‘Scary Movie’ Is a Perfect Throwback in All the Best and Worst Ways

Horror is taking over the world right now, and for good reason. Both Backrooms and Obsession are currently proving that the YouTube invasion of Hollywood is here to stay, making Kane Parsons and Curry Barker bona fide stars from their respective beginnings as internet content creators. Nia DaCosta‘s zombie sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is also worth noting, as is Sam Raimi‘s long-awaited return to horror with Send Help, and Radio Silence’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. That doesn’t even account for the remaining anticipated flicks of the year, such as Evil Dead Burn, Resident Evil, and Clayface.

Of course, this recent boom has followed a long winning streak, and one that reached a boiling point last year with Oscar-winning super-hits like Sinners and Weapons. There was once a time when these cultural touchstones of horror would be swiftly parodied in one of the Scary Movie films: the long-running horror parody franchise that hasn’t been seen since 2013’s fifth chapter. Now, 13 years later, the Wayans Brothers have used movie magic to bring the franchise back to life with a new sequel/reboot/requel. Does it live up to the original movies? While that depends on your overall feelings about the Scary Movie movies, the answer in any case is yes, indeed.

What Is ‘Scary Movie’ About?

Being a loose reboot of the franchise after its decade-long hiatus, Scary Movie (the sixth) goes back to basics to focus on skewering the Scream franchise, more specifically, the 2022 legacy sequel. While Brenda (Regina Hall) and Shorty (Marlon Wayans) are living their hectic fourth-wall-breaking lives, Cindy (Anna Faris) has become an aloof recluse, à la Jamie Lee Curtis‘ Laurie Strode in the recent Halloween revival, doomsday-prepping for the day Ghostface returns. Eventually, that day does indeed come, and the laughably incompetent serial killer has his sights set on Cindy’s children.

Amid the mayhem are mountains of references to other horror movies that aren’t directly related to the Scream universe, and a large handful of recent ones. Some examples of other horror movies who get some playful jabs in the raucous stoner comedy are Sinners, Longlegs, The Substance, Get Out, and more, and director Michael Tiddes does a more than decent job of emulating the directorial styles and visual identities of those very films. The Substance parody in particular is bound to get a lot of laughs, especially for those familiar with the Wayans family’s filmography.

The first half of Scary Movie 2026 spends more time than usual setting up each and every character of would-be comedic victims, particularly the younger generation, who require more of an introduction than their legacy peers. It follows the plot structure of Scream 2022 almost to a tee, and it does get to the point where it sometimes feels less like parody and more like ripping off. Still, in the most ironic comparison to the franchise it’s mostly making fun of, Scary Movie‘s characters somehow miraculously feel more well-developed than any of the new characters introduced in Scream 7.

The second half of the film essentially reverts to the franchise’s familiar territory of loosely connected sketches making fun of modern horror classics. For better or worse, this is what turned the Scary Movie franchise into the success that it is, but some sketches are better than others, like the aforementioned The Substance segment and the absolutely bonkers Get Out parody. Others feel a lot more out of place and go out on a whimper, like the pointless and easy-to-predict nod to Longlegs. Overall, while there is a clear effort to bring these parodies to life, Scary Movie ironically feels a bit too reliant on nostalgia to make them trulymemorable.

‘Scary Movie’s Cast Is Its Biggest Secret Weapon

Whether you’ll find Scary Movie‘s barrage of references and nods tolerable will depend on how you feel about the previous five movies, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the dedication from its dynamite cast. Anna Faris and Regina Hall, especially, have always been the franchise’s secret weapons, and that’s the case once again here. The two stalwarts have the funniest jokes in the entire movie. Marlon and Shawn Wayans also have a few solid scenes, even if their jokes are more repetitive with the former’s punchline always being “I’m high” and the latter’s being “I’m gay.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Scary Movie, though, is Olivia Rose Keegan, who is downright hysterical and feels like she’s on her way to becoming a big star. Playing Cindy’s eldest daughter, Rose Keegan does a pitch perfect impression of Faris from start-to-finish and feels perfectly cast in the role. Much like Faris and Hall, she helps carry the film with her performance.

‘Scary Movie’ Wants To Be Shocking, and Yet Still Plays Things Very Safe

From the get-go, Scary Movie made headlines when its creators said the franchise would not go “woke,” a term that has become just as exhausting as the right-wing internet trolls who have co-opted it to attack anyone who isn’t a straight white male online. Scary Movie essentially takes the South Park approach of making fun of everyone from all walks of life in and outside of the horror industry. None of it is overly offensive or entirely tame either, but it all still feels just very familiar and by the book — at least in terms of what we’ve seen in the franchise already.

The Naked Gun, another Paramount property, did a remarkable job of elevating that franchise’s brand of humor to do genuinely new and exciting concepts, feeling like a great return to form for the bygone era of slapstick comedies that are few and far between these days. Scary Movie had the potential to do the same, but instead of feeling like a fresh take on a classic concept, it feels like a slightly re-colored bag of old tricks. Ultimately, whether or not you will enjoy the new Scary Movie will depend on whether or not you liked the previous five. If you did, this one will feel like a silly reunion with an old friend. If you didn’t, this one will not change your mind about the saga’s over-the-top antics and gross-out shock humor.

Scary Movie premieres in theaters on Friday, June 5.

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Release Date

June 5, 2026

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Runtime

95 Minutes

Director

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Michael Tiddes

Writers

Craig Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Rick Alvarez, Shawn Wayans

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Producers

Craig Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Rick Alvarez, Shawn Wayans

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Cast

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  Marlon Wayans

  Shorty Meeks

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Pros & Cons

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• Anna Faris and Regina Hall shine.
• Olivia Rose Keegan is a fantastic new face in the comedy world.
• The ‘Get Out’ and ‘The Substance’ parodies are great…

• …but the others are largely forgettable.
• Marlon and Shawn Wayans’ characters get real repetitive real fast.
• The “anti-woke” humor feels surprisingly tame and overly familiar.