Years ago, after The Exorcist: Believer (2023) bombed critically and financially, I thought a return from the Wayans brothers with another iteration of their iconic horror parody film franchise, Scary Movie, was needed more than ever. Despite their poorly aged jokes, they filled the Walmart bargain bin for years with a slew of parody movies. After 13 years and many major shifts in horror, the Wayans are back with another Scary Movie. Advertised as a movie that would cross every line and offend everybody, I was incredibly skeptical about whether it would say anything meaningful or be deeply unfunny.
I’m not very surprised to report that 2026’s Scary Movie fails to even make me sharply exhale air out of my nose. Trying incessantly to trigger anyone it can, the film fails to offer any meaningful commentary or parody of modern horror. A film like 2025’s The Naked Gun works as a broad parody while having its own distinct style and a competent writer and director, but Scary Movie falters in that it is too broad to make any sense. It manages to cram in many relevant but unnecessary references to iconic modern horror movies, including but not limited to: Sinners (2025), Weapons (2025), The Substance (2024), Get Out (2017), It Follows (2014), and more.
Scary Movie focuses on essentially the same plot as Scream (2022), with the estranged daughter (Olivia Rose Keegan) of Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) returning home to take down Ghostface. The film also uses elements from Halloween (2018), most notably with Cindy resembling Laurie Strode. When focused on the saturation of reboot sequels, the film is at its funniest, but that’s not saying much. More than half of the jokes in the film come from the boomer mindset that the younger generation is soft and easily offended, which gets old right out of the gate. The Wayans have previously been known for genuinely interesting and creative comedy; the old Scary Movies have better jokes than this one. What makes this movie such a drag is how it sets itself up to “cross every line,” but it ultimately does nothing to push any boundaries outside of making me roll my eyes.
I never expected Scary Movie to have any narrative coherence, because the number of parodies it has to include outweighs any concept of smooth storytelling. Still, this film is a downright mess. It feels like a series of skits rather than a complete film, with jokes ending too early or going on way too long. This series has never positioned itself as a sophisticated comedy, but at least it had a few new ideas in the previous entries. This film includes such hits as the word “unc” as well as an aggressively sexual KPop Demon Hunters (2025) parody, so that’s what we’re working with in 2026.
The only light I can possibly find in this film is the duo of Faris and Regina Hall as Cindy and Brenda. Having been meme’d to high heaven across the Internet in the past ten years alone, these two are easily the most entertaining parts. Whereas the Wayans are clearly clinging onto whatever concept of humor they have left, Faris and Hall play up the camp and are the only veteran actors in the film who show that they have some gas left in the tank. Even the new set of actors portraying the Gen Z side are aggressively trying to match the older actors’ humor, to no avail. I found Keegan particularly annoying as she was trying to do an Anna Faris impression the entire time.
I almost feel like Scary Movie is as bad as it is to comment on how unnecessary the concept of the legacy sequel is. We’ve seen Halloween (2018) cause a slew of legacy sequels that have been largely misses, providing nothing new or interesting to reinvigorate a dead or dying franchise. The only new things Scary Movie provides are even worse in quality than any of the previous films. I feel as though my hope for a new Scary Movie caused the monkey’s paw to curl in the most sinister way imaginable.
An eye-rolling, brainless attempt to “legalize comedy again,” the only thing the Wayans managed to do was make me wish this movie had never come out.
Review Courtesy of Nadia Arain
Feature Image Credit to Paramount