Scary Movie (2000)

2 out of 4

Starring: Anna Faris, Shannon Elizabeth, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Jon Abrahams, Cheri Oteri, Carmen Electra

Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans

Time: 88 mins

You know, it's almost inevitable that there would be a film sending up the recent batch of teen slasher thrillers that was started by Scream in 1996. Among these are Scream 2 and Scream 3, I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and Urban Legend. All featured pop culture references, TV actors (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Joshua Jackson, to name a few), and knowing nods to previous slasher series such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. Scary Movie is one of those silly parody movies that one almost expects Leslie Nielsen to be in (even though he's not), with a long string of attempted jokes that are more miss than hit. There are a couple of big laughs (including a surprise appearance from a TV character), but the things that happen in the film are too stupid to really be humorous. There is a right way of doing send-ups (like Airplane! - a.k.a. Flying High - and Hot Shots), and also a wrong way (the many pale Leslie Nielsen vehicles after The Naked Gun). Scary Movie falls solely into the latter category.

There is a semblance of a plot in Scary Movie, but it's a juxtaposition of the events in Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. A series of killings by a masked murderer puts a small town on edge. A group of students, including Cindy (Anna Faris), her boyfriend Bobby (Jon Abrahams), beauty queen Buffy Gilmore (Shannon Elizabeth), and jock Ray (Shawn Wayans), believe someone is after them for having run over a man - and then dumping him in the ocean - the previous year. Perpetually-on-dope Shorty (Marlon Wayans) and news reporter Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) join in the hunt, as the body count rises but the laugh quotient falls.

There are some laugh-out-loud funny scenes, but for the majority of the film, the most the jokes will bring (and these are rare enough) are slight smiles and giggles. Scary Movie is another in the recent trend of gross-you-out comedies (such as American Pie, Me, Myself and Irene, and Road Trip), where any topic that is below the belt or potentially offensive is fair game. There are tasteless sequences aplenty, but once one has seen enough of these films, one becomes sort of immune to the latest boundary-pushing tactics. Hence, not even the raunchiness or offensiveness helps Scary Movie in achieving a consistently funny and flowing story.

Being a send-up, many recent movies are parodied and made fun of. The most obvious are, of course, Scream and its sequels. Other films to be put under the scalpel include I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Matrix, The Usual Suspects, The Blair Witch Project, Titanic, and The Sixth Sense. Even TV's Dawson Creek is referenced. The best parodies in Hollywood are those which don't take scenes from well-known movies and just rework them - hoping that the audience's knowledge is enough to make them humorous - but are generally broader and fresher, with new segments that are actually funny. The master exponents of this type of comedy are, I think, the ZAZ (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker) team, who not only created Airplane! and Hot Shots, but Kentucky Fried Movie and the hilarious spy spoof Top Secret.

Looking at the credits, one might almost think that this is a Wayans family affair. Keenan directs, while Shawn and Marlon have major parts. Keenan has had some success before with the blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), but the previous Wayans brothers' parody, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996), wasn't as well received. Still, it's hard not to like their enthusiasm, and Shawn is actually quite funny as the muscular sporty type who has a secret liking for other men.

The other members of the cast make up the stock-standard, stupid teenagers list, ranging from busty bimbo Shannon Elizabeth (who was memorable as the exchange student in American Pie) to sweet, innocent newcomer (and Katie Holmes-lookalike) Anna Faris. Each does as well as they can, though former Baywatch starlet Carmen Electra probably comes out best in the film's direct copy of the innovative opening sequence from Scream (as the Drew Barrymore character). Saturday Night Live's Cheri Oteri also does a good impression of Courtney Cox's ambitious reporter from Scream.

Scary Movie was the surprise success of the North American 2000 summer season, having been made for a modest $19m budget but reaping in excess of $140m in box office takings alone. Its position as being the only new comedy amongst a month-load of action/special effects movies like The Perfect Storm, X-Men and The Patriot probably helped. The film is only sporadically funny, however, and, unless you find lots of silliness easy to laugh at, not really worth your time or money.

(c) Joe Wong (2 September 2000)