“Scary Movie” (2000)

Scary Movie

Grade: B

Crude, rude and raucous, Scary Movie is the rare parody film that still holds up — the dumb, extremely offensive humor is what makes it so rewatchable.

Directing:

Scary Movie successfully spoofs horror film tropes found in Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, but it also does something that the rest of the franchise never attempts: spoofing a specific time and place — late-1990s teenagedom — giving the Wayans brothers (director Keenen Ivory) a nostalgic college setting for their sexed-up stoner toilet jokes.

Acting:

For the most part, the cast is chosen for their looks (i.e., big-boobed scream queens and cock-obsessed jocks), and while no one truly steals the show, I can’t think of a single unfunny character. Maybe the best ensemble in the Scary Movie franchise.

Writing:

Boundary-pushing for the sake of pushing boundaries, Scary Movie is filled with gonzo gross-out humor that grasps for cheap laughs by any means necessary. And depending on your tolerance for gay jokes, rape jokes, weed jokes and blowjob jokes (sometimes, or most of the time, the horror satire is secondary), there’s plenty to laugh at during this nonstop 88-minute stream of lowbrow gags.

Music:

Reinforcing the late-‘90s nostalgia factor, the soundtrack features songs from Fountains of Wayne, 2Pac, Black Eyed Peas and Oleander, among other frat house throwbacks. The music isn’t the greatest, but it adds a distinct personality that’s missing in other Scary Movie installments.

Ending (SPOILERS):

Hopefully you’ve already seen Scream and The Usual Suspects, since the serial killer reveal of Officer Doofy a.k.a. Shithead is a direct parody. Not that the story’s logistics matter anyhow — the only important thing is that Scary Movie delivers laughs until the end credits roll, which is what it does, more or less, unable to resist even the most basic slapstick humor in the literal final frame.

“I go poopie.” — Special Officer Doofy

Why Scary Movie gets a B

Dumb raunchy sex comedy with a respectable laugh quota, like Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016).

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