Scary Movie (2026)
Directed by: Michael Tiddes
Premise: The sixth installment of the horror parody series. Decades after the events of the first Scary Movie, a new Ghostface killer stalks the survivors and their grown children.
What Works: The original Scary Movie was released in 2000 and was a parody of 1996’s Scream and few other horror films from that time. Scary Movie and its first sequel were directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and the Wayans family, especially Marlon and Shawn, were heavily involved in the making of the first two movies. 2000’s Scary Movie was a huge hit and, for better or worse, an era defining comedy. The 2026 film brings back the Wayans family and the core cast including Anna Faris and Regina Hall. For viewers of a certain age, 2026’s Scary Movie may have a certain nostalgic appeal.
What Doesn’t: Many of the best parody films, such as Airplane, 1988’s The Naked Gun, and Blazing Saddles, paid close attention to the sources they were lampooning and told a coherent story. The original Scary Movie did this as well. It put Scream into a funhouse mirror and lampooned postmodern self-awareness with what was at the time a transgressive sense of humor. 2000’s Scary Movie also kicked off a wave of awful parody movies that were just hodgepodges of cultural references with no coherence and didn’t really make a joke. Every reference was just recognition that the filmmakers had seen the same movies or trailers as the audience. The sixth Scary Movie has much more in common with the lazy parody films that the original Scary Movie inspired. 2026’s Scary Movie is primarily a parody of 2022’s Scream with nods to Scream 4, Scream VI, Smile, 2018’s Halloween, Longlegs, and Sinners. But it’s all setup and no punchline. There is a kernel of an idea about franchises and legacies but the theme is tagged onto the ending and not much of a joke. There’s no commentary or point of view. 2026’s Scary Movie doesn’t make sense. Scenes don’t fit together. Many sequences are cutaways to self-contained skits. The incoherence might be excusable if Scary Movie was consistently funny. It isn’t. Despite the marketing campaign’s bluster about being edgy, Scary Movie is just dull. And it is quickly evident that in the twenty-six years since the original, the Wayans haven’t learned anything. The humor of 2026’s Scary Movie falls back on homophobia and racial humor. None of it is clever or original. The problem isn’t that it’s offensive. It’s just lame.
Bottom Line: 2026’s Scary Movie induces the same cringy feeling teenagers experience when their parents try to be funny. As a parody, all the filmmakers can do is drop references and as a comedy they rely on soporific gay panic gags that were stale twenty years ago.
Episode: #1103 (June 14, 2026)