If there are two genres that elicit the larges responses from audiences, it’s comedy and horror. These are the two genres that gather people in a crowded dark theater (well, not so much comedy these days save for the odd The Naked Gun here or there) and get them to provide identical reactions at specific moments. Sometimes it’s shocked guffaws and sometimes it’s shocked gasps. So, in a way it makes sense why some of today’s very best horror directors got started in one way or another in the world of comedy. The two genres may essentially be the opposite of one another, but they ultimately have the same goal.
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What follows are five of the most intriguing horror auteurs working in the industry right now. But that isn’t all that binds them, as each one of them has made a career out of making people laugh in the past. Sometimes it was as an actor, other times it was as a performer, sometimes it was both.
1) Zach Cregger
While he was one of the founding members of The Whitest Kids U’ Know, that troupe was too niche to truly make him a household name. And when Barbarian came out back in 2022, there were even many people who were familiar with WKUK who didn’t realize one of its members had just directed one of the 2020s’ most compelling works in horror.
Barbarian amounted to his true directorial debut. 2009’s Miss March was co-directed alongside fellow WKUK founding member Trevor Moore. But Barbarian was all his, and it was one of the most jaw-droppingly assured directorial debuts in recent memory. And now that he also has Weapons under his belt he’s confirmed that, one, he’s capable of crafting a product that gets a ton of people in seats and, two, his horror debut was far from a fluke. Cregger is undoubtedly a talent to watch, and it only seems like a matter of time before something like the DCU picks him up. For now, though, he’s sticking with horror. But this time it’s a reboot of a well-known property: none other than Resident Evil.
2) Jordan Peele
After gaining fans throughout his five seasons on Mad TV, Jordan Peele broke out in a big way via his and Keegan-Michael Key’s fantastic Comedy Central sketch comedy series Key & Peele. And, even there, one could pick up on his love for horror on occasion (not to mention his ability to pinpoint just how Gremlins 2: The New Batch ended up being what it is).
But with his directorial debut, Get Out, Peele announced himself as one of the most brilliant horror filmmakers in our modern era. And while neither Us nor Nope are quite as solid, they’re comparably thought-provoking and continued to show off his massive ambition as a director. Up next for Peele is Him, which he produces.
3) Josh Ruben
If you’ve ever watched Dropout, formerly known as CollegeHumor, sketches, you’ve probably seen Josh Ruben’s face. In fact, he still works with Dropout, including notably playing Joaquin Phoenix’s version of Joker in one of Pete Holmes’ Badman parody videos.
But as a filmmaker, all three of his directed movies have been horror comedies, which have increasingly leaned towards horror as they’ve gone on. And, between Scare Me, starring The Boys‘ Aya Cash, Werewolves Within, and Heart Eyes, he’s yet to helm a dud.
4) William Peter Blatty
The late William Peter Blatty is undoubtedly most well-known for having written the 1971 novel The Exorcist and, perhaps even more iconically, the screenplay for the 1973 film adaptation. And, considering how amazing that film and its source material are, it would be fair to assume he always was a horror writer.
But that wasn’t the case. His earlier novels, such as John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, were comedies. Not to mention, on top of writing the screenplay for Goldfarb, most of his early screenplays were also comedies. Most notably there was A Shot in the Dark, the second Pink Panther film. Blatty only directed two films throughout his career, The Ninth Configuration and The Exorcist III, which was truly the follow-up William Friedkin’s masterpiece deserved. Blatty is the only director here who only directed horror, but he was so active in the comedy writing world for so long that we’re counting him.
5) John Krasinski
John Krasinski became a well-known personality in most U.S. households thanks to his role as Jim Halpert in The Office, which proved to be a role that allowed him to branch out in multiple directions, both in terms of genre and his involvement with his projects. Even still, throughout his nine years on The Office, he mostly stuck with comedy. On the small screen he had single episode appearances in American Dad!, 30 Rock, and Arrested Development and, on the big screen, he was in rom-coms like The Holiday, License to Wed, Away We Go, and It’s Complicated.
In 2016 he had his first leading man role in an action-centric project as Jack Silva in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and continued in that genre as Jack Ryan in the Prime Video series of the same name. However, as a director, he made his big breakthrough with A Quiet Place (he previously directed the comedy-dramas Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and The Hollars). This post-apocalyptic monster movie showed he knew how to build tension as well as people who had been working in the genre throughout their entire careers so it was even more impressive when he topped himself with A Quiet Place Part II. He didn’t direct A Quiet Place: Day One, though he did continue to serve as producer, and will return to the director’s chair for 2027’s A Quiet Place Part III.
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