REVIEW: 'Scary Movie' is the 'mid' in the Wayans' midlife crisis
When the first Scary Movie hit screens in 2000, it reinvigorated the then-floundering big-screen parody genre, which had seen the previous decade go from the relative highs of Hot Shots, Loaded Weapon, and Leslie Nielsen’s Naked Gun sequels, to the lows of, well, pretty much anything else Nielsen did that decade (Spy Hard or Wrongfully Accused, anyone?). Even Mel Brooks, who’d arguably kickstarted the genre years earlier, with Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, had seemingly run out of steam, with Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It receiving mixed receptions.
Released in 2000, Scary Movie was directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, from a script co-written by his brothers Marlon and Shawn, with its parodic sights set on Wes Craven’s Scream (1996). Where Scream had revived the slasher genre through an inspired blend of meta humor and brutal kills, Scary Movie would unleash the Wayans’ brand of raw, unfiltered humor on a mass audience. Leveraging the skills the siblings had honed on their popular In Living Color sketch show (which also introduced Jim Carrey to the world), Scary Movie was a full-on hit, elevating the Wayans’ box office clout, while making a star of lead actor Anna Farris (The House Bunny).
While studio pressure to rush Scary Movie 2 into production almost immediately after the first film’s success would fracture the Wayans’ relationship with Miramax, it would disintegrate completely over a pay dispute while prepping for the third. The less said about the Wayans-less Scary Movies 3 through 5, the better; suffice it to say, when they left, the series’ identity went with them.
Until now.
The sixth Scary Movie opens with the attempted murder of Sara Campbell’s (Olivia Rose Keegan, Swiped) younger sister by Ghostface, leading her to seek out her estranged mother, Cindy (Farris) for help. Emerging from self-imposed exile, Cindy and Sara are joined by familiar faces from Cindy’s past, including Brenda (Regina Hall, Girls Trip), Shorty (Marlon Wayans), and Ray (Shawn Wayans), along with –in true legacy sequel fashion—a new crop of teenagers for Ghostface to pick off.
Intended as a grand return for the Wayans’ brand of irreverent, politically incorrect comedy, Scary Movie fails to make much of an impact, with its much hyped, “line-crossing” humor hitting about as hard as a wet tissue on concrete. While humor is, of course, subjective, there was probably no way the script from the Wayans brothers (who are now all in their 50s and 60s) was ever going to be as transgressive as what they did a quarter century ago. Sure, there are (ostensibly offensive) jokes about woke culture, COVID-19, and the LGBTQ+ community, but they’re so tame and uninspired that you’ll feel embarrassed for the filmmakers.
Now, it would be bad enough if the jokes were just lame and/or overly reliant on references for the sake of references (when most of your punchlines are, “Hey, do you remember this?”, you know you’re in trouble), but the film makes the cardinal sin of sidelining Farris and Hall for much of the middle portion, in favor of nonsense like an unrelated spoof of Longlegs (with NONE of the main cast) that runs for so long, it spills into the end credits.
While no one would ever claim the original was groundbreaking, it was the right film at the right time for a generation raised on postmodern sarcasm and all-around irreverence. Twenty-six years later, its sequel is a near-total misfire, despite being released when—if some are to be believed—it should be easier to offend people than at any other time in recent memory. Amusingly, the Wayans have been proclaiming to anyone within earshot that this film would prove the viability of offensive humor, and finally allow them to make White Chicks 2. Uh-huh, sure. While Scary Movie will probably make money on brand recognition alone, it won’t be because it did anything remotely shocking or revolutionary.
The best parodies are those that have something to say about their source, while being funny enough on their own to entertain those unfamiliar with what’s being referenced. When you build a parody on nothing but references, well, you end up with the dreck that killed the genre in the 2010s (Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, et. al.) and, well, Scary Movie. There are literally three good jokes in this movie, and they’re not enough to save it.
What we have here is a sad attempt to recapture the highs of the first (and arguably only good) Scary Movie, but neither the script nor the director (Michael Tiddes, Fifty Shades of Black) have the chops to do anything beyond superficial pop culture references and half-hearted attempts to offend the audience. The film is perhaps best encapsulated by the sight of a now-53-year-old Marlon Wayans mugging for the camera as resident stoner Shorty, doing literally the same schtick he did all those years ago, and you realize it’s not even a mid-life crisis—it’s just mid.
Disclaimer: PhilSTAR L!fe was given a free ticket to the premiere of Scary Movie.