Marlon Wayans plays Shorty in Paramount Pictures’ Scary Movie.Quantrell Colbert/Provided
scary movie
Directed by Michael Tids
Written by Marlon Wayans, Sean Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Rick Alvarez, Craig Wayans
Starring Marlon Wayans, Sean Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall
Classification 14A; 96 minutes
Released in theaters on June 5th
A lot has happened since the last Scary Movie hit theaters in 2013. Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, two Trump presidencies, a global pandemic, and so much more has happened. That’s a lot of what the Wayans brothers aim to thoroughly explain in their new film, Scary Movies, which leaves no space between cheeky references to real-world disasters and all the on-screen trends that have emerged over the past dozen years.
Was I sitting there waiting for some silly or self-indulgent interpretation of the Wayans, from John Wick to K-pop’s Demon Hunter? Especially since the gag rate here is about 10 dumb bits for every one that really nails it. But that doesn’t mean Wayans isn’t happy to be back and lead a gentrified team.
There’s a little backstory. Marlon Wayans says that after the success of “Scary Movie 2,” Harvey and Bob Weinstein stole the “Scary Movie 3,” “Scary Movie 4,” and “Scary Movie 5” franchises from his family, refusing to pay them a fair price. For this reason, the sixth installment is simply called “Scary Movie.” The Wayans refuse to be counted, but that doesn’t mean they acknowledge the three films made without them. And why not embrace the same confusion as 2022’s Scream “Requel”? Of course, this is a parody.
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Just like that Scream movie, the new Scary Movie features the next generation of stars alongside reunited OGs Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Sean and Marlon Wayans. Olivia Rose Keegan, best known for her role in Gotham Nights, gives a great performance as Sarah, the daughter of Faris’ character Cindy, who twists her face. Savannah Lee Nassif does a great Jenna Ortega impression as Sarah’s sister on Tuesday. Sidney Park and Greg Wayans-Benson have Hall’s Brenda Meeks play the children, but Meeks walks around looking like Octavia Spencer in Ma.
Hall’s Brenda, a token black character who refuses to die in silence, has always been a secret weapon in the Wayans’ arsenal. No scene in the Scary Movie series is as hilarious or purposeful as Brenda’s final murder in the original. She dies (temporarily), but not at the hands of Ghostface, but at the hands of an angry white mob fed up with the lack of etiquette in movie theaters. The moment focuses on the very hostility toward the film’s black characters that the Wayans brothers were responding to.
New scary movies leave no gap between cheeky references to real-world disasters and all the on-screen trends that have emerged over the past dozen years.Quantrell Colbert/Provided
They’re the ones who gave us “all black versions of white movies” (as the new Scary Movies loudly says) when Hollywood was rejecting it, carving out a space for themselves and for talents like Hall.
What makes this latest film so fascinating is that it came after 2015’s #OscarsSoWhite and received little Hollywood reaction. After Jordan Peele’s blockbuster hit with Get Out, he elevated the wayans’ biting racial satire and propelled black horror into a new subgenre. The last scary movie was released when Ryan Coogler made his feature debut in Fruitvale Station. The film comes after Coogler won an Oscar for the horror film “Sinners,” which shattered his own box office success. Even Marlon Wayans starred in last year’s Him, a disastrous attempt at elevating horror and trying to be part of the latest trends rather than imitate them.
The new Scary Movie is necessarily a parody of Get Out and Sinners, but it’s also filled with love and appreciation for all the black excellence in those fields. There’s a celebratory mood even in the cold release, which stars Teyana Taylor, who just received an Oscar nomination, as herself. Taylor is set up to be the first victim, but refuses to let her die first. She even quotes a snarky, rebellious line from One Battle After Another, which also fits perfectly into this series. It’s like a victory lap.
Regina Hall, who plays Brenda, has always been a secret weapon in the Wayans’ arsenal, writes Radyan Simonpillai.Quantrell Colbert/Provided
But the new scary movie’s sharpest gag questions how much progress has actually been made and what happened to all the recent backlash to DEI.
Brenda Meeks’ child, played brilliantly by Park, is named Day. They are non-binary social activists who are attacked in a subway car full of movie villains. Everything from Leatherface to M3GAN is covered. But it’s not just movie monsters that attack Day. It’s also an angry civilian mob fed up with everything “woke” who cuts down Day, much like Hall’s Brenda did in the original.
Yes, the best part of this new scary movie is recycling. Because, like the title, some things never change, some jokes never lose their edge.
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