Black comedy movies: These will ease your quarantine boredom

Obviously we’ve all grown tired of the same cycle of TV shows & movies playing on loop in our houses during quarantine. At some point, your brain just switches over and cannot possibly ingest any more media. We’ve all been there!

Normally we’d recommend you take some time for yourself. Take a walk, clean your house, wash your car – whatever it is you need to do in order to feel human again. When that’s over and you inevitably end up back on the couch with your partner’s feet in your face and the remote back in your hand, we’ll be waiting with suggestions.

In our opinion, the best way to cure quarantine-watching blues is to watch a dark comedy. They’re full of campy stuff that’ll take you right out of the world we’re living in and transport you somewhere else – without having to deal with the forced optimism of fantasy and sci-fi films. Give it a shot with this list of seven of our favorite black comedies.

7. Drop Dead Gorgeous 

If you’re looking for a movie that is lighthearted in style and yet black-hearted in tone, you have to start here. Told through a mockumentary-style format documenting the annual Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant, Drop Dead Gorgeous features 90s versions of actors such as Kirsten Dunst, Brittany Murphy, Denise Richards, and Amy Adams in her debut film role. Did we mention everyone does a Midwest accent?

If you think this is just some cheesy movie, what if we told you that not only does Allison Janney turn in a career-defining performance as trailer trash Loretta (yes, we said it), things also get scandalous when contestants start mysteriously dying under strange circumstances. 

If there’s only one thing you watch in quarantine, please let it be Drop Dead Gorgeous. 

6. American Psycho

For something a little darker, we recommend Mary Harron’s comedy-horror masterpiece American Psycho. Starring the never better Christian Bale as white-collar killer Patrick Bateman, the thriller follows his gradual dive into a lust-fueled frenzy and a spiral into madness. But it’s funny! We promise. 

Featuring a cast of favorites like Chloë Sevigny, Justin Theroux, and Jared Leto delivering the great script by screenwriter Guinevere Turner, American Psycho is a rush for anyone who loves 80s music and a lot of blood-soaked satin sheets. 

5. Young Adult

While the term “comedy” is rather loose in this case, there are perhaps no other movies on this list as subtle & raw as Young Adult, which has yet to be challenged by any other work exemplifying millennial disillusionment with such aplomb. 

Charlize Theron fully disappears into the role of Mavis Gary, a 37-year-old former prom queen-turned-alcoholic ghostwriter who can’t help but chase the past. When her high school boyfriend invites her to his baby shower, Mavis hatches a plan to bring down the marriage and the shower. And . . . we won’t tell you what happens, but we can say that things don’t go exactly as Mavis had hoped.

With a whip-smart script by Juno scribe Diablo Cody, Young Adult is one to save for when your partner goes to sleep and you need some Me Time.

4. Bachelorette

We’ll just say it right away. This is a movie for awful people. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing! While Bachelorette is full of moments that haven’t aged well since its initial release, watching the film is like an extra long episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – but for ladies & gays!

Three best friends (Lizzy Caplan, Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher) reunite for their former friend’s wedding (Rebel Wilson) and end up causing a scene due to their coke-fueled antics that requires the three women to band together and fix everything under cover of night before the wedding. 

If you can get past the very 2012 humor and/or if you need to feel better about your own antics, give Bachelorette a socially distanced watch with some of your girlies and a couple glasses of wine.

3. Assassination Nation

This film feels the most of-the-moment right now with its focus on cancel culture and the state of social media, but don’t let that stop you from giving it a watch if you’re feeling overly tuned into the world right now. Assassination Nation is very campy and stylized – and the only movie on this list that will make you do any thinking at all. 

When a small town, appropriately called Salem, is hit with a computer hacker that releases personal information about its citizens, the situation devolves into chaos and horror whereby the only hope is a group of four teenage girls to swoop in, kick some ass, and save the day.

2. Jawbreaker

Perhaps one of the most well-known black comedy films to ever grace our screens, Heathers, was not able to join us tonight, because frankly that film is very busy and if you haven’t seen Heathers yet, just start there. When you’re done, tune into this other piece of teen-drama magic that was heavily inspired by Daniel Waters’s seminal work of high school lampoonery. 

Jawbreaker is not only gripping from the moment it begins, but it’s also dark af from the get-go. In the opening sequence, Courtney Shayne (Rose McGowan) and her wannabe Plastics kidnap the fourth member of their group as a prank. Things take a macabre turn when the kidnapee croaks on a jawbreaker in her mouth. 

It only ramps up from there and you won’t regret going where Jawbreaker takes you. 

1. Addams Family Values

Of course we finish our list off with the dictionary example of a black comedy film. Addams Family Values is not only a prime example of the perfect tone for the genre; it’s also one of the few examples regardless of genre in which the sequel is better than the original. 

When Gomez & Morticia (Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston) have another baby and send Wednesday & Pugsley (Christina Ricci, Jimmy Workman) off to a cheery summer camp, you can bet things end in flames – but who would’ve expected a stage play to be involved? In the meantime, Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) has attracted the attention of a mysterious woman (Joan Cusack) whose ulterior motives begin to surface.

Addams Family Values is fun for all ages and if you start wearing more black after your viewing, it did its job.

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Do you agree with our ranking? Let us know in the comments and drop any other black comedy recommendations you have for us!