Carry on Screaming!
Dir: Gerald Thomas
1966
****
One of the most successful of the franchise, Carry on Screaming!, the 12th of the franchise, mixed comedy and horror quite perfectly. It is a spoof satire that lovingly pokes fun at Universal's classic monster films but is also a nudge at the Hammer Horror films, a production company that would often share studio space with them, indeed there are wonderful stories about the Ealing Studios canteen where the Hammer Horror, Carry On and James Bond cast would all eat together and rub each other up with playful banter. Carry on Screaming works so well thanks to the wonderful writing and the fact that the horror element is just as horrifying as it is in the films it sends up. It is also favoured by the fans thanks to Harry H. Corbett's one and only Carry On appearance. Corbett was already a bit of comedy legend by this point but he was also a distinguished actor, he brought a seriousness that lent itself perfectly for parody. The Carry On films are so quotable, many of the phrases are so cemented in the English language that kids will often repeat them, not even knowing where they came from and in what context they were said. Carry On screaming had one of the best written and most quotable scripts of the lot.