{"id":14311,"date":"2026-04-16T13:37:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14311"},"modified":"2026-04-16T13:37:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:37:57","slug":"scary-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/04\/16\/scary-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Scary Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Scary Movie<\/strong> (2000)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dimension\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Kitay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Francis Kenny\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 7, 2000 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, Jon Abrahams, Dave Sheridan, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans, Shannon Elizabeth, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Kurt Fuller, Carmen Electra, Rick Ducommun, Jayne Trcka, Kelly Coffield, David L. Lander, Andrea Nemeth, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Tanja Reichert.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $157M (US)\/$278M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve seen so many failed spoofs in my career that I cringe whenever a new one makes its way into cinemas. I am forever traumatized by the crimes against comedy (and cinema in general) perpetrated by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (e.g. Disaster Movie, Vampires Suck). There is nothing more unbearable than a comedy completely devoid of laughs. It\u2019s like having root canal without anesthesia.<\/p>\n

\u00a0We can all agree that 1980\u2019s Airplane! is the greatest spoof ever made. No others have reached the delirious heights of the disaster movie take-off conceived by Team ZAZ. A few have come close. One of them is Scary Movie<\/strong>, a very crude and very funny send-up of horror movies, Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer in particular. The title is especially meaningful. Scary Movie was the working title of Scream; it was changed by executive producer\/Miramax head Bob Weinstein who was concerned audiences would think Wes Craven\u2019s self-aware slasher was a straight-up comedy. When it came time to make a spoof, there was only one good title and it wasn\u2019t Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th<\/sup> (which came out the same year).<\/p>\n

\u00a0If it matters, here\u2019s a rundown of the plot. One year after a group of teens accidentally kill a guy while joyriding, a masked killer is stalking the student bodies of B.A. Corpse High. He starts by going after Drew Decker (media personality Carmen Electra) in her home and continuing from there. Future final girl Cindy Campbell (Faris in her debut role) fears for her life as well as those of her friends, boyfriend Bobby Prinze (Abrahams, Outside Providence), bestie Brenda Meeks (Hall, The Best Man), her boyfriend Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans, Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), popular mean girl Buffy Gilmore (Elizabeth, American Pie), jock bully Greg Phillippe (Munro, Dead Man on Campus) and stoner Shorty (Marlon Wayans, Don’t Be a Menace…). They\u2019re convinced somebody knows what they did last summer. It\u2019s enough to make them scream.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director Keenen Ivory Wayans (I\u2019m Gonna Git You Sucka) targets quite a few films in Scary Movie<\/strong>. In addition to the two I mentioned earlier, he zaps The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix and The Usual Suspects. He also includes nods to genre classics like Psycho, The Exorcist, Halloween, The Shining, Friday the 13th<\/sup> and Candyman. Of course, no spoof is complete without a few random pop culture gags. So it is we get references to Baywatch, Dawson\u2019s Creek and a certain Budweiser commercial (\u201cWHASSUP!!!\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The last time I saw Scary Movie <\/strong>was in 2001 when I bought the video at a flea market. I\u2019m rewatching it (and the others) now in anticipation of the new installment coming out in June. It\u2019s still as funny as I remember. It\u2019s also as crude and vulgar as I remember. It works overtime earning its R rating. It pushes the envelope in a big way. The exaggerated orgasm scene alone is what NC-17 is made of. I\u2019m surprised it made the final cut given the prudish nature of the MPA. I laughed hard at that scene. Now I know I\u2019ve called out other comedies for being unnecessarily gross and vulgar. There\u2019s a big difference between Scary Movie<\/strong> and something like the wretched Vacation reboot. The latter piles it on with no rhyme or reason. It\u2019s not funny, it\u2019s just gross. The Wayans brothers (Marlon and Shawn co-write the screenplay) know how to work the material. Yes, much of Scary Movie<\/strong> is in extremely poor taste, but it\u2019s also funny thanks to Keenen\u2019s deft handling of the material.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Anna Farris makes a great first impression in her very first acting role. She has great comic timing. She plays the hell out of the virginal Final Girl, a blend of Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Huge Tits…. I mean, Hewitt. Marlon is a riot as the stoner character, a guy who\u2019d be right at home on the set of Friday. Shawn is also funny as Ray, the muscular jock who gives off major gay vibes. Elizabeth is having a blast playing the bitchy mean girl (a la Sarah Michelle Gellar). Cheri Oteri (SNL) stands out as reporter Gail Hailstorm. It makes sense for her to do the Blair Witch gag as she and Heather Donahue are both Upper Darby, PA natives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Scary Movie<\/strong> stands as proof that comedy isn\u2019t completely dead. At least it wasn\u2019t 26 years ago. Today, it\u2019s a different story. The genre has been on life support for a long time. Too many alleged comedies feel forced these days. I\u2019m really hoping the new Scary Movie changes things. Until then, we can still enjoy the one that started it all.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scary Movie (2000)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dimension\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Kitay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Francis Kenny\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 7, 2000 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, Jon Abrahams, Dave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Scary-Movie-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14315,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14311\/revisions\/14315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}