Scary Movie Review: A Hilarious Parody Classic

The premise is shamelessly simple, which is exactly the point. Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans), Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), and Shorty (Marlon Wayans) have spent the last quarter-century living normal lives - Cindy runs a true-crime podcast, Brenda is a wellness influencer, Ray failed upward into a real estate empire, and Shorty remains, inexplicably, Shorty. But during a reunion weekend at a remote lake house (donated by an unnamed streaming service for product placement), a masked killer begins picking them off one by one. The twist? The killer’s mask changes every scene to parody whichever IP is currently trending - from Scream to M3GAN to Talk to Me to, most hilariously, an arthouse Hereditary knockoff. The Core Four must survive the night while also satirizing the factory-farmed churn of content that Hollywood now treats as horror. It’s less a plot than a series of interconnected sketches, but the script commits fully to its chaos.

Where the original Scary Movie punctured the self-importance of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, this revival takes aim at a much broader, more diffuse target: the algorithmic horror pipeline. A running gag involves a streaming platform’s “DEI” department (played by Sydney Park) insisting that the killer’s victim quotas must be ethnically balanced. Another sequence, set in a haunted smart home, lampoons The Haunting of Hill House while Alexa shouts jump-scare prompts. The sharpest moments aren’t the pop-culture parodies - some of which feel dated by release day - but the ones that skewer the industry’s mechanical approach to fear.

The returning cast is the film’s secret weapon. Anna Faris, now in her late 40s, still wields a perfect scream that oscillates between genuine terror and deliberate absurdity; Regina Hall’s deadpan exasperation has only deepened with age. Shawn Wayans gets one genuinely inspired sequence where Ray, trying to be a “final boy,” monologues about trauma only to be interrupted by the killer. But the MVP, as always, is Marlon Wayans. He plays Shorty as if he’s been living in a weed-fueled time loop for 26 years, his vocal inflection unchanged. He also dons a wig and prosthetics for Count Brolock, a cartoonish Romanian vampire who delivers a diatribe about “modern vampire rules” that essentially is a scene-for-scene reenactment of Nosferatu but with TikTok references. It’s exhausting, occasionally cringeworthy, and somehow works.

Director Michael Tiddes, a veteran of the A Haunted House series, understands the rhythm of parody better than most. The film moves at a breakneck pace - scenes rarely last more than 90 seconds before a punchline or callback. The cinematography deliberately apes the flat, overlit look of streaming horror, which becomes a meta-joke in itself when characters comment on how “un-cinematic” their own deaths are. The sound design is a carnival of Wilhelm screams, stock horror stingers, and one startling moment where the audio cuts to complete silence for a full ten seconds - a homage to A Quiet Place that actually earns a jump.

The weaknesses are predictable. At 96 minutes, the film doesn’t wear out its welcome, but several gags land with a thud. A prolonged bit involving a killer AI that speaks in CEO buzzwords (“We need to pivot to a more sustainable fear ecosystem”) feels like it was written in 2022 and should have been cut. The third act abandons parody entirely for a chase sequence that is competently shot but tonally at odds with the preceding chaos. Worse, the film’s treatment of certain modern horror darlings - like The Black Phone or Smile - is less satire and more lazy mimicry, as if the writers skimmed the Wikipedia plot summaries.

Still, the best moments are lovingly crafted. A montage of the Core Four trying to avoid typical horror tropes (“Don’t split up. No, really, don’t. Brenda, I’m serious.”) is a masterclass in comedic timing. And the ending, which involves a meta-credit scene teasing a crossover with Don’t Be a Menace, suggests the franchise knows it’s a parody of itself now. It’s not Airplane! - but it’s also not a straight-to-streaming catastrophe.

Pros

• The Core Four have retained their chemistry; Faris and Hall deliver comedic gold with minimal effort.
• Marlon Wayans’ multi-character tour de force (four distinct roles) is both technically impressive and hilarious.
• The film has a keen satirical eye for streaming-era horror conventions, especially in its second act.
• Tight 96-minute runtime respects your time and keeps the pacing relentless.
• A few fifth-wall-breaking jokes about the remake/revival cycle are surprisingly clever.

Cons

• Several pop-culture parodies feel dated or low-effort, particularly the M3GAN and Squid Game references.
• The plot is essentially nonexistent; anyone needing narrative coherence will be frustrated.
• Some jokes lean too hard on 2000s nostalgia, alienating viewers who didn’t grow up with the original.
• The climax swaps satire for straightforward action, undercutting the film’s comedic identity.
• A handful of gags (a prolonged bodily-fluid sequence) fall into gross-out territory that feels stale.

Scary Movie (2026) is the theatrical equivalent of meeting up with your college friends after 20 years: you laugh until you cry, you cringe at some of the old jokes, and you’re reminded why you loved them in the first place - even if you wouldn’t want to live with them again. It’s not the sharpest parody of the year, nor is it the worst. It’s a nostalgic, uneven, and undeniably funny reunion that knows its only job is to make you groan and guffaw in equal measure. If you’re a fan of the original, you’ll find enough to smile about. If you’re new to the franchise, it’s a perfectly adequate introduction to a style of comedy that’s been gone too long. Stream it with low expectations and high tolerance for absurdity, and you’ll have a good time.