The Wayans brothers are back and making up for quite a lot of lost time in Scary Movie, the sixth installment in the spoof series they created but were stripped from after Scary Movie 2. The dearth of Scary Movies over the last decade has provided endless fodder for the series originators’ return, ensuring a super-sized reboot so packed with movie references that it frequently crowds out its talent.
Just as the original Scary Movie (2000) structured its over-the-top parody primarily around 1996’s Scream, the new Scary Movie largely follows 2022’s Scream for its narrative thrust as it reunites the original “core four.”
Since we last caught up with the franchise’s MVPs, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) has gone full Laurie Strode hermit, complete with a booby-trapped house and familial estrangement. Regina Hall’s Brenda Meeks channels Ma as a suburban mom desperate to befriend her kids and their friends, and time has changed absolutely nothing for Ray (Shawn Wayans), who remains locked in his sexuality struggle. Perma-stoner Shorty (Marlon Wayans) remains trapped in high school, making him an excellent bridge between generations as Ghostface returns to slaughter.
At the forefront of the new gen cast is Olivia Rose Keegan, whose incredible emulation of Anna Faris’ mannerisms and ticks makes her a perfect choice to play Sara, Cindy’s estranged daughter. Sara and her sister, the Wednesday-like Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif), drive what semblance of plot there is forward, but this is not a vehicle for storytelling.
Director Michael Tiddes and screenwriters Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House) aim solely for laughs with a relentless revolving door of crude humor and parody hijinks from a bygone era, set to a modern horror mixtape.
Tiddes and crew take a kitchen sink approach, leaving absolutely no pop culture stone unturned in its skewering. Scary Movie even turns in on itself, poking fun at its past while scratching that nostalgic itch with a litany of franchise cameos.
It’s too much. Scary Movie is so stuffed to the gills that it keeps lampooning through the end credits, though at least it ends on a strong note (I’d like to buy a ticket to Brosferatu, please). This reboot falls into a frenzied rhythm so densely packed that the humor instead becomes sensory overload, unhelped by the hit-or-miss humor. Editor Jonathan Schwartz works overtime, cramming in every reference, homage, spoof, and movie nod possible into the brisk 95-minute runtime, making for a madcap sprint that leaves you exhausted.
The anarchic spirit of Scary Movie leaves little room for insight or perspective; this reboot never gets as outrageous or as offensive as it intends because much of its humor is empty. There’s no insight or aim for a lot of the gags, making the comedy less reliable.
I keep hammering on the overcrowding of parody here because Regina Hall and Anna Faris remain the series’ biggest assets alongside its beating heart: Marlon Wayans. They still elicit the biggest laughs, and Scary Movie is at its most winsome when the camera lingers just long enough to catch small character moments and comedic choices that demonstrate why each has endured so long in this business.
In short, Scary Movie could’ve used way more of them and scaled back in the sheer volume of joke topics. Save some of the fun for the inevitable sequel. Parodies tend to live or die by their humor, and mileage will most certainly vary here, and Scary Movie simply wants to deliver an entertaining time. I can’t say that a lot of it landed for me, but the energy of original creators returning to the franchise they began, and with such passionate gusto, is felt.
Scary Movie is now playing in theaters.
