Can the Wayans Bros. Remember to Put the “Scary” Back in the ‘Scary Movie’ Series?
When Scary Movie hits theaters later this week, audiences and critics will pass a verdict on whether its comedy lives up to the standard set by the 2000 original. Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, Scary Movie pioneered the modern spoof genre with its brazenly irreverent attitude, copious gross-out humor, willingness to cross red lines, and habit of cramming as many movie parodies as possible into its plot.
While other spoofs had tepidly dipped their toes in this water before Scary Movie, the Wayans Bros. classic stood out by being genuinely funny — and, by grossing $278 million on a $19 million budget, a monster box office hit.
Yet there is one other aspect of Scary Movie that does not receive enough attention, and it is a quality I suspect the new film will also be judged on: Is it actually, literally scary?
You’d think this would be obvious for a film titled Scary Movie, but the new installment (directed by Michael Tiddes) still needs to live up to that standard. The first Scary Movie succeeded in large part because, despite its throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach to spoofing, it also focused on emulating the plots of two late-’90s horror hits: Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Both of those movies were slasher thrillers, relying on both the mystery of figuring out the villain’s identity and the horror of wondering who will die next — and then having that question answered.
Even while mocking its inspirations, Scary Movie was shrewd enough to still channel these elements of being frightening into its own story. We get to know memorable characters, who, despite their vulgarity, evoke a surprising amount of sympathy, such as Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), Shorty Meeks (Marlon Wayans), Doofy Gilmore (Dave Sheridan), Greg Phillippe (Lochlyn Munro), and Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri). When they face ostensible peril or are revealed to have unexpected pasts, we are genuinely invested in what happens. I doubt it’s a coincidence that each of those characters reappears in Scary Movie, which ignores most of the other Scary Movie sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 2000 original and its sequel.
Sure, some of those characters died in the first movie, which raises questions about how they reappear here. Then again, being a spoof, Scary Movie is under no obligation to answer those questions, as it indeed refrained from doing so with some of these characters in the subsequent Scary Movie sequels. But this is beside the point: Scary Movie works because of the visceral experience of sitting through it and holds up incredibly well to this day, just as much for being genuinely scary as for its barrier-busting, taboo-defying comedy.
Nor is Scary Movie alone in this distinction. Shaun of the Dead (2004), despite spoofing zombie films like Dawn of the Dead (1978), is a bona fide zombie classic in its own right, standing the test of time with both clever gags, poignant character moments, and memorably terrifying action sequences. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) abandoned the comparatively serious approach of its predecessor in order to satirize sequels in general, yet it, too, remembers to include frightening sequences that stick in one’s memory.
For further proof, simply look at the other Wayans-helmed horror spoofs. In advance of this article, I rewatched Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2 (2001), A Haunted House (2013), and A Haunted House 2 (2014). Notably, Scary Movie 2 was also directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, and the two Haunted House films were directed by Michael Tiddes. While Scary Movie 2 was still funny and contained an occasional effective jump scare (including a great one at Tim Curry’s expense), it fell flat compared to its predecessor.
As for the Haunted House series, all I can say is that I hope Tiddes has developed a Wayans-esque sense of humor and horror pacing since those installments, which are as dull and predictable as actual home camera footage. If there is any reason to feel dread about Scary Movie 6 — and I mean dread about its quality, not the kind of dread you want in a frightening film — it comes from the notion that it might feel like a third Haunted House movie.
Despite this potential red flag, I remain optimistic about the newer movie. Much like the 2018 Halloween sequel, which ignored all installments except the 1978 original and can now serve as a fantastic companion to it as a double feature, I hope the 2026 Scary Movie film can one day be watched back-to-back with its 2000 predecessor. For that to work, though, it will need to put the “scary” back into Scary Movie.
Categorized:Editorials