Scary Movie - movie review (July 14, 2000)

It's scary how much money this movie made opening weekend.

And yep, I was one of the ones there. I'd seen the one-sheet and the trailer for this film, and it looked hysterical, so I was very eager to see it.

With an original working title of "Scream if you know what I did last Halloween", this film is a spoof of traditional slasher films, taking the situations we all know and turning them on their heads. I'm sure many of you have seen the ever-circulated-by-email list of stupid things you learned from watching horror movies. (You know, "If there's a crazed murderous psycho skulking around outside, leave the confines of the safely locked house to go look for him. Be sure to bring a flashlight.") I went into the film expecting something like that.

And that's kind of what I got. Kind of. To some degree. Yes, there were some very funny bits, and there were many references to horror films like "Scream" and "The Blair Witch Project" and the numerous other slice 'em and dice 'em films, but I was disappointed that much of the attempts at humour were sexually based. I was never much interested in the teen sex romps that were so popular a while back, even when I was in the targeted demographic, so maybe that's why this film didn't do that much for me. I wish they had played more with the horror genre itself rather than go for the cheap thrills. (Yes, there's quite a bit of nudity and overly sexual jokes, both visual and verbal.) Oh, and they made one huge mistake. The surviving heroine of the teen slasher films all shared one characteristic, which the heroine of this film completely lacks.

This film is directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans and the screenplay is credited to six people - a team of four writers and a team of two writers. Maybe that's why the film seems very disjointed - everybody contributed a little bit but nothing really meshes.

If you're into this kind of thing, you'll love the film. But, please, leave the kids at home, ok? At the showing I attended, almost half the audience consisted of kids under the age of 12, brought by parents or adults since the film is rated R. This is completely an inappropriate film for kids that age. What the heck are people thinking?

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