'Scary Movie' Review: A Dated And Underwhelming Return
After laying dormant for over a decade, the beloved spoof franchise is back, not only in theaters, but in the hands of the wayans brothers once again. Unfortunately, ‘Scary Movie’ is a dated, deeply underwhelming return for the comedy series.
‘Scary Movie’ reunites audiences with Cindy (Anna Faris), Brenda (Regina Hall), Shorty (Marlon Wayans), Ray (Shawn Wayans) and Doofy (Dave Sheridan) when the masked killer they encountered twenty six years ago returns to terrorize their town once more. As with any instalment in the franchise, that setup is simply the foundation to poke fun at a litany of horror hits, this time films like ‘Get Out’, ‘Weapons’, and ‘Sinners’ being just a few of the Wayans’ prime targets. While there were countless horror films ripe for the picking since the franchise’s last entry, the results here are scattershot to say the least.
It’s great to see the returning cast here, this core group able to maintain and revive their easygoing chemistry and comedic energy. It’s especially fun to see Faris back in fine form, slipping into the lovably ditzy shoes of Cindy once more, who has slowly morphed in Jamie Lee Curtis in the more recent ‘Halloween’ films, now secluded in a house littered with booby traps with a fractured relationship with her daughter to boot. Speaking of her daughter Keegan, Olivia Rose plays her to absolute perfection, delivering a pitch-perfect Faris impression as she carves her own singular comedic path. Their scenes together are some of the best in the film, the two playing off one another wonderfully. Wayans’ return as Shorty is also endearingly nostalgic, the actor clearly overjoyed to return to the character after all these years. The entire cast seems ecstatic to be back and their enthusiasm is infectious, even if the laughs are not.
The film’s overall visual look and aesthetic is also quite impressive, the thirty five million dollar budget certainly put to good use. By leaps and bounds, this is easily the best looking and most cinematic of the installments in the franchise, Terry Stacey’s cinematography taking some of the gags and more action heavy set pieces to the next level with some much needed visual panache. One set piece in particular, a clear homage to the ‘John Wick’ films, is especially well done, the camerawork and lighting used to great effect to sell the parody effectively. He’s even able to make the film look and feel like the fifth entry in the ‘Scream’ franchise, the film this comedy is clearly mocking and embracing the framework of.
However, where the film truly falters is with the parody and comedy which simply doesn’t work here. While it’s lovely to see the Wayans back behind the wheel of the series after losing creative control following the second film, their humor simply feels far too dated for its own good. They seem too preoccupied trying to poke fun and take jabs at every horror film, pop culture moment and hot button topic of the past decade that they’re just thoughtlessly throwing every dart they have at the board here, barely able to make anything stick, let alone hit the comedic bullseye. While there are a handful of inspired visual gags and jokes, the vast majority of them fall flat with an audible thud, resulting in a comedy that is not only quite unfunny, but boring to watch frankly. If the Wayans narrowed their focus and selected just a handful of recent horror hits to bite into while they parodied the recent Scream reboot/sequel, the jokes could’ve been sharpened and refined with the comedy feeling less like a series of loosely connected sketches and more like a fun, irreverent film with more connective narrative tissue.
The humor also feels glaringly dated, leaning far too heavily into lazy, uninspired jokes about sex, race, politics and homophobia to name just a few. It feels as if the Wayans are still in that early 2000s comedy mentality, trying to hearken back to the humor of the first two films to please longtime fans. However, that kind of comedy doesn’t remotely play anymore, now feeling more cringey than charming. It also doesn’t help that the film is trying with all its might to be edgy and timely, but it never registers as either, ultimately feeling surprisingly safe and behind the curve all things considered.
‘Scary Movie’ will most likely please devoted fans of the series, but those who have never embraced the franchise in the past won’t have the needle moved for them in the slightest. While it has its moments and the cast is still a delight to watch, this sixth installment fails to be funny or timely, resulting in a sequel that wastes boundless comedic potential as it makes it abundantly clear that this series should’ve stayed at rest. While it’s great to see a comedy hit theaters instead of being relegated to streaming like most are, audiences deserves much better than this.