'Saw' and 'Slither' Directors Get Funny in Xbox's 'Horror Meets Comedy'

By 12/01/2008
'Saw' and 'Slither' Directors Get Funny in Xbox's 'Horror Meets Comedy'

Like an alien plague that turns people into monstrosities in a peaceful South Carolina townJames Gunn has been on a tear. 

The director of Slither (and writer of Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo 2) currently instructs better-than-average looking females with worse-than-average acting abilities on how to be a horror movie star in VH1’s Scream Queens (an episode on ‘How-to Take Off Your Top” hasn’t aired…yet). His online, safe-for-work PG Porn series, which features actual adult starlets opposite actual actors (though, nowadays, it’s hard to tell the difference), has been racking up an insane view count on Spike.

And now you can catch him and his sanguinary director pals hack away at their funny bones in another online series that looks like it will get as big an audience as a George Romero flick’s body count. 

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Distributed on Xbox’s Independent Video Channel, sponsored by the United States Air Force, conceived by James Gunnn and Peter Safran (Scary MovieMeet the Spartans), and produced by Safran Digital GroupHorror Meets Comedy is a series of short films (all under eight minutes) created by nouveau heavyweight horror filmmakers who were told to think funny instead of scary. The results are a little bit of each. 

Participants include: Gunn, James Wan and Leigh Whannell (Saw), David Slade (30 Days of Night), Adam Green (Hatchett), Lucky McKee (The Woods), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror), and Peter Cornewll (of the upcoming The Haunting in Connecticut).

The project gives them a chance to work outside their typecast genre, be creative with a leash that’s far longer than anything held by a major motion picture studio, and collaborate with friends. As Gunn said, “We all get together for dinner or something once in a while. But this is the first time we’ve been able to get together professionally. And I can honestly say it has been a great experience.”

The writer/director also doesn’t think the pairing of comedy with horror is that far-fetched:

“A lot of so-called black comedy has elements of horror in it…To my way of thinking, tragedy is when I fall into a well and break my leg. Comedy is when you fall into a well and die. I mean, look at Lucky’s films. There’s a lot of humor in them, and my movie Slither is really more of a comedy than a horror film. For my money, there were more laughs in John Carpenter’s The Thing than there were in Talladega Nights

Xbox owners will be able to download the shorts for free on their gaming systems, while everyone else can check out the trailers on the Horror Meets Comedy site. I suspect the shorts will also function as pilots for possible web shows, so if any of the following do well, expect Safran Digital to produce more. Here’s the list:

Doggie Heaven (Woof!): The creative team behind the smash hit Saw films, James Wan andLeigh Whannell, tell the story of a young man who is having a dog of a day. He’s just been shot dead, but his real problems are only just beginning due to a clerical error that has sent him to the wrong heaven.

Sparky and Mikaela: From Director/Writer James Gunn comes this Calvin & Hobbes style take of a a high school girl who fights crime in both the human and forest world with her best friend, a puppet raccoon.

Post Apocalyptic Pizza: From Director Peter Cornwell, after a nuclear disaster even the most basic pizza ingredients command extravagant prices, no job is more dangerous than the pizza deliveryman.

Fairy Tale Police (below): From Director Adam Green, a COPS-inspired reality show where two human police officers keep order in a land full of storybook villains, magical monsters, and other cartoonish characters.

MEATDOG: What’s Fer’ Dinner (below): Director David Slade presents an animated mutt made up of cold cuts. MEATDOG is pitted against a church of evil occult pigs while being pursued by a carnivorous rabbit and a slobbering hound.

Blue Like You (at the top): From director Lucky McKee, Blue Like You follows the antics of old friends Patrick and Cyndy as they get to know their mysterious and extraordinary new friend Blue, a beautiful young woman who doesn’t seem to understand how the simplest of things work.

The Miracle of Phil:— From director Andrew Douglas,The Miracle of Phil shows that the best relationships are full of screaming, shouting and cursing, but when Phil gets knocked up, Chris is the one who feels screwed.

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