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Scary Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Keenen Ivory Wayans
Written by	Shawn Wayans Marlon Wayans Buddy Johnson Phil Beauman Jason Friedberg Aaron Seltzer
Produced by	Eric L. Gold Lee R. Mayes
Starring	Anna Faris Regina Hall Shawn Wayans Marlon Wayans Jon Abrahams Carmen Electra Shannon Elizabeth Kurt Fuller Lochlyn Munro Cheri Oteri Dave Sheridan
Cinematography	Francis Kenny
Edited by	Mark Helfrich
Music by	David Kitay
Production companies	Dimension Films Wayans Bros. Entertainment Gold/Miller Productions Brad Grey Pictures
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	July 7, 2000 (2000-07-07)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$19 million
Box office	$278 million

Scary Movie is a 2000 American parody film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. The film is a dark comedy that heavily parodies the horror, slasher, and mystery genres. Several mid- and late-'90s films and TV shows are spoofed, primarily Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, and Dawson's Creek.

The film was originally titled "Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell on Friday the 13th". The title was changed to Scary Movie in homage to the production title of Scream, which was also released through Dimension Films, and which serves as the primary inspiration for the film.

The film, the first in the Scary Movie film series, was followed by four sequels: Scary Movie 2 (2001), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Scary Movie 4 (2006) and Scary Movie 5 (2013).

Plot

Cast

• Anna Faris as Cindy Campbell
• Dave Sheridan as Doofy Gilmore
• Jon Abrahams as Bobby Prinze
• Marlon Wayans as Shorty Meeks
• Regina Hall as Brenda Meeks
• Shawn Wayans as Ray Wilkins
• Shannon Elizabeth as Buffy Gilmore
• Lochlyn Munro as Greg Phillipe
• Cheri Oteri as Gail Hailstorm
• Kurt Fuller as The Sheriff
• Carmen Electra as Drew Decker
• Rick Ducommun as Mr. Campbell
• Jayne Trcka as Miss Mann
• Kelly Coffield Park as Teacher
• David L. Lander as Principal 'Squiggy' Squiggman
• Marissa Jaret Winokur as Jill, the Garage Victim
• Keenen Ivory Wayans as Slave
• Robert Jacks (uncredited) as Rowdy
• James Van Der Beek (uncredited) as Dawson Leery
• Anthony McKay as Prince

Parodies

Much of the humor of Scary Movie relies upon specific references to other contemporary films. Roger Ebert remarked in his review that "to get your money's worth, you need to be familiar with the various teenage horror franchises." The backstory of the film's plot is modeled after I Know What You Did Last Summer including the teens' accidental murder of an innocent man on a car ride and Barry's murder onstage. Several elements are borrowed from the Scream franchise including the character Ghostface and the murder of Drew in the opening scene, which was modeled from the first film, the attack in the movie theatre from Scream 2, and the "rules of a trilogy" video from Scream 3. While smoking marijuana, Shorty quips "I see dead people", the line famously spoken by Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. In a chase scene, the film shifts its point of view to that of a hand-held camera with the characters speaking directly to the audience as in The Blair Witch Project. The scene in which Ray is about to stab Bobby to make the police believe they were the victims of the killer borrows heavily from a similar scene that takes place during the climax of Scream. The killer says the words "Red Rum", a reference to The Shining, before he kills Buffy. The line "We all go a little crazy sometimes" is also used, which is taken from Scream quoting Psycho.

Many scenes and jokes parody or reference other films outside the horror film genre. The fight between Cindy and the killer heavily mimics The Matrix, particularly its use of bullet time. The final scene, in which Doofy stops feigning his disability and drives away with Gail, is a takeoff of the final scene of The Usual Suspects. When asked about her favorite horror movie, Drew answers "Kazaam" due to Shaquille O'Neal's acting. Cindy becomes aggressive and roars "Say my name!" during sex with Bobby, similar to the sex scene between Michelle and Jim in American Pie. A trailer for a fictitious sequel to Amistad titled Amistad II with elements of Titanic appears in the movie theater scene.

The film also makes other pop culture references beyond the scope of film, including a brief send-up of Dawson's Creek and a parody of the Whassup? ad campaign by Budweiser. Drew (Carmen Electra)'s boyfriend at the beginning of the movie, the one she "slept with but didn't date" was Prince, who Electra dated in real life.

Rating

In British Columbia, the film Scary Movie was given an 18A rating by the provincial FCO, but was re-rated on appeal by the Motion Picture and Liquor Appeal Board to a 14A. This resulted in a record number of complaints to the British Columbia Film Classification Office from parents who felt the film should have been rated 18A. Many parents wrote letters to their local newspaper warning others that the film may be inappropriate for their fourteen-year-olds. Theatre owners complained about the inappropriate rating as well.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, 54% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 112 reviews.

Joe Leydon of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review, remarking that the film was "unbounded by taste, inhibition or political correctness" and that "the outer limits of R-rated respectability are stretched, if not shredded" by the movie. By contrast, Roger Ebert did not find the film as innovative, saying that the film lacked "the shocking impact of Airplane!, which had the advantage of breaking new ground." However, Ebert did give the film 3 stars out of 4, saying it "delivers the goods", calling the film a "raucous, satirical attack on slasher movies."

Bob Longino of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution felt that the film's crude humor detracted from the film, saying that Scary Movie "dives so deep into tasteless humor that it's a wonder it landed an R rating instead of an NC-17." Other reviewers, such as A.O. Scott of The New York Times, argued that the jokes were "annoying less for their vulgarity than for their tiredness." Scott remarked in his review, "Couch-bound pot smokers, prison sex, mannish female gym teachers, those Whassssup Budweiser commercials -- hasn't it all been done to death?".

Soundtrack

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic

The soundtrack to Scary Movie was released on July 4, 2000 through TVT Records and consists of a blend of hip hop and rock music.

Track listing

1. "Too Cool for School"- 2:27 (Fountains of Wayne)
2. "The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope"- 3:53 (Bloodhound Gang)
3. "Stay"- 3:56 (Radford)
4. "The Only Way to Be"- 3:20 (Save Ferris)
5. "My Bad"- 3:22 (Oleander)
6. "Punk Song #2"- 2:46 (Silverchair)
7. "Everybody Wants You"- 4:11 (Unband)
8. "Superfly"- 2:55 (Bender)
9. "I Wanna Be Sedated"- 2:31 (The Ramones)
10. "Scary Movies (Sequel)"- 3:56 (Bad Meets Evil)
11. "All bout U"- 4:34 (Tupac Shakur, Top Dogg, Yaki Kadafi, Hussein Fatal, Nate Dogg & Dru Down)
12. "I Want Cha"- 4:37 (Black Eyed Peas)
13. "What What"- 5:03 (Public Enemy)
14. "Feel Me"- 3:49 (Rah Digga, Rampage & Rock)
15. "I'm the Killer"- 3:57 (Lifelong & Incident)

See also

• List of ghost films

• Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth — A parody of horror movies
• Student Bodies — A parody of horror movies
• Stan Helsing — A parody of horror movies

References

1. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=87145
2. ^ Ebert, Roger (July 7, 2000). "Scary Movie". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
3. ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (July 21, 2000). "Scary Movie". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
4. ^ Scott, A. O. Tomatoes "Scary Movie". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-04-18. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
5. ^ Leydon, Joe (June 29, 2000). "Scary Movie". Variety. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
6. Pelton, Steven (2004-08-19). "RECONSIDERATION DECISION: GOING THE DISTANCE requested by Odeon Films" (PDF). British Columbia Film Classification Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
7. Scary Movie at Rotten TomatoesFlixster
8. Longino, Bob. "Scary Movie". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
9. Scary Movie at AllMusic

External links

• Official website
• Scary Movie at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Scary Movie at Box Office Mojo
• Scary Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
• Scary Movie at Metacritic

• 2000 films
• 2000s comedy films
• 2000s comedy horror films
• American black comedy films
• American comedy horror films
• American films
• American comedy films
• American teen films
• Comedy horror films
• English-language films
• Films shot in Vancouver
• Dimension Films films
• Miramax films
• Films directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans
• Scary Movie (film series)
• Sororicide in fiction