Scary Movie (2000)

Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans [Other horror films: Scary Movie 2 (2001)]

I’ve never really been a fan of parody films, which ties into the fact that once the comedy in a movie is too goofy, my interest level dries up. Naturally, this doesn’t bode well for Scary Movie, because it’s really just way too goofy for me to enjoy whatsoever.

What’s interesting is that I recently revisited Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth, another post-Scream parody movie, and I had an okay time. I still rated it below average, yes, but there were some legitimately funny scenes and quotable quotes in that movie that I dug a lot.

I can’t say what’s different about the humor here, but Scary Movie wasn’t anywhere near as fun. There were some amusing ideas, and I’ll touch on them in a bit, but I had a lot more fun with Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth. For one, I don’t think SIYKWIDLFtT was quite as over-the-top as this, and perhaps more importantly, there’s not a whole ton of gross-out comedy in that film, while Scary Movie does have some present (which isn’t my type of humor at all).

To expand on that, there were jokes dealing with women characters having testicles (well, technically the character was a man, but people thought he was a woman, so whateves), wild pubic hair (which was done away with by electric garden shears), a blast of semen that plasters someone to the ceiling, and naturally, plenty of flatulence jokes, because that lowbrow humor works for some. It’s just not my type of comedy, and I don’t really like seeing it. Gross, sexual humor isn’t my type of thing.

Now, I can say that I enjoyed the ending of the film. No, not the horrible Matrix-inspired scenes, but the last couple of minutes. I’ve seen this movie before, but I actually forgot who the killer was (and in fact, wasn’t sure if this would even reveal who the killer was), so when it then copied the end of The Usual Suspects (which I’ve seen plenty of times, and actually watched a couple of weeks ago, at the time of this writing), I cracked up. That was pretty funny, and I didn’t see it coming.

Though it didn’t have much in the way of substance, I did enjoy some of the humor around Ray’s character (played by Shawn Wayans), who was a ‘closeted’ gay guy, and related, while it didn’t add a hell of a lot to the movie, seeing Marlon Wayans cackle at everything was sort of amusing too. But when it comes to comedic high points, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth has this one beat, and it’s not even close.

Anna Faris is one of the few here I actually liked. Regina Hall’s character annoyed the hell out of me, Dave Sheridan’s (Camp Twilight, Bloody Summer Camp, Blood Craft) Doofy was way too stupid for me, and Lochlyn Munro (Freddy vs. Jason, The Blackburn Asylum) unable to stand out. In fact, most people here, from Shannon Elizabeth (Jack Frost, Thir13en Ghosts) and Jon Abrahams (House of Wax, They) to Cheri Oteri and Rick Ducommun, weren’t notable. Again, both Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans occasionally cracked me up, but neither added much, and Faris, while consistent, didn’t add a whole lot either.

Largely focusing on parodying Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer (though not afraid to reference other popular films, such as The Blair Witch Project, American Pie, The Matrix, and The Sixth Sense), the story was about what you’d expect. Now, again, I want to give props to the ending. Again, I have seen this movie before, but it’s been so damn long, I truly didn’t see that coming, which surprised me.

Even so, much of the humor of Scary Movie just didn’t do much for me. I didn’t really have that much fun here. For the right group of people, Scary Movie could work, but as for me? Yeah, I’ll stick with Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.

4/10