This is Scary Movie 6 but it’s more like Scary Movie 3, as its the first movie since Scary Movie 2 for the Wayans family, who quit due to creative conflicts with the original producers.
After the massive box office run of Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2, Marlon, Shawn and Keenen Ivory Wayans pitched their script for Scary Movie 3 alongside their treatment for White Chicks. Miramax liked the ideas, but offered the brothers a pay rate identical to the original low-budget indie deal—forcing them to take an effective pay cut. When negotiations broke down, the Wayans pivoted to White Chicks. Miramax kept the Scary Movie 3 pitch, hired new writers and left the original creators out in the cold.
Keenen Ivory Wayans advised Anna Faris to walk away in solidarity, but she was trapped in a strict three-picture contract and couldn’t risk a studio lawsuit. Meanwhile, Anthony Anderson signed onto Scary Movie 3 specifically to work with the Wayans brothers, only finding out they had left the project after signing his contract.
Years later, when Marlon produced A Haunted House, The Weinstein Company tried to buy the film rights. Marlon rejected the deal after realizing their true strategy: buy the movie, put it on a shelf, and harvest its jokes for Scary Movie 5.
17 years later, at CinemaCon in April 2024, Miramax announced a brand-new Scary Movie project. By October, the Wayans brothers officially signed on to write and produce. Joined by co-writer Rick Alvarez and director Michael Tiddes (with Marlon’s Ugly Baby Productions backing the shoot), the return was fueled by two major factors: the total collapse of Bob and Harvey Weinstein, and encouragement from the family patriarch, Howell Stouten Wayans, before his passing in 2023.
Teenager Tuesday Campbell—daughter of our classic heroine Cindy—gets attacked by Ghostface while watching an in-universe spoof called Horror Movie (featuring cameos from Teyana Taylor, Carmen Electra and Sleepaway Camp royalty Felissa Rose). Tuesday survives, prompting her half-sister Sara and her boyfriend Jack to investigate. They suspect this new streak of bloody violence is a copycat of the infamous 2000 killings executed by none other than Doofy Gilmore (Dave Sheridan, back in fine form).
When Sara and Jack try to enlist Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), they find her living as a paranoid recluse who thinks the killer is just baiting her out of hiding, so yeah, Laurie Strode 2018. Meanwhile, the new generation of victims gathers, including Brenda Meeks’s (Regina Hall) kids Brad (Gregg Wayans) and nonbinary twin Dei (Sydney Park); Brad’s girlfriend, Elle (Ruby Snowber); Theriff Greg Phillippe’s (Lochlyn Munro) transgender son, Jess (Benny Zielke) and Brenda’s forever-stoned brother, Shorty (Marlon Wayans). Oh yeah — Brenda is now going by Ma”and attending church with her husband Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans), who claims he’s completely renounced his homosexuality. If you wondered, “Does the church look like Sinners?” You know how this goes.
After Ghostface ambushes Sara and Jack at the hospital, they track down Doofy, who has reverted back to his mentally disabled persona. With Doofy reluctantly joining the team, everyone converges at Brenda’s house. A newly repentant Cindy shows up, and the original gang breaks down the sacred horror rules: Ghostface is running a “ebootquel. That means the film is bringing back legacy icons just to butcher them alongside the fresh faces.
That said, there are only two moments that made me laugh. First, Shorty smokes far too much weed, triggering a hallucinatory, K-Pop Demon Hunters-style animated sequence. Then, Chris Elliot shows up as Shorthand, pretty much his old role now with more Longlegs. Oh yeah — I also liked the ending — spoilers — as Shorty and Ray execute Anthony Anderson and Shaq on the spot. Why? Pure petty revenge for Anthony and Shaq starring in Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 without them.
