{"id":69724,"date":"2026-06-08T19:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=69724"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:34:53","slug":"movie-review-scary-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/08\/movie-review-scary-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review – Scary Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

            From the fifth \u201cScream\u201d movie proving a shockingly strong January release in 2022 to \u201cBackrooms\u201d opening to over $81 million just last weekend, the past few years have been some of the best ever for the horror genre. So it makes sense that this would be a good time to revive the \u201cScary Movie\u201d franchise and spoof some contemporary classics. And not only are franchise mainstays Anna Faris and Regina Hall back for this sixth installment after missing the fifth, but originators Marlon and Shawn Wayans are back after absences from the third, fourth, and fifth. Everything is in place for this silly movie to give its audience a seriously good time, but it turns out the movie itself is an unfunny joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Following an actually-promising opening sequence featuring recent Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor, the loose premise kicks in: a new Ghostface is terrorizing the families of Cindy Campbell (Faris) and Brenda Meeks (Hall). Cindy, now a parody of Jamie Lee Curtis in the recent \u201cHalloween\u201d reboot, has estranged daughters Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif), based on sisters Sam and Tara from the 2022 \u201cScream\u201d (with Tuesday also a spoof of Wednesday Addams, because Jenna Ortega has played both Tara and Wednesday). Brenda, a parody of Octavia Spencer in \u201cMa,\u201d has son Brad (Gregg Wayans) and nonbinary child Dei (Sydney Park), based on twins Chad and Mindy from the 2022 \u201cScream.\u201d Since the 2022 \u201cScream\u201d is apparently the only movie being parodied that the filmmakers have watched closely, you can probably guess how Sara\u2019s boyfriend Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts) and Brad\u2019s girlfriend Elle (Ruby Snowber) figure in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Of course, Cindy and Brenda aren\u2019t the only familiar faces. Brenda\u2019s stoner brother Shorty (Marlon Wayans) still lives in town, attending the same school as his niece and nephew because he\u2019s too stupid to graduate. Brenda\u2019s ex-gay (though still very gay) ex-boyfriend Ray (Shawn Wayans) is also back in the picture. Other returning characters include bumbling Officer Doofy (Dave Sheridan, also the voice of Ghostface), reporter Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri, here to parody Demi Moore in \u201cThe Substance\u201d), weirdo Hanson (Chris Elliot, doing Nicolas Cage in \u201cLonglegs\u201d), and presumed original killer Bobby (Jon Abrahams, offering little more than a \u201cSmile).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The movie blows one opportunity after another to get in juicy gags about the recent glut of successful horror movies. \u201cSinners\u201d? The movie can\u2019t do more than set a series of sex jokes at a church and have corny white people show up uninvited at a black party. \u201cWeapons\u201d? This movie knows about \u201cthe run,\u201d but can\u2019t have its characters do anything funnier than yell \u201cSix Seven\u201d and get hit by a car, this franchise\u2019s go-to lazy way of ending a scene. The only parody that really worked at my screening (and it did work \u2013 the audience was roaring) was of an animated movie that I\u2019m not sure qualifies as \u201cscary,\u201d though I guess demons are in the vicinity of scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There\u2019s minimal heart at work in this new version of \u201cScary Movie,\u201d and even less brain. I know to expect \u201cdumb\u201d humor from this franchise, but the people who made this movie simply didn\u2019t do their homework. Example: a character goes over the top with emotion in one scene, and another character corrects her, \u201cStop trying to win an Oscar. It\u2019ll never happen for a horror movie. Just ask Demi Moore.\u201d Yes, Demi Moore did lose in her Oscar bid for \u201cThe Substance\u201d (to 2022 \u201cScream\u201d cast member Mikey Madison), but you know who did win an Oscar for a horror movie? Amy Madigan for \u201cWeapons.\u201d I could overlook that blunder \u2013 even in a movie that parodies \u201cWeapons\u201d \u2013 if there hadn\u2019t been a reference in the beginning of the movie to Teyana Taylor losing the Oscar that Madigan won. How can I care about this \u201cScary Movie\u201d when it doesn\u2019t care about its own scary movies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScary Movie\u201d is rated R for crude sexual content, graphic nudity, strong violence, and drug content and language throughout. Its running time is 96 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             From the fifth \u201cScream\u201d movie proving a shockingly strong January release in 2022 to \u201cBackrooms\u201d opening to over $81 million just last weekend, the past few… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjYtMDYtMDhUMTkxMTUwLjIwMi53ZWJwP2ZpdD02OTIlMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3ICYjODIxMTsgU2NhcnkgTW92aWUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.-ygH43sK03YqNGDIM64B5RnBhdm0t3n3jYyh5kpYhZQMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjYtMDYtMDhUMTkxMTUwLjIwMi53ZWJwP2ZpdD02OTIlMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3IC0gU2NhcnkgTW92aWUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.HDAXs-KI3n9qHc_-PbLGQtBcNVSkO5y43GCaTBqXPS8MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[14798],"class_list":["post-69724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review-scary-movie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69730,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69724\/revisions\/69730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}