I have no idea why the Scary Movies popped up on one of my view lists, but in a moment of weakness I put the first one on and actually laughed. So I went all in, and this is what I found.
Let us go back to a simpler time when people could laugh at anything, offensive jokes could be made, and people had a sense of humor about things rather than being permanently outraged.
Scary Movie (2000)
Spoof of: Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer
There’s no point summarising the plot, as it was just Scream but funny. This first entry starred Anna Faris, Jon Abrahams, Marlon Wayans, Dave Sheridan, Regina Hall, Cheri Oteri, and Shannon Elizabeth. Directed by Keenen Ivory Waynes, it was written by Shawn and Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, and Aaron Seltzer.
I don’t find Marlon Wayans all that funny, so he kind of ruined it for me. I’ve never been a stoner, so most of the jokes about that fell flat for me. Shawn Wayans is funny though and he does an excellent impression of Matthew Lillard from the original Scream.
What I did love was the jokes from other movies. It’s the little piss takes, just dropped in, that really raised a laugh like a scene where Buffy Gilmore (Elizabeth) is at a beauty pageant cribbed from I Know What You Did Last Summer.
In this version, she does a “bit” from a movie at the same time as a murder occurs, and everyone thinks she is just giving a great performance.
One thing that really stands out in Scary Movie was that the black guys who made it were comfortable making fun of black culture, and black stereotypes. . For instance, outside of the school, where a teen has been murdered, there are news crews. They pan from one to the next, the last crew is a black guy who says:
“We at a school where white people are being shot, we’re getting the **** out of here!”
I did laugh. The jokes are stupid, the comedy is slapstick, but do you know what? It’s funny!
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
Spoof of: The Haunting and The Exorcist
The cast and crew stay the same, but this time Cindy (Faris) and the gang are staying at a haunted house with Tim Curry and David Cross. They are conducting a psychic experiment and Curry is trying to get laid.
It also has Chris Elliot as Hanson and his creepy hand. I don’t recall seeing this movie before, but I have seen plenty of jokes about the hand. Some of them are funny, but other times it drags the gag out too much.
Again, Marlon Wayans is just annoying and that brings this movie down. It was just OK, but a step down from the original.
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Spoof of: Signs and The Ring
This is where things changed up a bit for the franchise. Most of the cast are back, minus Wayans, but David Zucker directs and Pat Proft and Craig Mazin write. Zucker and Proft are known for Airplane and Naked Gun. Don’t get me wrong, the Wayans brothers did an OK job, but Zucker and Proft do a great job.
This one was really funny. It has Charlie Sheen in it as the Mel Gibson character from Signs. The story is that the aliens from Signs have seen the video from The Ring and need to stop themselves from dying. It’s bloody stupid, but I did find myself laughing quite a lot.
Scary Movie 3 was also a rareity of a movie because it had Kevin Hart in it and he actually made me laugh. I’ve never found the guy funny, but there’s a moment where they spoof 8 Mile that got me.
Again, it’s not going to win any Oscars, but I found myself enjoying them a lot more than most of the crap that comes out today. I rated this one highly.
I have made it this far, and am heading into Scary Movie 4. That is a spoof of Speilberg’s War of the Worlds, a movie I re-watched recently.
The Irony Of The Spoof
Watching these movies, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of irony. The first one was a spoof of Scream, but do you know what? The characters in Scary Movie are more interesting than the ones in Scream 6. How is that possible?
I think the Scary Movie franchise was at least made with some love. Sure, they were spoofing, but they obviously loved the original material. It is like banter with friends, I’m happy for a mate to insult me, it shows we get on. I get annoyed when random strangers do it on the street though.
Scream 6, the Star Wars sequels, reboots, re-imaginings, re-whatever-the-hell-they-do-nowadays says it’s doing out of love for the original, but that’s never true. These days, they don’t care about the original, it’s all about the “message” and made for modern audiences.
Watching Scary Movie, I was far more invested in the stupid characters than I was with the ones in Scream 6. Wasn’t one of them Jenna Ortega? Who knows? Who cares? The writers don’t.
Overall
If you fancy a giggle, and even some belly laughs, give one of these an easy, undemanding watch. You might even decide to skip the first two and head straight for that third one. There are lots of “in” jokes for cinephiles, and what can be wrong with that?
I’m going to finish 4 and watch 5.
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