With Burke and Hare, John Landis has marked his return to the world of feature filmmaking. He’s kept busy the last few years, albeit not in the way his fans would prefer him to be, but still preoccupied nonetheless. However, this dark romantic comedy brings him back to the genre he once mastered. Like many of the director’s acclaimed comedies, Burke and Hare is about the unlikeliest of leads. The murdering duo (played by Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis) could easily slip into being nothing but despicable, but that has always seemed to be a fun challenge for Landis. The Blues Brothers, the Animal House gang, and so on, are not particularly “good” people. In most films, they would be the villains. Landis, on the other hand, always sets out to make them the heroes. Here’s what the personable John Landis had to say about how this isn’t his return, following antiheroes, being in the intimidating presence of Charles Bronson, and why he didn’t direct The Wolfman:

With the Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg led film Burke & Hare, John Landis appears to be fusing the two things he has done well in the past 35 years of filmmaking: silly comedy and blood-spilling horror. Based on this first trailer though, it would appear as if the pendulum is swinging more to the side of silliness than it is to violence. It certainly fits into Landis’ filmography somewhere in between the gnarly nature of An American Werewolf in London and the ridiculousness of Three Amigos, telling the true life story of William Burke and William Hare, a pair of intrepid wanderers who take to the business of collecting bodies. But when the well of fresh ones run out, they find a way to make their own. Of course, the film itself (based on this first trailer) is far sillier than the actual act of murder. If you don’t find murder to be fun, that is…

Several new images have emerged this week from the set of John Landis’ upcoming horror comedy Burke and Hare, starring Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis. The film is described as a “black romantic comedy” about two bodysnatchers in 1828 Edinburgh.

Word from Dread Central is that John Landis is returning to horror. I’m going to give everyone a second to finish howling with delight. No, that was not a werewolf joke…….yes it was.