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Marli Siu…; Big–hearted Xmas themed zombie musical set in the sleepy town of Little Haven, where Anna and her friends go up against the undead. A…
I, Tonya (2017): Dir. Craig Gillespie
Feat. Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan…; Darkly comedic tale of American figure skater, Tonya Harding, and one of the most sensational scandals in sports history. Harding was the first…
Mom and Dad (2017): Dir. Brian Taylor
Feat. Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair; Pitch–black horror–comedy featuring Nicolas Cage in a wonderfully crazed performance alongside an impressive Selma Blair as parents who…
Rough Night (2017): Dir. Lucia Aniello
Feat. Scarlett Johansson, Ilana Glazer, Jillian Bell…; Indelicate femme comedy that has friends from college reunite for an anything–goes bachelorette weekend at a Miami beach house that turns…
Good Place, The (TV Series) (2016-2018): Feat. Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper; Inventive sitcom set in the afterlife, starring Kristen Bell who dies tragically and discovers a heavenly world of frozen yogurt, soulmates, and…
Toni Erdmann (2016): Dir. Maren Ade
Feat. Peter Simonischek, Sandra Huller, Ingrid Bisu; Brilliant, unclassifiable German comedy where a stern, career–focused woman is followed around a series of mundane board meetings and vapid…
Wiener-Dog (2016): Dir. Todd Solondz
Feat. Ellen Burstyn, Kieran Culkin, Julie Delpy…; Typically black humoured and viciously insightful comedy from dir. Todd Solondz, a spin–off from his indie classic WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE,…
Aaaaaaaah! (2015): Dir. Steve Oram
Feat. Steve Oram, Julian Barratt, Lucy Honigman…; A twisted cult comedy which confronts the human condition by imagining what life would be like if humans were apes. Written and directed by Steve…
D Train, The (2015): Dir. Andrew Mogel, Jarrad Paul
Feat. Jack Black, James Marsden, Kathryn Hahn…; Black comedy with Jack Black as the head of a high school reunion committee determined to track down the most popular guy from his graduating class…
Legend of Barney Thomson, The (2015): Dir. Robert Carlyle
Feat. Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson, Ray Winstone…; A uniquely Glaswegian black comedy directed by and starring Robert Carlyle as an awkward middle–aged barber whose life of desperate mediocrity…
Our Brand is Crisis (2015): Dir. David Gordon Green
Feat. Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, Anthony Mackie…; Thorny comedy examines the role of American 'political consultants' in foreign elections. Sandra Bullock is sent to Bolivia to help re–elect a…
A Long Way Down (2014): Dir. Pascal Chaumeil
Feat. Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots…; Four lost souls – a disgraced TV presenter, a foul–mouthed teen, an isolated single mother and a solipsistic muso – decide to end…
Birdman (Birdman: or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014): Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Feat. Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton…; A nimble, bravura Oscar–winning black comedy that cannily casts Michael Keaton as a washed–up actor who, having once played an iconic…
Force Majeure (Turist) (2014): Dir. Ruben Östlund
Feat. Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Kristofer Hivju…; A barbed and incisive Swedish black comedy of gender politics, centred around a family on a skiing holiday in the French Alps who face a recognizable…
Horrible Bosses 2 (2014): Dir. Sean Anders
Feat. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day…; More employment related shenanigans with Jason Bateman and pals' entrepreneurial ways getting them involved in a decidedly harebrained and misguided…
Inside No. 9 (TV Series) (2014-2018): Dir. David Kerr, Guillem Morales
Feat. Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith; CONTRABAND TITLE. Series 1–4 are not legally available for sale, rent or trade in New Zealand unless submitted for approval to the NZ Office of…
Interview, The (2014): Dir. Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Feat. Seth Rogen, James Franco, Lizzy Caplan…; The highly controversial comedy that sparked a political crisis has a tabloid reporter recruited by the CIA to murder North Korean dictator Kim…
Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, A (2014): Dir. Roy Andersson
Feat. Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom; Absurdist comedy that follows two hapless novelty salesman on a picaresque tour of the human condition.
Voices, The (2014): Dir. Marjane Satrapi
Feat. Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick…; From the director of PERSEPOLIS comes this deeply weird comedy with Ryan Reynolds as an amiable factory worker pursuing romance with the help of his…
Bad Words (2013): Dir. Jason Bateman
Feat. Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, Philip Baker Hall…; Jason Bateman plays a failed spelling bee competitor who uses a loophole to enter into a national spelling competition as an adult. Landing on the…
Cheap Thrills (2013): Dir. E.L. Katz
Feat. Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton…; A devilishly effective black comedy about a pair of old friends who enter into an increasingly bloody game of one–upmanship with a wealthy…
Dom Hemingway (2013): Dir. Richard Shepard
Feat. Jude Law, Emilia Clarke, Kerry Condon…; Jude Law plays a gloriously profane ex–con trying to make it or break it on the streets of London after 12 years in the slammer. Messily…
Family, The (2013): Dir. Luc Besson
Feat. Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianna Agron…; In this stylised black comedy, De Niro sends himself up (yet again) as the patriarch of a mafia family shipped off to France under witness…
Getting On (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Laurie Metcalf, Alex Borstein, Niecy Nash; Serio–comic HBO remake of the British satirical series about a geriatric ward and the relationship between its patients and medical…
Brass Teapot, The (2012): Dir. Ramaa Mosley
Feat. Juno Temple, Michael Angarano, Alexis Bledel; This light–hearted black comedy tackles the economic doldrums with a quirky allegory, in which a down–on–their–luck couple…
How to Meet Girls from a Distance (2012): Dir. Dean Hewison
Feat. Richard Falkner, Scarlet Hemingway, Jonathan Brugh…; A "peeping–tom rom–com" with Richard Falkner surprisingly relatable as a well–intentioned stalker determined to woo the girl of his…
Sightseers (2012): Dir. Ben Wheatley
Feat. Alice Lowe, Steve Oram; Ben Wheatley (KILL LIST) directs this black comedy about a wooly British couple who embark on a caravan trip throughout the North of England, only to…
Small Apartments (2012): Dir. Jonas Akerlund
Feat. Matt Lucas, Juno Temple, James Caan…; Matt Lucas encounters a myriad of weirdos in his attempt to dispose of his landlord’s corpse in this peculiar black comedy. Jonas Akerlund, better…
Two Little Boys (2012): Dir. Robert Sarkies
Feat. Bret McKenzie, Hamish Blake, Maaka Pohatu…; Set in the early 90's, this Kiwi "mullet" comedy follows the arrested development of two 'bogan' mates whose situation and relationship goes…
Young Doctor's Notebook, A (TV Series) (2012): Dir. Alex Hardcastle
Feat. Jon Hamm, Daniel Radcliffe; Tragi–comic TV series set in the early 20th century, with actors Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe playing a troubled and incompetent medic at a…
Bad Teacher (2011): Dir. Jake Kasdan
Feat. Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake…; Wickedly profane comedy with perpetually hungover Diaz heading back to the classroom as a teacher to pay for her breast implants, but soon discovers…
Bernie (2011): Dir. Richard Linklater
Feat. Jack Black, Shirley Maclaine, Matthew McConaughey; A memorable (Jack) Black comedy about a gregarious Texas mortician who befriends a clingy spinster (Maclaine), with murderous results. The film's…
Black Pond (2011): Dir. Tom Kingsley, Will Sharpe
Feat. Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue…; Distinctive indie thriller from acclaimed up–and–coming UK writer–directors Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe. A suburban man in a…
Details, The (2011): Dir. Jacob Aaron Estes
Feat. Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney…; A confidently delivered black comedy of a idealised suburban existence turned inside out, this stars Tobey Maguire as successful young doctor whose…
God Bless America (2011): Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait
Feat. Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Melinda Page Hamilton; Irrepressible writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait returns with another sizzling, charcoal–black comedy that takes aim at the worst proponents of…
Hick (2011): Dir. Derick Martini
Feat. Chloe Grace Moretz, Blake Lively, Rory Culkin…; A strained, if mildly amusing redneck comedy of a small–town teenager who flees her abusive parents, only to hook up with a violent cowboy,…
Horrible Bosses (2011): Dir. Seth Gordon
Feat. Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston…; Savage workplace comedy about three long–suffering employees (Bateman, Day, Sudeikis) who plot to kill their respective…
Burke and Hare (2010): Dir. John Landis
Feat. Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Tom Wilkinson…; An oddball comedic take on the infamous grave robbing duo, with Serkis and Pegg supported by a terrific ensemble of British comedic thesps. While…
Hesher (2010): Dir. Spencer Susser
Feat. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Devin Brochu…; Cruel comedy as black as the tee–shirt of its stringy–haired, metal–loving, borderline–sociopath titular character, who…
It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010): Dir. Gurinder Chadha
Feat. Shabana Azmi, Goldy Notay, Sanjeev Bhaskar…; The director of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM serves up an less–than–subtle mix of cultural satire, black comedy, and Ealing–style humour in…
Klown (2010): Dir. Mikkel Nørgaard
Feat. Frank Hvam, Casper Christensen, Marcuz Jess Petersen; Danish comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen play debauched versions of themselves on a weekend canoe trip away with their long–suffering…
Little Fockers (2010): Dir. Paul Weitz
Feat. Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson…; Star–powered third entry in popular familial dysfunction series has Ben Stiller once again struggling to win stern patriarch De Niro's approval…
Miss Nobody (2010): Dir. Tim Cox
Feat. Leslie Bibb, Adam Goldberg, Kathy Baker…; Bloody black comedy with a mousy executive murdering her way up the corporate ladder. Strange brew that suggests AMELIE as remade by the Coen…
Super (2010): Dir. James Gunn
Feat. Rainn Wilson, Elliot Page, Liv Tyler…; Violent comedy with Rainn Wilson as a schlubb turned violent avenger after his wife runs off with a drug dealer. Uneven, perhaps intentionally, with…
Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009): Dir. Stephen Herek
Feat. Ellen Muth, Callum Blue, Sarah Wynter; Feature–length movie spin off of the TV series focusing on the undead missionary 'Reapers' and their reactions to their…
Drag Me To Hell (2009): Dir. Sam Raimi
Feat. Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver; Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots in this twisted tale of a loan officer (Lohman) who has three days to rid herself of a deadly curse placed upon…
Micmacs (2009): Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Feat. Dany Boon, Andre Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle…; The dir. of AMELIE and CITY OF LOST CHILDREN stays true to form(ula) with his visual chutzpah lavished upon another idealised scenario that this time…
Nurse Jackie (TV Series) (2009): Feat. Edie Falco; Pitch black comedy follows the everyday travails of the deeply troubled Nurse Jackie as she rails against the insanity of the US Health System.
Psychoville (TV Series) (2009): Dir. Matt Lipsey
Feat. Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Dawn French…; Blacky comic sitcom written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, who each play numerous bizarre…
Reggie Perrin (TV Series) (2009): Feat. Martin Clunes, Fay Ripley, Wendy Craig; Admirable remake of the acerbic classic with Clunes in the role of salesman on the edge who as his life slowly crumbles starts to really speak his…
Whatever Works (2009): Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson…; Caustic comedian Larry David teams up with Woody Allen in this cringe–inducing black comedy about a cranky, middle–aged…
World's Greatest Dad (2009): Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait
Feat. Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Geoff Pierson…; Savage black comedy gifts Robin Williams his best role in years as a struggling writer and poetry teacher whose life is burdened by his insufferable…
A Film With Me In It (2008): Dir. Ian Fitzgibbon
Feat. Dylan Moran, Mark Doherty, Keith Allen…; Wonderfully droll vehicle for the amiable, slightly–sozzled comic persona of Dylan Moran, who stars as a down–at–heel actor who…
Cottage, The (2008): Dir. Paul Andrew Williams
Feat. Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith; Splattery horror–comedy in the vein of SHAUN OF THE DEAD follows two mismatched brothers on a bungled kidnapping attempt of a gangster’s…
Dance of the Dead (2008): Dir. Gregg Bishop
Feat. Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Zoe Myers…; Lean and mean zombie comedy about a plague of living dead who crash the high school prom and the dateless losers who appear to be the only ones who…
Finding Amanda (2008): Dir. Peter Tolan
Feat. Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney…; No–holds–barred black comedy stars Broderick as a TV producer and struggling addict sent to Las Vegas to convince his troubled niece to…
Hamlet 2 (2008): Dir. Andrew Fleming
Feat. Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler…; Steve Coogan goes American for this comedy as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher as he tries to stage a musical sequel to the most…
How to Be a Serial Killer (2008): Dir. Luke Ricci
Feat. Dameon Clarke, Matther Gray Gubler, George Wyner…; Droll satire of the motivational speaker circuit with serial killer Clarke leading his proteges through a ten step program on their way to becoming…
Last Word, The (2008): Dir. Geoffrey Haley
Feat. Wes Bentley, Winona Ryder, Ray Romano; Quirky black comedy centered on a man who makes a living writing suicide notes for the depressed, and has his life is turned upside down when he…
Little Britain USA (TV Series) (2008): Feat. Matt Lucas, David Walliams; Adaptation of the successful Brit sketch show LITTLE BRITAIN sees creators Lucas and Walliams reprise their familiar grotesques in the USA, as well…
Louise - Michel (2008): Dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
Feat. Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Benoit Poelvoorde…; A black comedy treasure about a newly redundant factory worker who hires a dodgy hit man to take out her rich employers. The trouble starts when the…
Otis (2008): Dir. Tony Krantz
Feat. Daniel Stern, Illeana Douglas, Bostin Christopher…; A cult favourite in the making, this outrageous black comedy is an assuredly twisted, dark and laugh–out–loud funny satire of vigilantism…
Pain in the Ass, A (L'emmerdeur) (2008): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Richard Berry, Patrick Timsit, Pascal Elbé…; Fast–paced black comedy arises out of an unlikely friendship between a hitman and a depressive who find themselves sharing hotels. Based on…
Promotion, The (2008): Dir. Steven Conrad
Feat. Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer…; A meek assistant manager's dreams of managing his very own supermarket are in doubt when a Canadian nice–guy transfers to the store.…
Sunshine Cleaning (2008): Dir. Christine Jeffs
Feat. Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin…; Amy Adams lends her considerable charms to this quirky yet easy–going comedy–drama about two sisters who start up a cleaning service that…
Body/Antibody (2007): Dir. Kerry Douglas Dye, Jordan Hoffman
Feat. Robert Gomes, Leslie Kendall Dye, Frank Deal; An obsessive/compulsive germaphobe's life is turned upside down when he falls for the beautiful seductress who lives next door his apartment. This…
Camille (2007): Dir. Gregory Mackenzie
Feat. Sienna Miller, James Franco, David Carradine…; A kooky road movie with a macabre twist, Sienna Miller plays a ditzy Southern sweetheart who believes she can change her new petty–crim husband…
Dead and Deader (2007): Dir. Patrick Dinhut
Feat. Dean Cain, Guy Torry, Susan Ward; A referential zombie comedy that is knowingly unoriginal, but serves its subgenre well by splatting the target more often than most in both laughs…
Dirt (TV Series) (2007): Feat. Courteney Cox; Dark comedic television series inside the life of an influential magazine Editor–in–Chief, Courtney Cox (FRIENDS) power tripping her way…
Just Buried (2007): Dir. Chaz Thorne
Feat. Rose Byrne, Jay Baruchel, Graham Greene; Unrepentant dark comedy focused on a young man inheriting a struggling funeral home who tries to drum up some business by killing off the town…
Meet Bill (2007): Dir. Melisa Wallack, Bernie Goldmann
Feat. Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Alba…; Discomforting mid–life comedy with Eckhart as a hen–pecked husband who vicariously rebels through his mentoring of a troubled teen.…
Nobel Son (2007): Dir. Randall Miller
Feat. Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy…; Peppy crime caper about a recent Nobel Prize winner whose son is kidnapped and ransomed for the $2 million prize money. Directed with whiz, pop,…
Noise (2007): Dir. Henry Bean
Feat. Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Hurt…; Irreverent black comedy stars Tim Robbins as an outraged citizen impelled to take a stand against the daily irritation of New York noise…
Pushing Daisies (TV Series) (2007-2008): Feat. Anna Friel, Jim Dale, Ellen Greene…; Quirksome comedy series focused on a guy with the awkward gift of being able to bring the dead back to life for one minute, any longer and someone…
Rats and Cats (2007): Dir. Tony Rogers
Feat. Jason Gann; Warped black comedy from the makers of strange comedy series WILFRED, tracking down a talentless retired movie star, 'Darren McWarren', who retreats…
Sarah Silverman Program, The (TV Series) (2007): Feat. Sarah Silverman; Controversial comedienne Silverman's sitcom is considerably more wholesome than her stand up show, but it still pushes the envelope in an often…
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): Dir. Tim Burton
Feat. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman…; Johnny Depp is centre stage once again for dir. Tim Burton in this fiendish screen rendition of Stephen Sondheim's twisted musical about a…
Teeth (2007): Dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein
Feat. Jess Weixler; Squeamishly entertaining horror centred on a sweet high school virgin who discovers she has a set of mutant teeth between her legs, the perfect…
You Kill Me (2007): Dir. John Dahl
Feat. Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson…; Quirky black comedy about a hit–man from Buffalo (Kingsley) who screws up a crucial assignment because of his drinking problem and gets sent to…
12 In A Box (2006): Dir. John McKenzie
Feat. Ed Bennett, David Burrows-Sutcliffe, Robert Cargill…; Farcical comedy following a dozen old school 'friends' who are offered the chance to win a million pounds each if they can survive 96 hours with one…
Bothersome Man, The (2006): Dir. Jens Lien
Feat. Trond Fausa Aurvaag; A black comedy with a typically Scandinavian sense of absurdity and style, in which an amnesiac finds himself in an unfamiliar city with a new job,…
Pulling (TV Series) (2006): Feat. Sharon Horgan, Tanya Franks, Rebekah Staton…; BAFTA nominated UK comedy series about a woman who decides to break up with her dependable fiancee in order to move in with a group of girls and live…
Sleeping Dogs Lie (2006): Dir. Bobcat Goldthwait
Feat. Melinda Page Hamilton, Bryce Johnson, Geoff Pierson; A disturbing dalliance with her pet pooch comes back to bite a newly engaged woman in this disarmingly frank indie rom–com that is certain to…
Actress, The (2005): Dir. Zak Hilditch
Feat. Matt Hardie, Catlin Higgins, Steve Mccall…; An observational black comedy centering on a Perth household of three sex–starved 20–somethings who invite a seductive actress to be…
Adam's Apples (2005): Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Paprika Steen…; Roguishly sardonic Danish black comedy about a sanguine country vicar (CASINO ROYALE’s Mikkelsen) who encounters resistance from a neo–Nazi…
Corpse Bride (Tim Burton's Corpse Bride) (2005): Dir. Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
Feat. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson; An animated tour–de–force from dir. Burton which fuses spindley puppetry and subtle CGI for its mythic tale of a sallow young bridegroom…
Daltry Calhoun (2005): Dir. Katrina Holden Bronson
Feat. Elizabeth Banks, Johnny Knoxville, Beth Grant…; 'Bachelor father' black comedy set in Tennessee sees ordinary Southern lad Calhoun (Knoxville) have his life turned upside down by the appearance of…
Ferpect Crime (Crimen Ferpecto) (2005): Dir. Alex de la Iglesia
Feat. Guillermo Toledo, Monica Cervera; A spunky Spanish black comedy set almost entirely in a department store, where an obnoxious playboy salesman is blackmailed by a…
Icemaker (Diamond Zero) (2005): Dir. Annelie Wilder, David Gaz
Feat. Bronson Pinchot, Leo Rossi, Tippi Hedren…; Dark comedy centred around the idea of turning the deceased into diamonds involves an enterprising doctor latching onto this invention with the idea…
Keeping Mum (2005): Dir. Niall Johnson
Feat. Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith…; In the best English tradition of addled and yet deadly black comedy, this unravels the goings–on in a cute village, where the vicar (Atkinson)…
Pretty Persuasion (2005): Dir. Marcos Siega
Feat. Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, James Woods…; A malicious student (Evan Rachel Wood) connives with her cowed classmates to lay a false claim of sexual harrassment against a drama teacher…
Thick of It, The (TV Series) (2005): Dir. Armando Iannucci
Feat. Chris Langham, Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison…; Coruscating political satire examines the bumbling drones who work inside government as they blunder their days away under the watchful eye of the…
Weeds (TV Series) (2005-2012): Feat. Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Justin Kirk…; Tinkering with suburban values and the illusion they help maintain, this wry and caustic comedy of affluence trafficks the drug trade of a widowed…
Bubba Ho-Tep (2004): Dir. Don Coscarelli
Feat. Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis; Strangely brilliant horror–satire with an outlandish plot where Elvis Presley (living but aging and impotent) fights the evil of a reincarnated…
Duplex (2004): Dir. Danny De Vito
Feat. Drew Barrymore, Ben Stiller, Harvey Fierstein…; Typically wicked premise from dir. De Vito, with Stiller and Barrymore as a duplex–owning young couple who are lumbered with an eccentric,…
Employee of the Month (2004): Dir. Mitch Rouse
Feat. Christina Applegate, Matt Dillon, Steve Zahn; Matt Dillon is dumped by his girlfriend (Applegate) and fired from his job in the same day. Thank goodness Steve Zhan is around to pull him out of…
Envy (2004): Dir. Barry Levinson
Feat. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz…; Ben Stiller and Jack Black team together for the first time in a black comedy that, for all its waywardness, is refreshingly off the beaten track for…
Eulogy (2004): Dir. Michael Clancy
Feat. Ray Romano, Hank Azaria, Kelly Preston…; A Rhode Island family come together for the funeral of their grandpa, but their various dysfunctions and inappropriate traits prove a continual…
League of Gentlemen, The - Series 3 (TV Series) (2004): Dir. Steve Bendelack
Feat. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith; Third series of the ghoulishly black comedy set in the sinister village of Royston Vasey.
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The (2004): Dir. Wes Anderson
Feat. Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett…; Another snorkle into the 'Cinema Absurd with Wes Anderson', delivering an intricate comedic conceit woven around a washed–up oceanographer…
Mean Girls (2004): Dir. Mark Waters
Feat. Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert, Tina Fey…; The appealing Lindsay Lohan plays a teenager who moves from her African jungle home (her parents are zoologists) to the jungle of a Chicago…
Meet the Fockers (2004): Dir. Jay Roach
Feat. Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman…; A catalogue of embarrassments and misunderstandings proves a winning formula again in this sequel to MEET THE PARENTS, with…
11:14 (2003): Dir. Greg Marcks
Feat. Rachael Leigh Cook, Barbara Hershey, Patrick Swayze…; A set of seemingly random incidents all coincide in a sleepy suburban town one evening at 11:14pm, throwing together five different characters with…
Bad Santa (2003): Dir. Terry Zwigoff
Feat. Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham…; Gleefully soiling St. Nick's reputation, Billy Bob Thornton dons the red fat–suit as a department store Santa with a penchant for cigarettes,…
Big Empty, The (2003): Dir. Steve Anderson
Feat. Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammer, Joey Lauren Adams…; Jon Favreau is an unemployed LA actor who lands a real–life role in a mysterious rendezvous in an eccentric desert town. A deliberately…
League of Gentlemen, The - Series 2 (TV Series) (2003): Dir. Steve Bendelack
Feat. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith; Second series of the ghoulishly black comedy set in the sinister Northern English village of Royston Vasey.
Little Britain (TV Series) (2003): Dir. Steve Bendelack, Graham Linehan
Feat. Tom Baker, Matt Lucas, David Walliams…; A surrealistic (invented) travelogue narrated by Tom Baker, which explores the eccentricities of various caricatured 21st century Britons. Created by…
Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants) (2003): Dir. Yann Samuell
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet; Two French kids develop an intense relationship through escalating games of "dare" that bond and haunt them through a turbulent teenage and…
Peep Show (TV Series) (2003-2015): Feat. David Mitchell, Robert Webb; Warped comedy about two perpetual adolescents and their oddball adventures told inventively with off kilter point–of–view and voice overs…
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2003): Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Adrian Rawlins, Shirley Henderson; 'Dogme' film by way of Scotland, that surveys the doings of four childlike adults, achieving a curious dual tone of whimsical drama and gallows…
Barbershop (2002): Dir. Tim Story
Feat. Ice-Cube, Sean Patrick Thomas; Set on the last day of business for a Chicago barbershop, this spins much engaging chatter, discourse and comedy between barbers and their black…
Death to Smoochy (2002): Dir. Danny DeVito
Feat. Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener…; An exuberantly mean–spirited send–up of kids’ television, where lewd, foulmouthed clown Robin Williams declares "death to Smoochy", a…
Divine Intervention (2002): Dir. Elia Suleiman
Feat. Elia Suleiman, Manal Khader; A rare cinematic glimpse into life in Ramallah, on the Palestine–Israel border, with its daily challenges presented through a series of…
Plots with a View (Undertaking Betty) (2002): Dir. Nick Hurran
Feat. Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina, Naomi Watts…; Lunatic Welsh farce in which an unhappy Brenda Blethyn contrives with a besotted funeral director (Molina) to fake her own death so as to escape a…
Pumpkin (2002): Dir. Adam Larson Broder, Tony R Abrams
Feat. Christina Ricci, Hank Harris, Brenda Blethyn; Politically–confused blackly comic satire that follows the progress of Christina Ricci's 'inappropriate' romantic fixation with a disabled…
Punch-Drunk Love (2002): Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
Feat. Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman…; Popular mainstream comic Adam Sandler takes a left turn for the director of MAGNOLIA and BOOGIE NIGHTS in this doggedly off–beat yet beguiling…
Secretary (2002): Dir. Steven Shainberg
Feat. James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Davies…; A spanking good black comedy detailing the bizarre relationship between a peculiar, ill–tempered lawyer and the meek secretary he…
Sweet Revenge (The Revenger's Comedies) (2002): Dir. Malcolm Mowbray
Feat. Sam Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, Kristin Scott Thomas…; A blackly comic caper, this adaptation of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Revenger’s Comedies” concerns two would–be suicides who, on…
Fun at the Funeral Parlour (TV Series) (2001-2002): Feat. Rhys Thomas, William Thomas, Alex Lowe…; A BBC comedy series set around the Swansea area of South Wales, where four funeral directors, all known as Thomas, are running a funeral business…
Happiness of the Katakuris (2001): Dir. Takashi Miike
Feat. Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Kiyoshiro Imawano…; A delirious confection from Japanese bad boy dir., Takashi Miike, this “zombie musical” is his most benevolent yet purely entertaining…
Life Without Dick (2001): Dir. Bix Skahill
Feat. Sarah Jessica Parker, Harry Connick Jnr.; Mildly black comedy has a doe–eyed Sarah Jessica Parker accidently offing her boyfriend and resorting to hitman Harry Connick Jnr (who has…
Monkey Bone (2001): Dir. Henry Selick
Feat. Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg; Bizarre, original and at times downright nasty, this not–for–kids comedy concerns the life–and–death voyage of cartoonist…
Novocaine (2001): Dir. David Atkins
Feat. Steve Martin, Laura Dern, Helena Bonham Carter…; Dentist Steve Martin is singled out for bad luck in this noir black comedy, that conflates Coen Bros–type weird mishaps, great casting and a…
Storytelling (2001): Dir. Todd Solondz
Feat. John Goodman, Selma Blair, Franke Potente…; Continuing to plumb the depths of controversy, the dir. of HAPPINESS tells more stories of the depressed and cruel inhabitants of American suburbia,…
Tanguy (2001): Dir. Etienne Chatiliez
Feat. Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Laurent Chouchan; A crowd–pleasing French comedy set around the efforts of a middle–aged couple to surreptitiously get their 28–year–old son to…
101 Reykjavik (2000): Dir. Baltasar Kormakur
Feat. Baltasar Kormakur, Victoria Abril; An endearingly skewed yet unexpectedly poignant sex comedy moored in the 30–below temperatures of the Icelandic winter, about a…
Barking Dogs Never Bite (Flandersui gae) (2000): Dir. Joon-ho Bong
Feat. Doona Bae; An accomplished black comedy from Korea, which follows an unemployed lecturer's annoyance with the barking of neighbourhood dogs through to its…
Human Remains (TV Series) (2000): Feat. Rob Brydon, Julia Davis; BBC black comedy mockumentary style series centred around six different offbeat couples, one per episode, candidly revealing their kooky home lives.…
Meet the Parents (2000): Dir. Jay Roach
Feat. Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson…; Meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time becomes nightmare for Ben Stiller, mostly due to Robert De Niro's politely hostile…
Nurse Betty (2000): Dir. Neil LaBute
Feat. Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock…; Part fairy–tale comedy, part edgy thriller, this perhaps qualifies as the perfect date movie. Due to the trauma of witnessing her…
Psycho Beach Party (2000): Dir. Robert Lee King
Feat. Lauren Ambrose, Thomas Gibson, Kimberley Davies; Kicking sand in the face of John Waters’ latest efforts, this parody of GIDGET and other 60s beach party movies gets fabulous mileage out of…
Viva Las Nowhere (Dead Simple) (2000): Dir. Jason Bloom
Feat. Daniel Stern, Patricia Richardson, Lacey Kohl…; Checking into a deserted motel in the “geographical centre of the USA” run by luckless, aspiring country–songwriter Daniel Stern, this darn…
Attack the Gas Station (1999): Dir. Sang-Jin Kim
Feat. Sung-jae Lee, Oh-seong Yu, Seong-jin Kang…; Four disaffected youths take hostage an entire gas station in this subversive, blackly–comic masterpiece from Korea. Gleefully tearing apart…
Carriers Are Waiting, The (Les Convoyeurs Attendent) (1999): Dir. Benoit Maraige
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Morgane Simon, Bouli Laners; When journalist Benoit Poelvoorde decides his family MUST win top prize in local competition (which involves training his reluctant son to break the…
Celebrity Deathmatch (TV Series) (1999): Genuinely amusing clay–mation generated by MTV, stages fantasy bouts–to–the–death between various celebrity pairings, like:…
Hotel Splendide (1999): Dir. Terence Gross
Feat. Toni Collette, Katrin Cartlidge, Peter Vaughan; An ambitious black comedy set in a dilapidated hotel off the coast of Britain, peopled by a bizarre collection of staff members and…
It's the Rage (1999): Dir. James D. Stern
Feat. Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Gary Sinise…; This caustic, precocious black comedy/satire of America's obsession with guns is a roundelay of violent and volatile confrontations that eventually…
League of Gentlemen, The (TV Series) (1999): Dir. Steve Bendelack
Feat. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith; Ghoulishly black comedy set in the sinister village of Royston Vasey, where two visiting hikers suffer a plague of Northern English foul urges and…
League of Gentlemen, The - Christmas Special (TV Series) (1999): Feat. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith…; A full–length special set in the sinister village of Royston Vasey, putting a ghoulish spin on the festive season.
Picking Up the Pieces (1999): Dir. Alfonso Arau
Feat. Sharon Stone, Woody Allen, Cheech Marin…; When the pieces of a dismembered Sharon Stone are dumped on the Mexican border one of her hands goes astray and is soon being worshiped by the locals…
A Little Bit Of Soul (1998): Dir. Peter Duncan
Feat. Geoffrey Rush, Frances O’Connor, David Wenham; Little–known black comedy concerns two scientists working on a serum to reverse aging in chickens, lured into the world of two wealthy patrons…
Big Lebowski, The (1998): Dir. Joel Coen
Feat. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore…; Rolling another warped vision down the gutter, the inscrutable minds of the Coen Brothers (FARGO, RAISING ARIZONA) endow this bowling comedy with…
Black Cat, White Cat (1998): Dir. Emir Kusturica
Feat. Bajram Severdzan, Srdjan Todorovic, Branka Katic; An endearingly chaotic and convivial comedy from Bosnian–born film–maker Kusturica that follows the slapstick rivalry between criminal…
Bulworth (1998): Dir. Warren Beatty
Feat. Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle…; Disillusioned Democrat senator Warren Beatty warrants his own assassination, then stirs up a storm of controversy by fearlessly speaking his mind at…
Chicago Cab (Hellcab) (1998): Dir. Mary Cybulski, John Tintori
Feat. John Cusack, Gillian Anderson, Julianne Moore…; Bleak black comedy based around a day in the life of a Chicago cab–driver (Dillon) in the lead up to Christmas, who becomes confessor to his…
Dead Man's Curve (1998): Dir. Dan Rosen
Feat. Matthew Lillard, Keri Russell, Dana Delaney; Taking malicious advantage of a school–policy loophole, two desperate students conspire to dress up the murder of their room–mate as a…
Home Fries (1998): Dir. Dean Parisot
Feat. Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson; Drew Barrymore continues to style herself as a wise yet perky cutsie–pie, here as a pregnant Burger–Matic waitress dodging the vindictive…
Intervention, The (Suicide, the Comedy) (1998): Dir. Glen Freyer
Feat. Jamie Harris, Alison Eastwood; Black comedy in which a struggling screenwriter researches a film script about suicide but worries his friends and family that he has real tendencies…
Jawbreaker (1998): Dir. Darren Stein
Feat. Rose McGowan; A trio of teen–queens (incl. Rose McGowan), used to inflicting tongue–lashings on their classmates go onto the back foot when they…
Last Yellow, The (1998): Dir. Julian Farino
Feat. Mark Addy, Charlie Creed-Miles, Samantha Morton; Dishevelled rogue Mark Addy (THE FULL MONTY) and none–too–bright sidekick Charlie Creed–Miles learn lessons of loyalty and…
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998): Dir. Guy Ritchie
Feat. Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Nick Moran…; The independent hit of 1998 is a massively assured directing debut and an entertainment sensation. Cocked with sharp dialogue, intricate plotting,…
Opposite of Sex, The (1998): Dir. Don Roos
Feat. Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lisa Kudrow…; Teenage tearaway Christina Ricci sets off a wild goose chain of frantically convoluted events when she steals her gay half–brother's boyfriend…
Parting Shots (1998): Dir. Michael Winner
Feat. Chris Rea, Bob Hoskins, Ben Kingsley…; Once–fashionable photographer Chris Rea finds out he only has months to live, and decides to get his own back at those that have made his life…
Royle Family, The (TV Series) (1998-2000): Dir. Mark Mylod, Steve Bendelack
Feat. Ricky Tomlinson; "Real–life" comedy that places the viewer as a fly–on–the–wall of the living room of an average working class family living…
Very Bad Things (1998): Dir. Peter Berg
Feat. Jon Favreau, Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz…; Jon Favreau's (SWINGERS) stag party pals accidently kill a call–girl during a cocaine–fueled Las Vegas bender, and once they've…
Addicted to Love (1997): Dir. Griffin Dunne
Feat. Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick; Acting serial monogamist Meg Ryan couples this time with Matthew Broderick for romantic revenge on their respective ex–partners who've become…
As Good As It Gets (1997): Dir. James L. Brooks
Feat. Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear; Obsessive–compulsive Jack Nicholson has his fear and loathing neutered by the straight–shooting solo–Mum waitress, Helen Hunt, in…
Breast Men (1997): Dir. Lawrence O'Neil
Feat. David Schwimmer, Chris Cooper; Surgeons David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper negotiate the silicon–valleys (or is that hills?) of 60s America in this blackly comic history of…
Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997): Dir. Tom Schulman
Feat. Joe Pesci, Andy Comeau, Kristy Swanson; Mob bagman Joe Pesci must transport hard evidence of a mass slaying, but he loses the noggins and has to recoup them by any means necessary from a…
For Roseanna (Roseanna's Grave) (1997): Dir. Paul Weiland
Feat. Mercedes Ruehl, Jean Reno; Terminally–ill Mercedes Ruehl's dying wish is to be buried in the local cemetary, but the plots are filling up fast, thus sending off her…
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997): Dir. George Armitage
Feat. John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd…; Sporting a sideways sense of humour, this sardonic comedy has likeable, babbling hitman John Cusack shyly fronting up to his 10–year highschool…
Head Above Water (1997): Dir. Jim Wilson
Feat. Cameron Diaz, Harvey Keitel, Craig Sheffer…; An island respite turns afoul for Cameron Diaz, who adds to her multiple man troubles with a gush of fateful coincidences. Frantic suspense farce has…
In the Company of Men (1997): Dir. Neil LaBute
Feat. Aaron Eckhart, Stacy Edwards; The year's most–discussed filmic skirmish in the war of the sexes is also one of its more outrageous black comedies. Two corporate exec's on…
Scream 2 (1997): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette…; Neve Campbell and friends get revisited by another round of cell–phone threats, masked stalkers and spotty, self–referential…
Twin Town (1997): Dir. Kevin Allen
Feat. Llyr Ifans, Rhys Ifans, Dorien Thomas…; The creators of TRAINSPOTTING lend their executive stamp to this anarchic tale of village dysfunction, set in a quiet Welsh community. Crooked…
Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997): Dir. Stephen Surjik
Feat. Gabriel Byrne, Ben Kingsley, Mimi Rogers…; Media moguls Gabriel Byrne and Ben Kingsley vie for ownership of a pro football team, in an escalating war of one–upmanship, eventually raking…
Welcome to Woop Woop (1997): Dir. Stephan Elliot
Feat. Johnathon Schaech; A con–artist escapes a sour deal in New York and winds up in an Aussie outback town inhabited by oddballs. This attempt to assault 'political…
Cable Guy, The (1996): Dir. Ben Stiller
Feat. Matthew Broderick, Jim Carrey; Straightguy Matthew Broderick is plagued by obnoxious cable–TV man Jim Carrey, who thinks he's found a new friend. Lively satire on the perils…
Chicken (1996): Dir. Grant Lahood
Feat. Cliff Curtis, Bryan Marshall, Martyn Sanderson…; Blackly comic farce about an middle–aged ex–pop–star–turned–fast–food–proprietor who is being stalked by a…
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996): Dir. Robert Rodriguez
Feat. George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis…; Join in the riot with an edgy thriller that loses its head midway through and gets stuck into some gleefully supernatural carnage. The director of…
Mr. Wrong (1996): Dir. Nick Castle
Feat. Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman; Ellen DeGeneres, of TV's 'Ellen', playing the dating game of the 90s, meets a handsome stranger only to find his 'perfect' veneer is a creepy…
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996): Dir. Sadjan Dragojevic
Feat. Dragan Bjelorgrlic, Nikola Kojo; Seen in flashback from a ward in triage, the Bosnian war is portrayed in a riveting counter–play of nihilism and theatre, as a band of Serbian…
Scream (1996): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Skeet Ulrich…; The horror genre gets a long overdue (if tongue–in–cheek) revamp but you needn't be an aficionado to experience the thrill of this…
Grotesque, The (1995): Dir. John-Paul Davidson
Feat. Alan Bates, Sting; Bizarre, upper–crust English comedy has a suave, veritably oily Sting as butler to crank palaeontologist Alan Bates and his ghastly family.…
Kamikaze Taxi (1995): Dir. Masato Harada
Feat. Koji Yakusho, Kazuya Takahashi, Reiko Kataoka; An apprentice gangster fouls up his first major assignment and flees Tokyo in a taxi, the driver of which turns out to be a unlikely confident with a…
Last Supper, The (1995): Dir. Stacy Title
Feat. Ron Eldard, Cameron Diaz, Ron Perlman; Sure to inspire as much lively debate as amusement, this cheeky black comedy posits five young liberals who become compelled to do the world a favour…
Mona Must Die (Ein fast perfektes Verhältnis) (1995): Dir. Donald Reiker
Feat. Marianne Sagebrecht; A tyrannical wife becomes a target for murder of her brow–beaten husband and his neighbour lover. Their devious plan involves the mistress…
Staggered (1995): Dir. Martin Clunes
Feat. Martin Clunes, Griff Rhys-Jones, Michael Praed; As a rather extreme stag party prank, Martin Clunes ('Men Behaving Badly') is left naked on a beach in the wop–wops. His protracted voyage back…
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett; Eddie Murphy and the ever–dynamic Angela Bassett team up for horror specialist Wes Craven, who injects a mix of comedy and gothic romance into…
Curse of the Starving Class (1994): Dir. J. Michael McClary
Feat. James Woods, Kathy Bates; Black comedy depicting a hellish family of white–trash farmers, incl. an alcoholic James Woods and wife Kathy Bates. Based on a Sam Shepard…
Duckman (TV Series) (1994-1997): Feat. Jason Alexander; An animated black–comedy sitcom adapted from a one–off comic book that is centred around a lascivious, widowed, self–loathing duck…
Ref, The (1994): Dir. Ted Demme
Feat. Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey; Jewel thief Denis Leary takes refuge at the home of married squabblers Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey on the eve of a Christmas family reunion.…
Spanking the Monkey (1994): Dir. David O. Russell
Feat. Jeremy Davies, Elizabeth Newett, Benjamin Hendrickson…; The awkwardness of youth is brilliantly captured in this provocative tragi–comedy, another maverick success story from the US indie scene. A…
Takin' Over the Asylum (TV Series) (1994): Dir. David Blair
Feat. David Tennant, Ken Stott; Well–made television series that follows the fortunes of a hospital radio DJ working in a Glasgow mental asylum where he befriends a manic…
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes; Ingenious post–script to the tired NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. franchise in which castmembers of the previous films (playing themselves), too, become…
Addams Family Values (1993): Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld
Feat. Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd; Not bad sequel focuses less on Gomez & Morticia, and gets more comic mileage from the rest of the gang.
Deadly Advice (1993): Dir. Mandie Fletcher
Feat. Jane Horrocks, Brenda Fricker, Jonathan Pryce…; A wicked little black comedy about murder in small, genteel provincial town on the Welsh borders. The twist is to have the bickering ghosts of…
Serial Mom (1993): Dir. John Waters
Feat. Kathleen Turner; Prickly domestic satire stars Kathleen Turner as the perfect mom – one who'll go to murderous lengths to protect her family.…
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993): Dir. Thomas Schlamme
Feat. Mike Myers, Nancy Travis; Better–than–expected follow up from WAYNE'S WORLD's Mike Meyers. The plot acts as merely a thread off which a number of inspired ideas…
Tango (1993): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Thierry Lhermitte, Philippe Noiret, Richard Bohringer; Left by his wife, Thierry Lhermitte hits the road to track her down with the help of his misogynist uncle, Phillippe Noiret. Hitman Richard Bohringer…
Braindead (Dead Alive) (1992): Dir. Peter Jackson
Feat. Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Elizabeth Moody; Local prodigy's magnum opus may well be the last word in zombie film. What begins as a nervous romance for naive young Lionel soon turns into a…
Death Becomes Her (1992): Dir. Robert Zemeckis
Feat. Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn; Streep, Willis and Hawn turn in spot–on performances for this hilarious send–up of Tinseltown's obsession with youth. The zany plot…
Ed and His Dead Mother (1992): Dir. Jonathan Wacks
Feat. Steve Buscemi, Ned Beatty; Steve Buscemi distinguishes this otherwise routine comedy–horror about about a mommie's boy who can't sever the apron strings, even after…
Frauds (1992): Dir. Stephan Elliot
Feat. Phil Collins, Hugo Weaving, Nicholas Hammond; Phil Collins plays a smooth–talking, sleazy insurance investigator hell bent on making life miserable for a young couple who have made a claim.…
Wild Target (1992): Dir. Pierre Salvadori
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Guillaume Depardieu; Jean Rochefort is a fastidious hitman whose mania for control, both at home and on assignment, is dangerously weakened when he apprentices Gerard…
Addams Family, The (1991): Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld
Feat. Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd…; Huston, Julia and Lloyd star in this glossy update of the '60s TV series. Inventive, blackly comic and lavishly gothic production design.
Murder Most Horrid (TV Series) (1991-1999): Feat. Dawn French; Satirical comedy series starring Britain's darling funny gal Dawn French (VICAR OF DIBLEY) as she takes on various guises caught up in a different…
Over Her Dead Body (Enid is Sleeping) (1991): Dir. Maurice Phillips
Feat. Judge Reinhold, Elizabeth Perkins, Jeffrey Jones…; Garish fun with Judge Reinhold and Elisabeth Perkins as a couple of illicit Southern love–birds who kill his wife, but have trouble disposing…
Tatie Danielle (1991): Dir. Etienne Chatiliez
Feat. Tsilla Chelton, Catherine Jacob, Isabelle Nanty…; Brilliantly absurd black comedy about an elderly widow who does her best to make life miserable for her relatives. Tsilla Chelton is irresistible as…
Battle Heater (Kotatsu) (1990): Dir. Geroge Iida
Feat. Pappara Kawai, Akira Imoto; A maniacal low–budget doozie about a man–eating Kotatsu heater, this adds its own spirited splash to the horror mini–genre of…
Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got the Will? (1990): Dir. Jack Fisk
Feat. Beau Bridges, Beverly D'Angelo, Tess Harper…; Various estranged family members re–unite when their patriarch decides to call it a life. A hillbilly comedy with lots of quality squabbling.
Death in Brunswick (1990): Dir. John Ruane
Feat. Sam Neill, John Clarke; Sam Neill gets himself into deep water when he lands a job in a seedy nightclub, falls in love, but unwittingly gets caught up in ethnic…
I Love You to Death (1990): Dir. Lawrence Kasdan
Feat. Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright…; Kevin Kline heads a great cast in this endearing black comedy about an embittered housewife who creatively tries to bump off her chronically…
Meet the Applegates (1990): Dir. Michael Lehmann
Feat. Ed Jr. Begley, Stockard Channing, Dabney Coleman; A wacky satire about a family of insects who assimilate into suburban America in order to blow up a nuclear power plant. As bent as it sounds, from…
Shock to the System, A (1990): Dir. Jan Egleson
Feat. Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Riegert…; Plagued by mediocrity, bad luck and an intolerant wife, Michael Caine discovers that murder is the remedy for success.
Society (1990): Dir. Brian Yuzna
Feat. Billy Warlock, Connie Danese, Ben Slack; Perverse hallucinations plague a young man in this sqeaumish satire of social mores in LA. The finale is an outrageous orgy of slimy…
Dead Funny (Penn and Teller Get Killed) (1989): Dir. Arthur Penn
Feat. David Patrick Kelly, Jon Cryer, Reg E. Cathey…; Black comedy and magic duo Penn and Teller deploy an array of morbid stage show theatrics within the framework of a fictional feature.
Heathers (1989): Dir. Michael Lehmann
Feat. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty; 'Heathers' are an elite group of glamourous, stuck–up brat–girls who gradually meet their maker courtesy of a rebel Heather (Winona…
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989): Dir. Bruce Robinson
Feat. Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward; Richard E. Grant encores for the director of WITHNAIL AND I to play a manic genius ad–man whose conscience rears its ugly head while he…
Just Me and Mario (1989): Dir. Greg Stitt
Feat. Mark Hadlow; Mark Hadlow portrays a repressed individual obsessed with the music and life of Mario Lanza. It's a surreal, blackly comic take on suburban angst.
Trop Belle Pour Toi (Too Beautiful For You) (1989): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Josiane Balasko, Carole Bouquet; Car salesman Gerard Depardieu has a beautiful wife, but becomes infatuated with his plain yet passionate receptionist. Insightful, melancholy comedy.
Beetlejuice (1988): Dir. Tim Burton
Feat. Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin…; A deceased couple return as ghosts and discover their home has been occupied by an obnoxious family, so decide to enlist the services of…
Brain Damage (1988): Dir. Frank Henenlotter
Feat. Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry; Outrageous splatter comedy doubles as a drug–addiction parable about a parasitic monster that feeds off the acquaintances of its human host.…
Child's Play (1988): Dir. Tom Holland
Feat. Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent…; 'Chucky', the possessed cabbage–patch kid, goes on a murderous rampage in this clever consumerist parable. Tightly scripted and imaginatively…
Fright Night Part 2 (1988): Dir. Tommy Lee Wallace
Feat. Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale, Traci Lind…; William Ragsdale returns as Charley Brewster, now a college freshman who is tormented by the undead sister of the vampire from the first film. While…
Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988): Dir. Ken Wiederhorn
Feat. Michael Kenworthy, Thor Van Lingen, Jason Hogan; Yet another unnecessary sequel, this time to the popular spoof of Romero's Living Dead films.
Bad Taste (1987): Dir. Peter Jackson
Feat. Peter Jackson; New Zealand's entry into the splatter comedy genre, shot on consecutive Sundays over a four year period, is among the best ever made. Outrageously…
Throw Momma from the Train (1987): Dir. Danny De Vito
Feat. Billy Crystal, Danny De Vito, Kim Greist…; Snappy comic spinoff of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN.
Witches of Eastwick (1987): Dir. George Miller
Feat. Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer…; Lively comic fantasy about three bored spinsters whose dreams of Mr. Right unwittingly conjure up a diabolical Jack Nicholson.
A Very Peculiar Practice (TV Series) (+ A Very Polish Practice) (1986-1988): Dir. David Tucker
Feat. Peter Davison, Graham Crowden, Barbara Flynn; A glorious surreal BBC black–comedy drama set in the health centre of a British university, based on the experiences of revered writer Andrew…
Little Shop of Horrors (1986): Dir. Frank Oz
Feat. Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia…; Excellent film version of the off–Broadway musical based on the 1960 horror/comedy of the same name. The story of the man–eating plant is…
Ruthless People (1986): Dir. David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams
Feat. Bette Midler, Danny De Vito; A genuine classic from the Zucker brothers and Touchstone pictures. The ingenious plot is laced with great gags, giving Bette Midler and Danny DeVito…
Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa) (1986): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Matti Pellonpaa, Kati Outinen, Sakari Kuosmanen; The first film in Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy follows a lonely garbage collector who finds romance with a check–out clerk (Kaurismäki…
Something Wild (1986): Dir. Jonathan Demme
Feat. Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels, Ray Liotta; The then–hip Melanie Griffith takes conservative Jeff Daniels on a crash course in carefree living and kinky sex. But the fun turns to terror…
After Hours (1985): Dir. Martin Scorsese
Feat. Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom…; Scorsese picked up Best Director award at Cannes for this brilliant, Kafka–esque black comedy about an ordinary guy's traumatic and bizarre…
Brazil (1985): Dir. Terry Gilliam
Feat. Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm…; Daydreaming bureaucrat Jonathan Pryce becomes unwittingly involved with an underground superhero and a mystery woman before falling victim to his own…
Fright Night (1985): Dir. Tom Holland
Feat. William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall…; Terrific vampire satire in which a boy becomes highly suspicious of his new neighbours, led by a suave Chris Sarandon. The superb make–up…
No Surrender (1985): Dir. Peter Smith
Feat. Bernard Hill, Michael Angelis, Joanne Whalley…; Black comedy has the unfortunate Angelis getting himself into some hot water when he takes over the managment of a seedy Liverpool club. From the pen…
Re-Animator (1985): Dir. Stuart Gordon
Feat. Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton; Essential splatter comedy takes gore levels to a (then) new extreme. Rebel science student Herbert West invents a serum that brings the dead back to…
Return of the Living Dead, The (1985): Dir. Dan O'Bannon
Feat. Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa; Pretty–good parody of Romero's Living Dead films, though not quite the same as the real thing. Great thrash–metal soundtrack, though.
Toxic Avenger, The (1985): Dir. Michael Herz, Sam Weil
Feat. Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Prichard; A nerd becomes super–powered after falling into a vat of radioactive waste, and proceeds to clean up crime in one of the most notorious yet…
Funeral, The (1984): Dir. Juzo Itami
Feat. Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto; A Buddhist funeral service for a brothel owner makes an ideal vehicle for both fiendish black comedy and social satire. An assured debut from the…
Ultimate Solution of...Grace Quigley, The (1984): Dir. Anthony Harvey
Feat. Katharine Hepburn, Nick Nolte; Curious black comedy features Hepburn as a lonely widower who enlists hitman Nolte to hasten her demise.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Carmen Maura; Carmen Maura plays a delirious feminist housewife in this early black–comic farce from Almodovar, here working at his freshest and most…
Carry Me Back (1982): Dir. John Reid
Feat. Grant Tilly, Kelly Johnson; Spirited silliness ensues when plans for a trio of South Island farmers go awry when one of them carks it en route to a Wellington rugby match. Worth…
Creepshow (1982): Dir. George Romero
Feat. Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeam, Fritz Weaver; Well–spun compendium of five tales captures the intended spirit and ghoulishness of 1950s EC horror comics in an affectionate homage.
Suite in Two Keys : Come Into the Garden Maud / A Song at Twilight (The Noel Coward Collection - Disc 7) (1982): Feat. Paul Scofield, Geraldine McEwan, Deborah Kerr; – Come Into The Garden Maud (82') Dubious comedy centred on a husband and wife keen to get ahead who become entranced by a prince and…
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982): Dir. Terry Hughes
Feat. Angela Lansbury, George Hearn, Cris Groenendaal; TV movie of the 1979 Broadway hit, originally staged by Harold Prince, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Set in London in 1846, where Barber…
Britannia Hospital (1981): Dir. Lindsay Anderson
Feat. Leonard Rossiter, Malcolm McDowell, Joan Plowright…; Political allegory dressed as raucous Blighty comedy going all out, but it hasn't quite the magic of cult predecessors IF... and O LUCKY MAN!
Goodbye Pork Pie (1981): Dir. Geoff Murphy
Feat. Tony Barry, Kelly Johnson, Claire Oberman…; This little beauty was the first Kiwi film to make international inroads. An amoral tale about a gang of misfits who travel the length of the country…
Montenegro (1981): Dir. Dusan Makavejev
Feat. Susan Anspach, Erland Josephson, Marianna Jacobi; A bored housewife gets caught up in Slavic sex and violence and discovers that she quite likes it. Unpredictable and weird, things become wickedly…
Fade to Black (1980): Dir. Vernon Zimmerman
Feat. Dennis Christopher, Tim Thomerson, Gwynne Gilford; Film buffs should appreciate this inventive black–comedy about a weirdo movie addict who kills people in the style of his various film heroes.
Motel Hell (1980): Dir. Kevin Connor
Feat. Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nancy Parsons; Comedy black enough to convert one to vegetarianism about rednecks who use a special kinda meat for 'Farmer Vincent's Fritters'! The duelling…
Buffet Froid (Cold Cuts) (1979): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, Jean Carmet…; When his lost switchblade turns up as a murder weapon, petty crim Gerard Depardieu goes on the lam in a nightmarish Paris, several disreputable…
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979): Dir. Michael O'Donoghue
Feat. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher…; Notorious spoof of the Italian schockumentaries is the brain child of Saturday Night Live's oddball genius Michael O'Donoghue. Originally…
End, The (1978): Dir. Burt Reynolds
Feat. Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise; Black comedy directed by and starring Burt Reynolds, who plays a real–estate agent who decides to kill himself when he is diagnosed with a…
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez Vos Mouchoirs) (1978): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Carole Laure, Patrick Dewaere; Naive, frustrated husband Gerard Depardieu embarks on an unconventional quest to find his listless wife some happiness, firstly by 'lending' her to a…
Abigail's Party (1977): Dir. Mike Leigh
Feat. Alison Steadman; A cult classic of British TV, this is an outrageously funny send up–of social etiquette in the suburbs, with fashions to match. Squirm as buxom…
Despair (1977): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Dirk Bogarde; Fassbinder's blackly comic adaptation of Nabakov's novel about delusion, depression and decline of the human spirit. Dirk Bogarde plays a Russian…
Stroszek (1976): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Bruno S., Eva Mattes; Powerful tragi–comedy follows a simple–minded Bruno S to America with a prostitute trying to escape her unsavoury past. The film's…
Seven Beauties (1975): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Shirley Stoler; Wimpish Casanova Giancarlo Giannini is cast wherever the winds of WWII fling him: eventually into a German concentration camp run by Shirley Stoler…
Female Trouble (1974): Dir. John Waters
Feat. Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey; Waters' funniest trash–a–thon with Divine following up her unforgettable turn in Pink Flamingos as loathsome loser Dawn Davenport –…
Homebodies (1974): Dir. Larry Yust
Feat. Douglas Fowley, Ruth McDevitt, Frances Fuller; A blackly humourous yarn about a group of retired tenants who are willing to go to extremes to prevent eviction. Inventive genre pic belies its low…
Martha (1974): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Bohm; Addressing his favourite subject, emotional cruelty, Dir. Fassbinder skillfully works a vein of pitch–black comedy in depicting Margit…
Girl Most Likely To, The (1973): Dir. Lee Philips
Feat. Stockard Channing, Edward Asner, Jim Backus; An 'ugly duckling' high–school student is transformed by plastic surgery and decides to wreak homicidal vengeance on former boyfriends and…
Love and Anarchy (1973): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Eros Pagni; Cult director Lina Wertmuller's political parable about the would–be assassin of Mussolini who falls in love with a prostitute at his…
A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (Une Belle Fille Comme Moi) (1972): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Andre Dussollier; Twisted French black comedy of a licentious, manipulative murderess recounting her sordid past to a green criminology student. Dripping in silly…
Till Death Us Do Part (TV Series) (1972-1974): Feat. Warren Mitchell; Contentious, well remembered BBC sitcom is a comedy firebrand about a narrow–minded Cockney geezer whose racist diatribes were intended to be…
Little Murders (1971): Dir. Alan Arkin
Feat. Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd; Actor Alan Arkin directs this black comedy about a girl who brings her boyfriend home to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of…
Pink Flamingos (1971): Dir. John Waters
Feat. Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey…; John Waters' creative pinnacle (or nadir!) remains the ultimate statement in bad taste – a pure, unadulterated exercise in shock value!…
Harold and Maude (1970): Dir. Hal Ashby
Feat. Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon; Much adored black comedy about a lonely teenager who befriends an old woman who shares his morbid fascination, among other interests. This cult hit…
Where's Poppa? (Going Ape) (1970): Dir. Carl Reiner
Feat. George Segal, Ruth Gordon, Ron Leibman…; George Segal becomes determined to hurry along the demise of his ultra–demanding, super–senile 87 year–old mom (Ruth Gordon). Few…
Magic Christian, The (1969): Dir. Joseph McGrath
Feat. Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr, Richard Attenborough…; From Terry Southern's novel, a wildly loopy satire about an eccentric multi–millionaire (Peter Sellers) who adopts a destitute son (Ringo…
MASH (M*A*S*H) (1969): Dir. Robert Altman
Feat. Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt…; Dir. Robert Altman's biggest commercial success came with this irreverant and influential black comedy that spawned the more famous, but less daring…
For Love of Ivy (1968): Dir. Daniel Mann
Feat. Sidney Poitier, Beau Bridges, Carroll O'Connor; A well–heeled black family find their maid is about to leave, so contrive to engineer a romance for her with a local truck–driver.…
How I Won the War (1967): Dir. Richard Lester
Feat. John Lennon, Michael Crawford; John Lennon and Michael Crawford do service in this black satire on military lunacy.
Wrong Box, The (1966): Dir. Bryan Forbes
Feat. John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine…; A classic black farce where two Victorian siblings (Richardson and Mills) scramble tooth and nail to collect a massive legacy, each trying to outwit…
Fists in the Pocket (1965): Dir. Marco Bellochio
Feat. Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase; A ferocious intensity pervades this bitter yet utterly startling tale of a family afflicted with epilepsy, blindness and frustration, unafforded the…
Loved One, The (1965): Dir. Tony Richardson
Feat. Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer…; Satirical take on the funeral business in which a young British poet goes to work at a Hollywood cemetery. Doing for funerals what that DR…
Addams Family, The (TV Series) (1964-1966): Feat. John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Ted Cassidy…; Macabre 1960s sitcom about a family whose gothic lifestyle and trappings make for a mordant contrast with 'apple–pie' America. 22 episodes…
Green Man, The / School for Scoundrels (1957-1960): Dir. Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer
Feat. Alastair Sim, George Cole, Terry-Thomas…; A double feature of comedies starring Alastair Sim. The Green Man (1957) Dir. Basil Dearden – One of Sim's best films, playing an apparently…
Naked Truth, The (Your Past is Showing) (1957): Dir. Mario Zampi
Feat. Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount…; Dark comedy set in the tabloid industry with an extortionate publisher marked for death by his celebrity victims.
Dov'e La Liberta...? (Where Is Freedom?) (1954): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Toto, Vera Molnar, Nita Dover; Legendary Italian comic Toto plays a barber who cannot abide the hypocritical society he is thrust into after spending two decades in prison, and…
Unfaithfully Yours (1948): Dir. Preston Sturges
Feat. Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Barbara Lawrence…; Rex Harrison plays an irascible, paranoid orchestra conductor who comes to suspect his devoted wife's infidelity. Anchored around a memorable…
To Be or Not to Be (1942): Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
Feat. Jack Benny, Carole Lombard; Wonderful black comedy about a Polish theatre group who in the face of a German invasion, become involved in a covert operation that masquerades them…
Comic Strip Presents: Mr Jolly Lives Next Door / Dirty Movie: Dir. Stephen Frears
Feat. Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson; Two of the darker "Comic Strip" TV Comedies, starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.

Main menu

Section navigation menu

Subgenre Sampler