Close to three decades after the original gang survived a suspiciously familiar masked killer, the truly dreadful “Scary Movie” brings Cindy (Anna Faris), Brenda (Regina Hall), Ray (Shawn Wayans), and Shorty (Marlon Wayans) back together for another round of lazy slasher spoofing. Unfortunately, the only thing this movie manages to kill is any remaining goodwill toward the franchise.
This isn’t just the worst comedy I’ve seen in years, but it is legitimately one of the worst movies I’ve ever sat through. I can count the number of genuine laughs on one hand, and even that feels generous. Most of the film stumbles from one lazy gag and lame skit to another, desperately hoping that simply referencing pop culture counts as a joke. It doesn’t.
For a sequel that clearly nobody asked for nor even wanted, it will come as no surprise that everything feels rushed, uninspired, and assembled with the bare minimum amount of effort. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a group project where everyone waited until the night before it was due and assumed somebody else would do the work. The story is a complete mess, bouncing between disconnected scenes and half-baked ideas without ever finding a rhythm. Even the return of fan favorites and the original actors feels wasted because the script gives these beloved characters almost nothing worthwhile to do.
The film attempts to parody the modern horror legacy sequel trend by taking aim at popular genre films while also throwing shots at Hollywood’s obsession with nostalgia, intellectual property, and endless reboots. In theory, that’s fertile ground for satire. In practice, the movie has nothing meaningful to say. It points at familiar targets without offering any insight beyond “hey, remember this?” The result is a spoof that feels remarkably shallow despite constantly pretending it’s making some grand statement.
The attempts at social commentary feel clunky and sad. Much of the humor revolves around tired jokes about cancel culture, pronouns, and corporate sensitivity. Rather than feeling edgy or clever, the material comes across as painfully dated and completely out of touch. The film spends so much time trying to provoke that it forgets to actually be funny, which should be the most important aspect of a comedy.
It’s not that the “Scary Movie” franchise is all that successful in making quality films in the first place. Some of the entries are funnier than others, but there isn’t really one truly great comedy in the bunch. Here, Marlon Wayans leans too heavily on cheap, juvenile gags in his script that lack the sharpness and creativity he was once capable of writing. The earlier films were often crude, but they at least had energy and a sense of comic timing. Here, the jokes just sit there, lifeless and awkward, waiting for laughs that never arrive.
I guess I’m not so much angry as I am genuinely amazed that some this lazy made it into theaters. While I didn’t walk out, I spent most of the runtime wishing I had. This sixth installment of “Scary Movie” wants to mock Hollywood’s endless recycling of old ideas but it ends up becoming the very thing it’s criticizing. This tired, unnecessary retread should have stayed buried.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 