Henry O'Brien
The horror genre, once again, has been swallowing much of the oxygen in film discussions over the last month and change. Curry Barker’s Obsession and Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, two genre box office smashes made by directors in their 20s, have gone through the discourse cycle ten times over and have garnered thinkpieces on “the next generation” of filmmakers.
In this current climate, it’s probably unfortunate timing for a 53-year old comedian to make his return to spoofing the genre. And yet, that’s what Marlon Wayans and his brothers have embarked on with the sixth edition of the Scary Movie franchise. The film stars Marlon, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris and Regina Hall, all returning to the series in their respective roles, reunited in a similar vein as the Scream or Halloween reboots.
Scary Movie ‘26 is the first film in the franchise since 2013, so there are 13 years’ worth of movies to pick from, along with the horror genre’s renewed ascendance (did it ever have a down moment?), thanks to Oscar nominations for films like Get Out and Sinners and the rise of the deeply silly fake genre known as “elevated horror.”
The four Wayans brothers, who served as screenwriters with Rick Alvarez, and director Michael Tiddes feature an avalanche of deeply unfunny jokes and reference gags to most of the horror movies since Jordan Peele’s debut feature. Some of the other targets include The Substance, Weapons, and Terrifier, but these only amount to window dressing.
The movie does occasionally strike gold, but it feels far more satisfied in just finding the most popular horror movies and recreating them instead of taking on the larger trends and conversations in the genre. The result ends up feeling like the Wayanses are making up for lost time, while increasingly attempting to feel fresh and chart their own course. Looking back at the history of this production, it makes sense why it could feel this way. Marlon said in an emotional interview with Variety that his father wished the brothers would make another movie together again.
The Wayanses coming back together lines up perfectly with the reunion of characters like Shorty Marlon), Ray (Shawn), Cindy (Faris) and Brenda (Hall). But along with a new edition of Ghostface, they now also have to face their old age and the so-called “next generation” of the Scary Movie franchise.
Both David Gordon Green’s Halloween and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream films feature the kids of the original iconic characters, have some connection to them or call on the OGs for their help. While the youths seem like they’re here to stay, the effect has always been just to remind you how awesome the originals are, creating this nauseating loop of nostalgia that doesn’t move the franchise forward in any meaningful way.
Scary Movie tries to have fun with this type of “passing the torch” narrative. For the most part, the film lacks anything that could be reasonably described as a joke. That was the case, however, until the very end of the film, when it fully leans into the spoofiness with a level of disdain for the youth from the Wayanses that feels far more resonant than anything that actual horror-movie legacy sequels try to achieve.
But for the rest of the horror elements that the movie attempts to parody fall woefully flat, especially when compared to more recent films of its ilk. While three parodies in the last year don’t symbolize a resurgence for the subgenre, The Naked Gun, Fackham Hall and Scary Movie prove that there is some taste for ridiculous versions of established genres. What made the Liam Neeson-led reboot of the Naked Gun series was the sheer volume of jokes per minute, which could either come from the dialogue or the actual production design itself, using the environment to tell practical jokes.
On this front, Scary Movie turns out to be as empty as the Backrooms. Whether it be because of a smaller budget or just an insistence on dialogue to make the Wayanses still feel in tune with modern culture, the film doesn’t amount to as many jokes as it could have.
Twitch streams with Ghostface, fake posters parodying more recent horror hits and cameos can only do so much to cover the sheer lack of comedic verve. And somehow, someway, the film made a 96-minute runtime terrifyingly long.
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment. It felt like a series of (very) thinly linked sketches, where each one checked a box on the list of spoof targets. A good joke here or there was nice, but they were few and far between. I also noticed what you mentioned as the Wayans’ disdain for youth. This seems to suffer from something I’ve noticed more and more in legacy sequels and reboots: the older generation is very reluctant to pass the baton. I guess when the franchise is built around a family like this one is, maybe it’s harder to let go because you’re handing it off to an outsider? Either way, I was looking forward to seeing this, but ended up checking my watch in the theater for the first time in I don’t know how long. Very unfortunate.