Scary Movie

Drew (Carmen Electra) is cooking popcorn when she gets a nasty, threatening, Scream type of phone call. Frightened she rushes from her house pausing to read two signs. One points to DEATH, the other to ESCAPE. Our temporary heroine chooses the DEATH option of course! This is Scary Movie, a very funny spoof on in particular the Scream films as well as the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise.
But there are also references to The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, The Usual Suspects, The Blair Witch Project, Halloween H20, The Exorcist and even Dawson’s Creek when James Van Der Beek appears briefly. It helps if you’ve seen at least Scream and Summer.
The humour is gross to the extreme, for example a man is skewered through the head by a penis, but the lovers of Scream won’t mind that at all. There’s no sensible plot either but why should that be a problem when Scary Movie makes no pretence at being original. Exaggeration, satire and grossed out over the top violence is our flavour of choice.
The Wayons boys Keenan Ivory, Shawn and Marlon (apparently minus Damon who is famous for Mo’ Money) put this piece of delicious rubbish together. They’ve previously been blamed for spoofs called I'm Gonna Get You Sucka and Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, which needless to say haven’t made it to Cairns. What a shame!
Homophobia is given quite a belting and there’s a small measure of social comment. Look what happens when a woman dials the police with the message "white woman in trouble"!!
I won’t spoil the movie by giving away the punch lines but note the following points. Sometimes it’s dangerous to let semen build up too much pressure. Beware of female gym instructors called Miss Mann. Listen if someone tells you that they’re not dead! Some holes are just too small to fit through. Annoy TV reporters at your own peril. Watch where you’re driving and what you’re doing behind the wheel! Don’t answer your mobile phone while at the movies and beware of police men bearing photographs.
And what of the star of Scary Movie who for my money was Cindy played by newcomer Anna Faris. I thought she was terrific, playing it straight, sometimes with a little grin, but she gets hardly a mention in the credits or on the promotional posters. I detect some sort of contractual brawl.
Decent spoof movies are few and far between. Films like Loaded Weapon 1, the Austin Powers films and the Naked Gun series have sometimes hit their mark. Is Scream itself a spoof? The self aware slasher genre invented by Kevin Williamson has the credentials but it’s also sometimes really scary.
Scary Movie isn’t. This is pure, ghastly comedy. It made me laugh even if many will call it rubbish. But they wouldn’t be Scream fans. Anyway I love film trash.

4 Mann’s Balls Flys

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