Scary Movie (15)

Cindy Campbell, friends Ray Wilkins and Brenda Meeks, and Brenda's pot-smoking brother Shorty survived the initial bloodbath masterminded by Ghostface 26 years ago. When a new killer with the same disguise emerges from the shadows, the pals play hide and seek with their tormentor while delightfully dim-witted police officer Doofy Gilmore struggles to identify prime suspects. Headline-chasing news reporter Gail Hailstorm inserts herself into the story, searching for a scoop.

LondonNet Film Review

Scary Movie (15) Film Review from LondonNet

<emIt’s been 13 years since horror spoof Scary Movie 5 plundered the Paranormal Activity films for meagre laughs and continued a poor run of form without the creative involvement of the Wayans brothers, who had masterminded the first two instalments of the franchise. The siblings return behind and in front of the camera for a “rebootiquel”, which bolts together plot strands from Final Destination: Bloodlines, Scream 7 and the 2019 Octavia Spencer horror Ma as a flimsy framework for the usual array of potty-mouthed tomfoolery…

Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), friends Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), and Brenda’s pot-smoking brother Shorty (Marlon Wayans) survived the bloodbath masterminded by Ghostface 26 years ago and have coped with the catastrophe in different ways. Cindy has become a paranoia-gripped hermit, safely cocooned inside her booby-trapped home. Brenda is trying to foster healthy relationships with her children, the twins Dei (Sydney Park) and Chad (Gregg Wayans), while she supports Ray with life after conversion therapy to “straighten out” his urges for other men. As for Shorty, he’s proud to be celebrating his 25th year as a senior at Woodsville High School.

A new Ghostface-masked killer with a voice changer to conceal their identity emerges from the shadows and deliberately targets Cindy’s daughters Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif). Sara seeks out her estranged mother with creepy boyfriend Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts) in tow. Meanwhile, delightfully dim-witted police officer Doofy Gilmore (Dave Sheridan) fails to identify any prime suspects for the slaughter and headline-chasing reporter Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) forcefully inserts herself into the developing news story, searching for a scoop that doesn’t include a knife lodged in her back.

Scary Movie arrives during a golden period for horror on the big screen with Backrooms and Obsession breaking box office records. Alas, that shimmering lustre doesn’t rub off on the sixth chapter in the slash-happy spoofology, which struggles and strains to wring an audible belly laugh from observational material. Four Wayans – Marlon, Shawn, Keenen Ivory and Craig – are credited as screenwriters along with Rick Alvarez and they look to hits including Longlegs, M3GAN, Terrifier 3, The Substance and Weapons for obvious inspiration. Engineering one sequence around a stand-out moment from Get Out feels somewhat dated: it’s almost a decade since Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning race relations nightmare debuted at Sundance Film Festival.

The opening with Teyana Taylor (playing herself with swaggering aplomb) and ghoulish sight gags with a Final Destination theme park elicit smirks but director Michael Tiddes’ ramshackle rollercoaster ride largely heads downhill from there with only fleeting airtime. Wazzup! Not much.

– Kim Hu