Subgenre Sampler
Rental > Comedy > Black Comedy: 40 Films to Rent on VHS
- 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…
- 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:…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- 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…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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!…
- 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…
- 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.