Rating 1/10
I skipped Scary Movie in theaters, but after it became a hit, curiosity got the better of me. I rented it at home to see whether I’d misjudged it. Consider this a cautionary tale.
The Wayans family launched the Scary Movie franchise in 2000 by parodying Scream and other horror hits. After the second film, however, creative and contractual disputes pushed them out. The series continued without them with uneven results. Scary Movie 3 was actually an improvement over the second, though it didn’t top the original. The later sequels continued offering a scattershot collection of crude gags.
Now Marlon, Shawn, and Keenen Ivory Wayans have returned for what is technically Scary Movie 6, along with several familiar cast members. Their comeback is in a class of its own, and by that I mean it is absolutely wretched. It is more excessively topical and random than anything in this series. Even the worst of the earlier installments could muster an occasional laugh.
It’s hard to find a plot, but I’ll try. Ghostface, a serial killer who wears a white mask and black robe, attacks a teenager named Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif). Her older sister, Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan), rushes to the hospital with her boyfriend, Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts). Tuesday and Sara are the daughters of Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), star of the earlier films. Cindy survived the Ghostface killings years ago, along with her friends Brenda (Regina Hall), Shorty (Marlon Wayans), and Ray (Shawn Wayans). These returning characters are the franchise’s survivors.
Cindy has since become a paranoid recluse and lives in a heavily protected house filled with traps. She is also estranged from her daughter Sara, who resents her for being an absent mother. When the new Ghostface begins targeting both Cindy’s old friends and their teenage children, the survivors reunite with Sara, Tuesday, Jack, and the other younger characters. Together, they must determine who is behind the mask and stop the killer before anyone else is murdered.
This setup exists mainly to connect a disorganized assortment of gags loosely strung together in some attempt to form a story. We get parodies involving recent horror releases, celebrities, and internet trends. Anna Faris and Regina Hall do what they can with their diminished roles. Their chemistry briefly suggests the heart of the original. Whenever they appear together, I can see why audiences liked this franchise in the first place. The legacy characters offer the best moments. The new material is visually bland, abysmal stuff, perhaps the least funny entry of them all.
The screenplay believes recognition is comedy. The five credited writers (Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans, and Rick Alvarez) never find a funny angle from which to skewer pop culture; they seem to think recreating a reference is enough. For example, the account restages bits from KPop Demon Hunters, The Substance, Sinners, and Weapons. The spoof’s idea of humor amounts to asking, “Remember this picture?” Whenever it adds a punchline, the default setting is either jokes about sex or drugs.
The Weapons spoof turns frightened children into drugged-out maniacs after Brenda accidentally hands out marijuana-laced candy. The Get Out imitation sidesteps any real connection to the Jordan Peele film, devolving into a sex related gag about Shorty’s mom before ending with a psychedelic KPop Demon Hunters-style music video about getting high. The parody never considers, “What is funny about this film?” It’s just about, “What crude joke can we attach to it?”
The targets extend well beyond horror releases. The sequel relies heavily on insider internet references that will sail over the heads of anyone who doesn’t follow short-lived online trends. Twitch streamer and YouTuber Kai Cenat appears. I’m sorry, who? Use of the phrase “Hawk Tuah” assumes knowledge of a street interview that went viral in 2024. References to the “6-7” catchphrase, viral videos, pronoun discourse, and pandemic-era COVID paranoia are all tossed into the same cultural blender. This is the worst kind of humor. Perhaps these off-color jokes will register with viewers who spend their lives scrolling TikTok, but the vast majority of audiences will be confused about what, exactly, the joke is. I suspect even those chronically online won’t laugh.
The biggest irony is that Scary Movie is obsessed with staying current, but every cheap laugh feels so stale. It is a topical junk drawer overflowing with forgotten memes, recycled scenes, and sexual punchlines. The Wayans may have returned, but wit, taste, and discernment are MIA. The most frightening thing about this horror parody is that five credited writers thought the screenplay was finished. I truly hope Ghostface kills the script for Scary Movie 7.
07-23-26