After three weeks of fresh, original concepts taking moviegoers by storm, here comes Hollywood to churn another franchise back to life. It seems fitting that as Neve Campbell returns to Scream, Paramount also dusts off the Scary Movie series. In a nod to that franchise, Scary Movie drops the number 6 from its refresh, although Scary MoVIe was right there. Recalling the discussions around Halloween (2018), Marlon Wayans is also asking people to ignore the last three Scary Movies. While that may seem odd, it’s not without basis. Miramax and Harvey Weinstein locked the Wayans brothers (Keenen Ivory, Marlon, and Shawn) out of the creative process of those films after the filmmakers requested a pay increase commensurate with the success of Scary Movie 1 & 2.
He had to wait 25 years, but Marlon got the keys back to Scary Movie. Why bother, you might ask? Wayans was fantastic in Him. While that film didn’t find its audience, Wayans’ performance was a reminder that the guy who broke your heart in Requiem for a Dream is still in there. Yet there’s undeniably a pull for him to make these types of movies with both friends and family.
The writing committee is Marlon, his brothers, and Rick Alvarez, with Michael Tiddes (Haunted House 1 and 2) directing. With this resurgence comes some house cleaning. No more PG-13 rating. No more Seltzer/Friedberg (the duo who butchered parodies from 2008-2015), either. But Shorty (Marlon Wayans) and Ray (Shawn Wayans) are back onscreen, as are Cindy (Anna Faris) and Brenda (Regina Hall). The latter two are a welcome sight after they dropped out of Scary Movie 5. Faris and Hall can mine laughs out of the thinnest material, and have proved it over and over again. But teenagers coming of age made those original movies a hit. Could that same audience make this new comedy a success, too?
Scary Movie’s marketing has focused purely on the idea that it will offend you. Having now watched the film, that’s overstated. The they/them joke in the trailer got a lot of editorial play, but it’s not the defining tone of Scary Movie. Marlon Wayans’ views are on the subject are much more nuanced. Viewers attuned to the goings-on at Paramount would find it easy to see why their PR department would latch onto that specific bit, though. The culture war is highly profitable for Paramount, and David Ellison would like to smash that button as often as possible. It would seem the thesis of Scary Movie is that “you can’t say things like that anymore,” but here they are, doing the things that “they” won’t let you do these days. It’s tough to claim you’ve been silenced when you’re screaming at the audience in a wide-release movie during summer blockbuster season.
But once they’ve got your attention, they run with it. Wayans and Co. cut to the chase right away. The film begins with an A-list prologue (shout-out to Teyana Taylor) that rivals the better openings of the series. The cast fully commits to slapstick in a way you don’t see anymore. With the exception of the Naked Gun reboot, I haven’t seen actors willing to hurt themselves this much for a laugh in a while.
Marlon Wayans isn’t satisfied with only playing the hits, however. He wants to include every missed opportunity that was unavailable to the team since 2001. Only the terminally online will get every reference. Parodies reflect modern culture, but jokes aimed at The Substance or Longlegs will likely go over the average viewer’s head. I’ve seen both films, but the idea that a broader audience will connect to the material is a stretch. Some references to hits like Sinners and Smile feel stronger because of the reverence for those titles. Mel Brooks’ parodies of Westerns and B-movies always felt more genuine than Spaceballs.
Following a pretty linear first half, the film goes for broke, dropping riff after riff. And while that pacing in comedy is commendable, it also feels like a barrage. The audience can’t help but check out during the disjointed stream of references. One repeated compliment about the first two films is that the story drove the jokes. Here, references are made for their own sake. Whatever is missing in terms of quality, the film offers in a glut of quantity. They throw everything at the wall, even some misjudged Gen Alpha humour (six-seven). By the time the group starts riffing on Michael, K-Pop Demon Hunters, and time travel, Scary Movie goes completely off the rails.
Making matters worse, the film winks a bit too much about how unoriginal the film industry is. Hollywood never turns down an opportunity to be self-referential, but can you keep going back to that well when you’re making the sixth entry in a movie series? I’ll give the film credit, though; the killer reveal is much better here than in Scream 7.
One of the most interesting recurring themes here is the idea of stolen authorship. References to sequels where a new generation takes over from legacy characters are dismissed out of hand. Scream’s handling of Neve Campbell and David Arquette did not go unnoticed. “F_ck them, kids. This is our franchise.” Having lost a creation for decades, it’s clear that the loss still stings for the Wayans family. And they’re hoping for more bites at the apple in future films. The enthusiasm is clearly there; I just wish the story were a little more structured. Too much of Scary Movie feels like endlessly scrolling through TikTok to find a skit you like.
That said, people clearly missed seeing the Wayans, Anna Faris, and Regina Hall onscreen. The nostalgia of reuniting with a beloved cast can save a lot. But the humour leaves something wanting. Scary Movie brings all the energy in the world, but it can’t force people to laugh.
Scary Movie arrives in theatres on June 5
