A Killer Comedy That Still Delivers

Read Time:10 Minute, 3 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Scary Movie (2000)
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Genre: Comedy, Horror, Parody
Year: 2000, 2026 4K
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Writers: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
Cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Jon Abrahams, Shannon Elizabeth, Carmen Electra, Dave Sheridan, Cheri Oteri, Lochlyn Munro
Where to Watch: available October 20, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: www.moviesunlimited.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: The first time Ghostface gets high with Shorty, you just realize just how little interest SCARY MOVIE has in respecting the horror movies it's making fun of. Director Keenen Ivory Wayans isn't trying to offer genre fans the same meta wink SCREAM did. He wants to drag every slasher convention through the mud, throw in as many inappropriate jokes as possible, and see how much he can get away with before the credits roll. Twenty-six years later, some of those jokes haven't aged particularly well, but I'd be lying if I said this movie doesn't still make me laugh. It's immature, offensive, frequently ridiculous, and exactly the kind of comedy that Hollywood rarely seems interested in making anymore. 2026’s SCARY MOVIE tried, and sadly failed, to recreate that same style years later.

Released in 2000, SCARY MOVIE followed the success of Wes Craven's SCREAM, which helped bring the slasher genre back into mainstream popularity. Movies like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, URBAN LEGEND, and their numerous imitators had filled theaters with core groups of stupid teenagers making terrible decisions. The masked killers stalked them through increasingly elaborate setups. SCREAM already poked fun at those ideas while taking its own murders seriously, giving Wayans and his collaborators an interesting challenge. How do you parody something that's already making fun of itself? Apparently, the answer involves removing every ounce of restraint and replacing it with raunchy jokes, bodily fluids, drugs, and characters who are aggressively stupid.

The story follows Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) and her group of friends, who find themselves targeted by a masked killer after a suspicious incident from their past comes back to haunt them. The setup borrows heavily from both SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, combining their stories into a deliberately absurd mystery. The plot mostly serves as an excuse to move between one ridiculous situation to the next, and it rarely lets more than a few minutes pass without trying another joke. Some are clever observations about familiar horror conventions, while others seem to exist simply because somebody in the writers' room thought a specific bodily function would be hilarious.

Faris deserves considerable credit for making it all work. SCARY MOVIE was her feature-film debut, and she approaches Cindy with a level of commitment that would impress in a much more serious production. Her facial expressions, physical comedy, and willingness to look completely ridiculous give the film a surprisingly dependable foundation. She understands that playing Cindy as someone who realizes she's surrounded by idiots would ruin much of the humor. Instead, she embraces the character's obliviousness while giving her just enough personality to remain likable.

Regina Hall is just as entertaining as Brenda, delivering some of the movie's biggest laughs through sheer attitude and impeccable timing. Her infamous behavior during a movie theater screening remains one of the film's most memorable sequences, largely because Hall makes the character so unapologetically obnoxious. Anyone who’s dealt with someone talking through a movie will recognize the situation, even as the scene grows increasingly exaggerated. Hall has a remarkable ability to turn an ordinary reaction into something hilarious, and it's easy to see why Brenda became one of the franchise's most recognizable characters.

Marlon Wayans takes the opposite approach as Shorty, a perpetually high character whose entire existence seems designed to push every situation toward complete stupidity. His interactions with the killer are especially funny because they undermine the threatening image audiences associate with Ghostface. He's so unconcerned with his surroundings that even a masked murderer becomes another opportunity for an over-the-top conversation. Shawn Wayans also brings plenty of laughs as Ray, though his character relies more on the sexual jokes that can get repetitive and outdated as the movie progresses.

One of the smartest things about SCARY MOVIE is how closely it recreates the style of the films it's mocking. The opening sequence with Carmen Electra follows the structure of SCREAM's famous introduction, complete with threatening phone calls, an isolated home, and an increasingly frightened woman. Wayans understands that the humor works best when the setup feels convincing. Rather than abandoning the familiar horror presentation, he lets recognizable situations develop before interrupting them with something completely inappropriate.

That attention to detail continues throughout the movie. The camera movements, lighting, and elaborate scene recreations make the production feel far more polished than the crude humor might suggest. Cinematographer Francis Kenny gives the film that recognizable late-nineties slasher look, letting the jokes come from the situations that initially resemble legitimate horror sequences. This approach helps distinguish SCARY MOVIE from the numerous low-effort parody films that followed, many of which seemed content to reference popular movies without understanding what made them recognizable in the first place.

The references extend well beyond the two main slasher franchises. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, THE SIXTH SENSE, and THE MATRIX all receive attention, while the screenplay incorporates jokes about contemporary television, advertising, and celebrity culture. Some references remain recognizable, while others serve as small reminders of what popular culture looked like at the turn of the millennium. I actually enjoy revisiting the film for that reason. It's almost a time capsule of the industry in 2000, capturing the movies, personalities, and obsessions audiences discussed when it first hit theaters.

Of course, revisiting a comedy built around deliberately offensive jokes also means confronting things that haven't held up particularly well. The movie repeatedly relies on stereotypes involving sexuality, gender, and race, occasionally treating the mere suggestion of someone's identity as the entire punchline. Some of those moments still land because of the performances or the ridiculous circumstances around them, but others feel lazy compared with the more inventive material elsewhere. There's a difference between being willing to offend people and having a genuinely funny joke, and SCARY MOVIE doesn't always use that distinction.

The film also drags certain jokes out long after they've landed. Sexual humor dominates several stretches, sometimes at the expense of the horror parody that makes the movie distinctive. A few sequences seem determined to get increasingly outrageous without adding anything particularly interesting. That approach occasionally produces a hilarious escalation, but it can also get exhausting when the same joke keeps repeating. A little more selectivity would have made the strongest material stand out even further.

I appreciate how committed the cast is to the stupidity. Dave Sheridan's portrayal of Doofy, the seemingly clueless police officer, is a particularly entertaining example of an actor fully embracing an absurd character. Cheri Oteri brings an appropriately exaggerated intensity to Gail Hailstorm, the opportunistic television reporter modeled after SCREAM's Gale Weathers. Shannon Elizabeth, Lochlyn Munro, and Jon Abrahams also add to the film's cast of exaggerated teenage personalities, each making familiar slasher archetypes even more ridiculous than their originals.

Casting actors who can convincingly inhabit these exaggerated personalities helps keep the comedy effective. Everyone understands the kind of movie they're making, and nobody seems embarrassed by the material. Faris and Hall are especially impressive because their performances never depend entirely on the jokes written for them. Their reactions, delivery, and willingness to commit to physical comedy often make ordinary exchanges much funnier than they read on the page.

SCARY MOVIE also arrived when major studios still invested in broad theatrical comedies aimed squarely at adult audiences. Produced for about $19 million, the film earned more than $278 million worldwide, making it a massive commercial success and launching a franchise that continued through multiple sequels. That popularity revived interest in the theatrical parody, though the genre eventually became overwhelmed by productions that relied on recognizable references rather than developed comedy. Watching the original again makes it easier to understand why audiences responded so enthusiastically, even if the films that followed didn't always understand its appeal.

It's hard to discuss the movie's legacy without acknowledging the Wayans family's creative contributions. Keenen Ivory Wayans brought years of experience from IN LIVING COLOR and earlier film productions, while Shawn and Marlon contributed as writers and performers. Their willingness to blend social observations, outrageous physical comedy, and deliberately tasteless material gives SCARY MOVIE a personality the later installments struggled to maintain. The film isn't especially sophisticated, but its best jokes demonstrate a genuine understanding of both comedy and the horror genre.

The Limited Edition SteelBook release brings the original film to 4K Ultra HD, paired with a standard Blu-ray in a two-disc set. Miramax is marketing the new edition with 4K mastering, offering collectors a new physical-media option for a movie that has remained popular for more than two decades. The SteelBook presentation is a welcome choice for franchise fans, especially those who remember the movie's original theatrical release and its subsequent popularity on home video.

What still surprises me about SCARY MOVIE is how many of its jokes remain entertaining despite the obvious passage of time. The film certainly has its share of dated material, and I wouldn't argue that every offensive joke deserves defending simply because audiences laughed at it in 2000. However, the performances, recognizable horror references, and sheer commitment to ridiculous situations still deliver plenty of genuinely funny moments. I especially appreciate that Wayans understood the importance of creating an actual movie around the jokes rather than assembling a disconnected collection of references.

SCARY MOVIE isn't a flawless comedy, and it certainly isn't appropriate for every audience. Its humor can be childish, its attempts to shock can overshadow the satire, and some of its cultural references require familiarity with movies now more than twenty-five years old. But when the jokes land, they still land big. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are fantastic, the Wayans brothers bring their own unmistakable personalities, and the movie remains an affectionate insult to a horror genre that takes itself seriously just often enough to deserve being mocked. After all these years, I still find myself laughing at things I probably shouldn't, and that's a pretty good indication that SCARY MOVIE accomplished exactly what it set out to do.

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