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Horror With a Wicked Grin

A run of films that play monsters, killers and the macabre for laughs as much as screams. Watch them together to see how the joke-and-jolt trick goes from James Whale's arch 1930s Universal pictures and Capra's homicidal aunts, through the Joe Dante/John Landis creature-feature era, to Scream's rule-quoting knowingness and Man Bites Dog's pitch-black satire.

Mostly crowd favourites and sleepover staples that are easy to love, with a few classic-era touchstones and one notoriously brutal Belgian cult object at the far end. The easy ones are for a fun October night; save Man Bites Dog until you're ready for the joke to stop being funny.

• Scream (1996)
• Scream 2 (1997)
• Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
• Gremlins (1984)
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• Tremors (1990)
• Death Becomes Her (1992)
• An American Werewolf in London (1981)
• Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
• Fright Night (1985)
• Bride of Chucky (1998)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• The Invisible Man (1933)
• Man Bites Dog (1992)