Scary Movie Review: The Wayans Deliver Another Joke-First Parody

The Scary Movie franchise suffers from the same issues as every parody film. The humor will play to those who watch the movies, and the audience will accept or reject accordingly. Unlike The Naked Gun or Hot Shots, which parodied movies at the center of the monoculture, the Wayans Brothers-led franchise lampooned a specific genre thanks to a brief but exciting return of the teen slasher to the mainstream. However, Scary Movie (2026) enters a unique place where all horror movies are at the center of the culture. With the ability to lampoon multiple Oscar-winning movies and zeitgeisty titles, the Wayans’ return coincides with a return to form for the franchise as a whole.

What is Scary Movie about?

As with the many films that preceded it, Scary Movie returns Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) to the crosshairs of the Ghostface killer. Cindy’s daughters, Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif), are hunted by the killers. With their friends Dei (Sydney Park), Brad (Gregg Wayans), Val (Ruby Snowber), Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts), and Jess (Benny Zielke), the group tries to survive.

However, Cindy knows that the killers have only returned to lure her back into public. As she fights with Sara about who the killer wants to slay more, Cindy reconnects with Ray (Shawn Wayans) and Shorty (Marlon Wayans). Who will survive their new encounters with death? The new school or the old school?

Scary Movie focuses primarily on horror parody and is better for it.

Talk of “elevated horror” and the low-budget renaissance provides plenty of fodder for jokes. The Wayans take a shotgun approach to lampooning everything. There’s no denying that some gimmicks are better than others, but on the whole, the sheer number of gags is impressive. Directed by Michael Tiddes and written by a five-person team (including Rick Alvarez with Marlon, Shawn, Keenan Ivory, and Craig Wayans), the group aims the high-brow art with low-brow shenanigans. They also reinfuse the franchise with Black humor, an aspect that has been missing since Scary Movie 4.

You know what the Wayans brothers look for in their Scary Movie entries. Their ability to both lampoon and play with Black culture has few equals outside of Jordan Peele. Marlon Wayans is up for strange sexual escapades while smoking a ton of weed. Shawn Wayans continues to deny and question his sexuality with every innuendo. Meanwhile, Hall and Faris continue their dynamic duo routine that has remained funny for over twenty years. Using Sinners, Weapons, Longlegs, and the recent Scream flicks as their foundation, the Wayans paint with a broad brush. However, the sheer number of one-liners and sight gags will either pull you through or turn you off.

For their part, the Wayans do address the elephant in the room with surprising honesty. The Wayans were taken out of the franchise after Scary Movie 2, in part because the Weinstein machine low-balled them on the offer to make a third film. However, both Farris and Hall continued in the franchise, opening the door for each to become box office draws in the years that followed. The Wayans use this to critique the “legasequel” model, which often handwaves the reasons for actors returning to their respective franchises. While they include plenty of their own callbacks to their filmographies and the franchise, they needle their co-stars time and time again.

The Wayans are also self-aware. They tone down elements of their past entries, most noticeably poking fun at the casual homophobia and transphobia of their previous entries. There are far fewer scenes used to hypersexualize women, and the discussion around them “taking on cancel culture” is far less present than early media would have you believe. Nothing is quite as shocking as the explosive jism jokes in the first two Scary Movie flicks. If anything, the humor punches up at films that have already won over the culture.

A long conversation has been brewing in film and comedy spaces. Can comedians actually age well, or is the mere act of comedy meant to be subversive to the moment? Ultimately, Scary Movie threads the needle between the two extremes. It showcases comedians who have taken stock of how the world has changed since their last features together and adapted. Scary Movie will not be the version you watched when you were 15, in part because the world has shifted. For the Wayans to still find jokes, build a cathedral to lampooning the industry’s most dominant genre, and only occasionally fall into the “old man shouts at clouds” joke is actually an impressive feat.

Is Scary Movie worth watching?

Yes, especially if you’re a fan of the first two Scary Movie entries. It will undeniably do less for fans of the Zucker-era, with sparing references to Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, though they are at least acknowledged. While the humor is going to pander to audiences, that is the deal you make on a parody movie versus an original comedy.

It’s ultimately there to give you the most jokes that appeal to the most people, so expect a six/seven reference or two in the runtime. The humor is not going to innovate, the homophobia is scaled down significantly, and the jokes are fine. While it has nothing on 2025’s The Naked Gun, Scary Movie was a fun way to pass the hour-and-a-half runtime.

Scary Movie is now in theaters. Paramount Pictures distributes.

Scary Movie Review: The Wayans Deliver Another Joke-First Parody