PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema"
Making a film that's a spoof of an entire movie genre is kind of a strange proposal. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and even though Mel Brooks has built a pretty successful career out of sending up westerns, space adventures and (unfortunately) vampire flicks, the whole idea of the genre parody doesn't seem much different than Beavis, Butt-Head, Tom Servo or Crow tearing movies apart in their living rooms.
But what about a movie that spoofs a movie that spoofed a genre? That's what we have with Scary Movie, the latest collaboration from the brothers Wayans. They've already lampooned blaxploitation flicks (I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!) and gangsta films (Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), and here they satirize the Scream trilogy, among other horror films. Even its title is taken from the one that Scream abandoned.
Scary Movie begins with Carmen Electra (Hyperion Bay) making popcorn and receiving a phone call from a masked killer, a la Drew Barrymore's memorable opening scene in the first Scream picture. The story is more than a little familiar – knife-wielding lunatic begins slashing his way through a small clique of friends and is pursued by a soulless news reporter (Cheri Oteri, Saturday Night Live) and a retarded deputy (Dave Sheridan, MTV's short-lived Buzzkill). Even the school principal is played by a down-and-out ‘70s television sitcom star (Henry `The Fonz' Winkler in Scream, and David `Squiggy' Lander here).
It isn't long before Scary Movie moves from Scream to I Know What You Did Last Summer. After a funny automobile accident involving oral sex and a beehive (don't ask) that occurred exactly one year ago, the band of boobs starts receiving notes that threaten to expose their big secret. While they're at it, the Wayans also toss in a scene right from Dawson's Creek, a show that was created by Scream and IKWYDLS screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
There isn't really too much else to say about Scary Movie without giving away a lot of its gags. Some of the jokes fall flat, but most are direct hits. In addition to sending up the two recent horror hits, the film also briefly tackles The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense. There are also unexpected homages to Amistad and The Usual Suspects (the latter seemed to go over the head of just about everyone in the theatre), and a sick, X-rated version of Johnny Depp's death scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Scary Movie was directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans (A Lowdown Dirty Shame) and its script was cobbled together by no less than six screenwriters. Originally, the film's production was supposed to take just a few weeks at the end of the summer of 1999 and slated for a fall release. But then the Wayans' script (originally titled Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell On Friday the 13th) merged with a similar project that spoofed horror pictures (called Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween), and the production was stretched out long enough for the film to include a parody of the `Wassup' Budweiser commercials.
1:26 - R for strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use and violence
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews