Editorials
Looking Back on Horror Spoof ‘Scary Movie’ Twenty Years Later
I have a confession to make. While I’m a huge Scream fan, owning all of the movies and even having crafted a homemade Ghostface costume for Halloween partying purposes, my first contact with the horror-obsessed killer wasn’t actually through a Wes Craven film. In all honesty, I have to admit that the first time I laid eyes on Fun World’s iconic costume design was in the infamous 2000 parody flick, Scary Movie.
I used to be ashamed of this fact after falling in love with horror, but 20 years later I’ve come to realize that I’m probably not the only one to have seen the parody before the original. In fact, despite the uneven quality, I’m now certain that Scary Movie and its subsequent sequels are responsible for introducing thousands of non-horror-fans to classic genre tropes and iconography in a “safe” comedic environment. If you think about it, this franchise probably acted as a gateway drug for some folks that had never given real scary movies a chance.
It’s easy to look back on these films and judge them as a shameful product of early 2000s humor, but the fact is that these parodies were huge back in the day, and whether you liked them or not, they helped shape the future of both horror and comedy throughout that decade. Hell, if you really look into it, it’s likely that Scary Movie contributed to the untimely death of several silly trends in mainstream horror, with many studios upping the gore and “seriousness” of their productions in an effort to distance themselves from these parodies. So, at the very least, I think we can agree that these movies were culturally significant.
The idea of a Scream spoof was actually pitched by Miramax themselves, wanting to capitalize on the runaway success of Craven’s franchise with both existing fans and folks who might prefer comedy over thrills. Even at the time, horror parodies weren’t exactly a novel idea, with classics like Young Frankenstein and the Abbot and Costello crossovers proving that the formula could be immensely popular, so a team of writers was soon hired to bring the project to life.
Due to a WGA dispute, a baffling total of six writers were credited with the creation of Scary Movie (with the name referencing Scream‘s original working title), but the finished film was really a product of the Wayans brothers, who also co-produced the picture. Keenen Ivory Wayans directed the project while Shawn & Marlon Wayans co-wrote it alongside Buddy Johnson and Phil Beauman, with the team skyrocketing to fame once the end product became a box-office hit. In fact, Scary Movie was notable for being the highest-grossing film directed by an African-American at the time, paving the way for the Wayans’ future productions.
It doesn’t get any more 90s than this.
The film itself was a rather vulgar retelling of the first Scream, with some elements from I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Usual Suspects thrown in for good measure. The always-lovable Anna Farris stars as “Cindy Campbell” (our stand-in for Sidney Prescott), who realizes that she’s being stalked by a goofier incarnation of Ghostface. A lot of violent slapstick and extremely dated 90s references ensue as Cindy and her ill-fated friends race against time and attempt to discover the killer’s secret identity, recreating iconic horror scenes along the way.
I may have grown up as a Scary Movie enthusiast, but I’ll be the first to admit that the film (and its sequels) haven’t aged all that well. A lot of the jokes fall flat and some are downright offensive even for the time. The movie also has an annoying habit of thinking that it’s smarter than the horror flicks that it’s parodying, with unfair jabs at the genre that feel like a precursor to the recent online trend of mistaking nitpicking for legitimate criticism. Hell, I’ve met folks who point to the Scary Movie franchise as the reason why they don’t enjoy horror films, claiming that they’re easy to make fun of because they’re all dumb and formulaic.
If you can overlook these obvious flaws (though I won’t hold it against you if you can’t), Scary Movie still kind of works as a nostalgic time capsule of late 90s to early 2000s humor while still ultimately feeling like a loving homage to the horror genre. At the end of the day, there’s no denying that the unique humor on display here has its charms.
The likable cast is largely responsible for making this endeavor work, with Regina Hall‘s snarky comebacks and Anna Farris’ deadpan reactions getting me every time. The actors’ commitment to translating cartoonish antics to real life through exaggerated slapstick and absurd logic is truly commendable, even if these efforts are hampered by some uninspired writing and inept criticism of scary movie tropes.
Critics might not have been crazy about the movie at the time (though Roger Ebert of all people gave the film a positive review), but audiences absolutely ate it up, resulting in an astounding $278 million pull at the box office on a $19 million budget. Naturally, a sequel was greenlit immediately, though the studio insisted on a tight schedule in order to release the new film the following year.
Great cast… and that’s about it.
Scary Movie 2 ended up being completed in under 9 months, and it unfortunately shows. There’s still a lot to like about this sequel, especially considering that they kept most of the cast and crew (even dead characters inexplicably make a comeback, which is sort of a running joke in the franchise), but the lack of a solid structure and memorable antagonist makes it decidedly less fun. If you enjoy haunted-house and exorcism movies, you’ll probably get a kick out of this entry, but the rushed script and low production value make it a vastly inferior product to the first movie.
Even so, Scary Movie 2 was a considerable box-office success and the franchise went on to produce several more sequels. Personally, I stopped enjoying them after the third one (which is still lots of fun and also benefits from the comedic stylings of the legendary Leslie Nielsen), but the horror parody craze never really stopped. We may remember this kind of movie as a decidedly “2000s” thing, but the last Scary Movie sequel came out only seven years ago, and was soon succeeded by other series like the Haunted House films. It’s only recently that producers have stopped churning out these parodies, as audiences became tired of a schtick that began in 2000.
Despite the questionable humor and a few misunderstandings regarding the horror genre, I still think Scary Movie is worth revisiting as a curious product of its time. I’m pretty sure that the franchise introduced horror to a lot of folks that might not have dipped their toes into the genre otherwise, so I’ll always be grateful for the laughs we had along the way. It may just be nostalgia on my end, but even 20 years later, gags like “Just chilling, killing” and main characters getting inexplicably run over at the end of the movie still manage to tickle my funny-bone.
While I wouldn’t hope for a franchise comeback at this point, I do think that modern audiences would appreciate a decent horror spoof if it was made with genuine affection for the source material. We’re in the midst of a horror renaissance, so it would be fun to see a comedic take on modern classics like Hereditary or even the Conjuring franchise. After all, even if these movies aren’t for everyone, they could once again introduce iconic locations and characters to a brand new audience.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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