My quick rating – 5.2/10. I have been watching these parody movies since the day I first watched Airplane on Showtime. When they are at their best, they hurl so many jokes at us that you don’t get time to react from one joke before another hits you. I’m checking out the extended cut of Scary Movie (2026), although I honestly couldn’t tell you what was added. If I track down the differences later, I’ll update this review.
Twenty-six years after surviving a suspiciously familiar masked killer, Cindy, Brenda (Regina Hall), Ray (Shawn Wayans), and Shorty (Marlon Wayans) are back, and this time every horror franchise is fair game. Reboots, remakes, requels, legacy sequels, elevated horror, spin-offs…if Hollywood has squeezed a dollar out of it, this movie wants to make fun of it. The Wayans return determined to prove they still know how to push buttons, and for a while, they absolutely do.
The movie wastes no time jumping right in. Teyana Taylor kicks things off in a bar with Carmen Electra behind the counter. I won’t even attempt to list every cameo because I’d still be typing next week, but it was nice seeing Electra pop up again. She’s always entertaining, especially on Nation’s Dumbest. If you’re not watching, you’re missing out.
Anna Faris slips right back into Cindy like she never left. She’s now the mother of Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan), while Savannah Lee Nassif plays Tuesday, Sara’s sister. Yes…Tuesday. You can probably guess where at least half the jokes write themselves.
Just like all the other Scary Movies, this one fires jokes and gags non-stop. One of the reasons why this movie is so much fun is that you have to constantly look out for something funny going on in the background while something else is happening right in front of you. I found my notes become completely worthless pretty fast.
Unfortunately, that strong opening doesn’t last.
The laughs become increasingly hit-or-miss as the movie tries harder by forcing jokes instead of letting them land naturally. Every few minutes it feels like someone yelled, “We need another LOL here!” Whether it actually worked became almost secondary.
Then came the animated K-pop musical number. I’ll admit I actually laughed. Not because it was hilarious, but because I found myself thinking, “Surely they’re not going there.” Naturally, they went there.
Not every joke misses, though. The “Ask Demi Moore” line got a genuine laugh out of me, and seeing Chris Elliott return as Shorthand delivered a surprisingly nostalgic hit for longtime fans. I also got a kick out of how they managed to work Weapons into one scene. Horror fans will have plenty to look for, with nods to everything from Sinners to recent genre hits scattered throughout the movie.
Following years of complaints about their franchise being stripped from them, I thought the Wayans’ return would have been a big comeback. But it is not. It seems to be more of a happy get-together that just cannot seem to regain its magic.
There’s certainly no shortage of references, cameos, or enthusiasm. The problem is that references aren’t automatically jokes. The original films balanced outrageous stupidity with genuinely clever parody. Here, too many scenes mistake “remember this?” for an actual punchline.
I still had enough laughs to not get pissed about my 105-minute investment. And longtime fans will probably enjoy seeing the old gang back together one more time. I just wish the script had been as sharp as the nostalgia.
