Scary Movie 2 (2001) Dimension/Comedy-Horror RT: 83 minutes Rated R (strong sexual and gross humor, graphic language, some drug content) Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans Screenplay: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Greg Grabianski, Dave Polsky, Michael Anthony Snowden and Craig Wayans Music: Mark McGrath Cinematography: Steven Bernstein Release date: July 4, 2001 (US) Cast: Anna Farris, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Chris Masterson, Kathleen Robertson, David Cross, James Woods, Tim Curry, Tori Spelling, Chris Elliott, Andy Richter, Richard Moll, Veronica Cartwright, Natasha Lyonne, James DeBello, Beetlejuice. Box Office: $71.3M (US)/$141.2M (World)
Rating: * ½
After the surprise success of the previous year’s horror spoof Scary Movie, the studio immediately ordered a sequel. This is where Scary Movie 2 first went wrong. Execs wanted it ready for release in July ’01 which gave the Wayans brothers less than a year to write it, film it and rush it through post in order to meet the deadline. Rush is the operative term here. It feels rushed like a term paper hurriedly written by a college student the night before it’s due. Keenen and company BS their way through the whole thing. Oh and it’s not particularly funny either. That might actually be its biggest problem.
To be fair, Scary Movie 2 starts off fine with an amusing but gross sequence spoofing The Exorcist (with a dash of Amityville Horror tossed in). A priest (Woods, Videodrome) arrives at haunted mansion Hell House to exorcise the evil spirit of the property’s original owner from a teenage girl (Lyonne, American Pie). First, he has to expel something else…. on the toilet. It falls between gags involving urination and vomit. It’s The Exorcist, figure it out. Interesting bit of trivia, the role of the priest was originally to be played by Marlon Brando but he had to bow out after one day of filming due to illness. What, did he read the script?
This time, director Keenen Ivory Wayans (I’m Gonna Git You Sucka) targets haunted house horrors like The Haunting, The Legend of Hell House and Poltergeist. Set one year after the events of the first film, the survivors of the massacre- still clueless Cindy (Faris, The House Bunny), possibly gay Ray (Shawn W., Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), sassy black girl Brenda (Hall, The Best Man) and stoner Shorty (Marlon W., Don’t Be a Menace….)- are now in college. They’re trying to get on with their lives, but you know how that usually goes in horror sequels.
They sign up for what they think is a study of sleep paralysis being conducted by Professor Oldman (Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and his paraplegic assistant (Cross, Arrested Development). It will require them to spend the weekend at….. can you guess where? That’s right, at Hell House! The sleep study is just a pretense. The professor really wants to study paranormal activity at Hell House and needs human subjects. Is doesn’t take long for the gang to be up to their necks in horror with the malevolent spirit Kane (Moll, Night Court) haunting the place.
They’re joined by a few others- Cindy’s wannabe boyfriend Buddy (Masterson, Malcolm in the Middle), bitchy hot girl Theo (Robertson, Nowhere) and socially awkward Alex (Spelling, Beverly Hills 90210). Kane isn’t the scariest presence at Hell House. That would be the butler Hanson (Elliott, Cabin Boy), a repulsive creep with a deformed hand and no concept of how to properly handle food. He is easily one of the most disgusting movie characters ever conceived. He’s worse than Deputy Doofy from SM1. Try to imagine Riff Raff (from Rocky Horror) as a serial killer. Do you have a mental picture? Good, now erase it from your mind. You don’t want that image staying in your head.
Wayans once again takes pot shots at several movies. Here are but a few: Titanic, Save the Last Dance, Dude, Where’s My Car, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, The Changeling, Twister, Paulie, What Lies Beneath, Final Destination, Mission: Impossible II, Hollow Man, Charlie’s Angels, Hannibal and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It also goofs on the iconic Nike “Freestyle” commercial with the NBA players dribbling a basketball. It’s a lot, but it results in very little.
What is there to say about the acting? Is it even a consideration here? The cast does the best they can do with substandard material. Faris is comically gifted. It’s always cool to see Tim Curry. Marlon earns a few half-hearted chuckles as an addle-brained stoner. Woods is fine, but I can’t help but think what it would have been like to see Brando in the role. Spelling simply can’t act. That’s about it.
So now we come to the part of the review where I talk about spoofs being hit or miss. Scary Movie 2 misses more than it hits by a substantial margin. It starts off amusing, but gradually goes downhill until it hits rock bottom. I reached a point where I stopped chuckling and started rubbing my temples. It hurts at times because it’s so funny. You can practically smell the stress sweat coming off the screen. Wayans and family (and others) try but fail to recreate the fun, effortless spirit of the first movie. I can’t believe it took seven writers to come up with this.
To its credit, Scary Movie 2 isn’t the worst entry in the series. It comes in second to Scary Movie 5, the absolute nadir of the franchise. Thankfully, I still have my old review of it so there’s no need to revisit. More good news, I never have to suffer through the frighteningly awful Scary Movie 2 again.
