You would think that when you turn in two films within a year’s time that manage to gross almost $400 million against a combined budget of $60, you’d have any studio’s good graces on your side. That is unless you’re Marlon Wayans (“White Chicks,” “Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood”), Shawn Wayans (“White Chicks,” “Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood”), or Kennan Ivory Wayans (“In Living Color,” “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”), who were promptly fired from the third “Scary Movie” by the Weinstein brothers after doing just that. Now, almost 25 years after their last entry in the series, they’ve succeeded in reobtaining the rights to their beloved parody franchise back for a sixth entry. Can they make good use of their reacquired darling?
Set 26 years after the first film, this new “Scary Movie” follows Cindy Campbell, played by Anna Faris (“The House Bunny,” “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs”), as she reunites with her longtime friends Brenda Meeks, played by Regina Hall (“The Best Man,” “Support the Girls”), Shorty Meeks, played by Marlon, and Ray Wilkins, played by Shawn, as they attempt to thwart a new Ghostface masked killer who has begun to target their children, as well as other returning characters from the first film such as reporter Gail Hailstorm, played by Cheri Oteri (“Saturday Night Live,” “Sit Down, Shut Up”), and special officer Doofy Gilmore, played by Dave Sheridan (“Ghost World,” “Frank McKlusky, C.I.”).
There’s certainly reason to celebrate this latest entry in the beloved parody franchise. It’s always nice to see the original team return to a series they were unceremoniously evicted from, and that original team is where much of the fun from the film comes from. Faris and Hall are simply wonderful anytime they’re on screen together. Their real-life friendship bleed through each of their scenes, and it makes each moment with them the best parts of the film. Marlon has certainly slipped right back into Shorty’s “high as a kite” persona, which somehow manages to be even more over the top than even Seth Rogen’s most exaggerated stoner characters. Shawn is more subdued in general, but the only defining characteristic of Ray being his Pepe Le Pew levels of obsession with his male lovers gets old very quickly.
Ray’s character is the perfect place to start, as much of the film can be described in the same way as him: dated and overexaggerated. In the first “Scary Movie,” his affluent nature and coming out was meant to poke fun at the homoerotic undertones of the killers in the first “Scream” film. Now, his reintroduction here is an extended sequence of him proclaiming that he doesn’t like men anymore while mimicking fellatio and exaggerated descriptions of the male figure. It’s a joke and archetype that not only felt played out two decades ago, but they’ve managed to retread it with no additional insight or humor. Marlan, Shawn, Keenan, and additional writers Craig Wayans (“Dance Flick,” “My Wife and Kids”) and Rick Alvarez (“A Haunted House,” “Fifty Shades of Black”) get plenty of mileage out of doing just that: bringing up a concept, overplaying it, and then assuming that’s all the joke needs.
Take, for example, the film’s moment meant to poke fun at the “Terrifier” franchise. A flashback sees a much younger version of Cindy’s daughter meeting Santa, who happens to be Art the Clown from the “Terrifier” franchise, who gives her a severed arm as a Christmas gift. Beyond the cheapness of the fake body part, there’s no insight or commentary on “Terrifier” using the scene. It’s just there because it's a thing the audience knows and is modern horror iconography, so it must be mentioned in the newest “Scary Movie.” This is how much of the film’s humor goes, pointing at a thing to remind the audience it exists without providing any additional insight.
To those wondering why one might expect such from this franchise, it's because that’s what the first film did. The original “Scary Movie” actually had some insights and provided some observations on the newly pseudo-satirical takes on the teen slasher genre popularized in the 90s. Yes, it also had fart and weed jokes, but it did manage to make some light critiques within the material. While this latest film once again takes aim at a recent “Scream” film, this time the 2022 release, it simply recreates the plot without actually offering any new observations.
That isn’t to say there isn’t anything funny about the film. Rather, when things go fully into the absurd, that’s when the material does shine. A sequence in the middle of the film poking at “Get Out” and, of all things, “KPop Demon Hunters” is certainly one of the most memorable moments, and virtually the entire third act does maintain a high level of absurdity. It also bears repeating that, when you have moments centered around Faris and Hall, they can work to elevate even the dumbest of dumb humor to something chuckle worthy. That third act combines both of those elements into something that is truly more meta and self-effacing than any “Scream” film has even attempted. It’s a shining moment of brashness from the Wayans and you’d wish the rest of the film had even a faction of its chutzpa. At least it lacks the cheapness of director Michael Tiddes’s (“A Haunted House,” “Fifty Shades of Black”) other films, or of “Scary Movie 3,” “4,” and “5.”
There are a good 20 minutes in the middle of this 95-minute movie where things grind to a halt and feature a collection of what are essentially skits without any of the main characters present. This seems to be where the screenplay was left purposefully blank to simply shoot a bunch of additional material a month before the film’s release to be as current as possible. It certainly is recent, but it's still just pointing at known things. The film isn’t even consistent on what things it points at: indie horror darlings like “Terrifier” and “The Substance” get segments, but a fellow cult horror film like “It Follows” is pointed out as being too “obscure” for a moment in the film.
At the risk of giving the film more time than it deserves, the politics at play in the humor are also just fascinatingly bizarre. There are consistent digs at Fox News, an extended bit involves the Epstein files, and Cindy’s first scene with Brenda involves her pointing out how she’s a Republican and therefore must now hate black people. But the film then also has its myriads of gay jokes, one of Brenda’s children is named DEI, one of the main young teen cast is a transgender boy with numerous jokes directed at him, and the central joke in the trailer and third act involves someone being misgendered after a stabbing, leading to them being stabbed even more. It feels remarkably confused and like the writers simply grabbed a collection of jokes out of a hat and threw them into a blender, shooting them all off at the wall with reckless abandon.
While the franchise is likely critic proof, given the $100 million global opening weekend against its $30 million budget, it's worth noting how far this film has fallen from the Wayans' previous works in the franchise. What went from two films poking fun at the horror genre, with specific tropes and examples in its crosshairs, has turned into yet another skit-based, referential, pop culture slog of a comedy. Moments of genius do exist, such as anything featuring Anna Faris or Regina Hall and whenever the film barrels into the truly bizarre and absurd. But you’d be slogging through an awful lot of worse material to get there. The Wayans and co. might be “crossing every line” as the marketing says, but they’re not walking; they’re dragging themselves across half dead. 1.5/5
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