‘Scary Movie’ review: The Wayans Brothers Spoof Spoof franchise should have been left for dead

It was about the third or fourth chapters of the franchise Scary movie and Screaminga horror satire that began as a parody, has veered so far into meta-humor that it has become narratively broken, and too self-reflexive to be of interest to anyone except teenagers busy congratulating themselves over every reference they get. Both series reached their peak early, and each achieved diminishing returns before giving up the ghost (sorry) – at least until the IP was dusted off again, for arguably gains in the event Screaming.

It’s been thirteen years since the last time Scary moviewhich meant there was a decade of horror ready to be spoofed. The problem is that that’s all this new entry offers. It reassembles the OG quartet of Marlon Wayans Shorty, Shawn Wayans Ray, Cindy Anna Faris, and Brenda Regina Hall along with next-gen additions in the form of their high school-aged offspring, plus the odd boyfriend or girlfriend. But the actors become joke machines trapped in a plot that doesn’t make sense, and while some of these gags elicit laughs, far more fall flat.

Sure, it’s fun to see familiar faces — well, not so much Dave Sheridan’s dim-witted Duffy, whose mental disability fits uncomfortably with 2026 sensibilities, no doubt intentionally — but this belated sixth installment makes a puzzling choice to return to the same overload of winking self-awareness that put the first nails in the franchise’s coffin.

There’s nothing here that even comes close to the inspiring comedy Brenda Mix has seen Shaft vibrating in love And drove the entire moviegoing audience to kill, even though Hall – who apparently borrowed Octavia Spencer’s wig from… Ma -He still gets some of the funniest lines.

both of them Screaming and Scary movie It traditionally begins with a masked villain known as Ghostface murdering famous actors in the opening minutes. Drew Barrymore was the first to feel the knife Screamingwhile Carmen Electra (who appears here briefly) takes that honor Scary movie.

Spoiler etiquette prevents me from revealing the name, but the appearance of a fast-rising star in a pre-title scene, amusingly playing off her tough guy character and belting out a war cry from the movie that earned her an Oscar nomination, gives false hope that the family screenwriting group of Marlon, Sean, Keenen, and Craig Wayans, plus Rick Alvarez, might have some new ideas up their sleeve. Since the opening shock was designed to subvert expectations, it’s a clever trick to subvert the subversion.

But it’s pretty much downhill from there. Ghostface randomly shows up after all this time to plunge his knife into the ribs of Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif), the youngest daughter of absent, alcoholic mother Cindy, who has been living without air conditioning in a heavily fortified, booby-trapped house, à la Jamie Lee Curtis in 2018. Halloween. On Tuesday, older sister Sarah (Olivia Rose Keegan) and her latest boyfriend Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts) called Cindy after a long estrangement to ask for her help in killing Ghostface. But once Cindy gets out of her castle, she realizes that her old enemy is using her children to get to her.

One of Sarah’s classmates at Woodsville High School is Brenda’s football-playing son Brad (Greg Wayans), whose voluptuous girlfriend Elle (Ruby Snooper) fills Shannon Elizabeth’s slot — prompting Brenda to make a sweet retort to her cute comments from the first film. While motherhood helped Brenda develop, it did not quite align with the heightened social awareness known as “mindfulness.” But her adorable daughter DEI (Sydney Park), who uses she/them pronouns, is always ready to correct her.

This character’s name alone is — like the return of Doofy — an indication of the glee the screenwriters take from the twisting of political correctness, cancel culture and social justice movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeTo. If only those jokes were entertaining. This kind of broad slapstick parody needs a steady stream of laugh-out-loud, but fresh, moments Scary movie He is born barely emaciated.

Cindy’s ex, Bobby (John Abrahams), also returns from the original film, at least in her confused mind; Stupid former jock turned Sheriff Greg (Lochlyn Munro), whose mutant son Jess (Penny Zielke) is part of the high school group; and TV news anchor Jill Halestorm (Chéri Oteri), who begins stalking the story once Ghostface draws new blood.

The moment everyone comes together to come up with a plan is pretty much when the story runs out of steam. Or it stops being a story. Instead, it is a series of drawings of wildly uneven quality, shown in films including… Get out, Long legs, Article, M3GAN, horrifying, He smiles, Candy man, He follows, Weapons And even Michaelthanks to Kenan Thompson, who gets a poor setup but a funny payoff.

last SNL alum, Heidi Gardner, gives a very pointed look at Detective Maika Monroe Long legs Along with Damon Wayans Jr. as Agent Underwood (geddit?). The case they’re working on revolves around a creepy, effeminate stenographer (Chris Elliott), who’s mostly saved for one of the post-credit scenes.

A good example of a hit-or-miss joke factor is two separate scene references Sinners. In the movie that worked, Sarah, Jack, and Tuesday knocked on the door during a party at Brenda’s house, asking to be invited to live with their white parents’ banjos and such. In the other, Ray hears the sounds of worship through the doors of an old country church, and enters to commune with the preacher, declaring that he is no longer gay while dropping gay connotations left and right.

One-liners or gags about Ray’s sexuality were funny in the early films because they were rarely hammered home. Or if they were like death by erect penis through a glory hole, they were kinky enough to work. Here, the laughs are beaten to death, never more so than in the final stretch when the multiple ghost faces meet.

Series debutant Michael Tidis directs competently enough, but he’s mostly up for non-stop casting (including actors from parts after the Wayans brothers were fired over a profit-sharing dispute with Miramax) and homages to other, better films. I laughed at the appearance of the car from White chicks“Tiffany. As previously mentioned in Brenda’s words as she calls Cindy John Wick, who is carrying a gun, and then explains to him: “I was going to say BallerinaBut no one saw this shit. Oftentimes, movie business humor is funnier than sketch comedy bits.

Fourth walls are broken, old tropes are deconstructed, the body count is mounting, and a joke is made about the endless supply of Wayanses willing to keep the franchise going. For the first time, this includes In living color Veterinarian Kim Wayans, has grown up as hot-tempered hospital employee Nurse Ratchet. But how many times can we quarrel with Shorty in a cloud of perennial weeds? This “rebootiquel” film, as one character refers to it, needs new inspiration and not just a lazy retread of the same old distortions if it is to have a life much beyond its opening weekend.