Do you like parodies that barely function as actual movies and aren\u2019t really funny either? Then you are squarely in the target audience for the sixth instalment in the horror send-up series that kicked off with 2000\u2019s Scary Movie. The last one, released in 2013, was so bad it almost killed a franchise that grossed close to \u00a3900m. Naturally, then, we\u2019re in reboot territory, with this latest film the first to involve the original creators since 2001\u2019s Scary Movie 2.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a sense of occasion about the Wayans family rising up to take charge of the script again. Well, let\u2019s just say it doesn\u2019t last. The plot \u2013 to use that word extremely generously \u2013 follows the inevitable return of Ghostface, who begins targeting the offspring of characters from the first movie. This leads the gang of mostly unmemorable kids to round up the adults, bringing Cindy (Anna Faris), Brenda (Regina Hall), Shorty (Marlon Wayans) and Officer Doofy (Dave Sheridan) back into the fold.<\/p>\n
All of this happens so quickly it feels as if there\u2019s a chunk of the movie missing, though it\u2019s unlikely anyone cares \u2013 including, apparently, the filmmakers themselves. To be fair, there\u2019s a good amount of self-reflexive ribbing, with a nicely barbed gag about the script (which borrows its set-up from 2022\u2019s Scream<\/a> reboot and last year\u2019s Final Destination Bloodlines<\/a>) exploiting horror nostalgia. As ever, the film is really just an excuse to string together a bunch of cinematic in-jokes, meaning it lives or dies on the strength of its sketches.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The result is a slow death that drags even at 96 minutes, despite director Michael Tiddes\u2019 best efforts to keep things moving. You\u2019d think the so-called \u2018elevated horror\u2019 of arty genre movies such as Get Out<\/a> and Hereditary<\/a> would leave the Wayans crew with plenty to skewer. In fact, a spoof of the former movie spirals into a KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> riff so bizarre it left the audience scratching their heads at the screening NME attended. A Sinners parody falls similarly flat \u2013 but don\u2019t worry: the pulpy likes of the Halloween<\/a> reboot and Terrifier 3<\/a> come in for a lukewarm roasting, too.<\/p>\n On the plus side, Teyana Taylor helps to summon the aforementioned sense of occasion in a surprisingly effective cold open, a movie-within-a-movie that leads one character to eye-roll that film parodies are little more than \u201ccelebrity cameos and fart gags\u201d. Saturday Night Live<\/a>\u2019s Kenan Thompson can\u2019t quite lift a toothless Michael<\/a> sketch, but there\u2019s a decent Weapons <\/a>bit and a punchline involving the Wayans\u2019 2004 comedy White Chicks that received an uproarious response at our screening, suggesting there\u2019s still a lot of love for the family.<\/p>\n The clan have attempted to freshen up the formula by setting their sights on all things \u2018woke\u2019 and have managed\u00a0 to do so without being mean-spirited. \u201cMy family don\u2019t punch down on people,\u201d Marlon Wayans recently told Empire. \u201cWe\u2019re very inclusive in our comedy.\u201d He\u2019s right and that\u2019s to their credit, but it doesn\u2019t make the film any funnier.<\/p>\n Details<\/p>\n Director: Michael Tiddes
\nStarring: Marlon Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall
\nRelease date: June 5 (in UK cinemas)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you like parodies that barely function as actual movies and aren\u2019t really funny either? Then you are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,4727,344],"class_list":["post-715299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-horror","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}