The funniest and most pointed joke in Scary Movie, the Wayans brothers’ third title in the lowest-common-denominator horror parody series, is suggested in its modifier-free name. This is the sixth Scary Movie and the Wayans’ first in 25 years and the movie’s spartan title effectively sends up genre series filmmakers who suggest that they’re going back to basics by removing numbers from their latest sequel’s title.
The rest of the movie, which was co-scripted by ex-franchise stars Marlon and Shawn with help from brother Keenen Ivory, nephew Craig, and regular collaborator Craig Alvarez, only glancingly skewers horror movie trends, let alone current events. A few jokes target whatever the Wayans brothers’ consider to be “woke,” like the WokeWatts electric car pump that sets up a joke without a clear punchline. Is it supposed to be funny because driving an electric car equals woke? Or is the joke on us for expecting the Wayans brothers to say something topical?
To be fair, Scary Movie isn’t only bad because its creators don’t know what to do with meme-ready horror characters like Terrifier’s Art The Clown or M3GAN’s title character. The movie doesn’t offer much in the way of a plot, though it does sometimes pair up the previous movies’ stars, like Regina Hall and Anna Faris, with younger performers since they’re all being targeted by a newly revived Ghosftface killer.
Some jokes land, especially the ones that are at least superficially about the inane ongoing cycle of slasher legacy sequels, or “rebootquels” as one Scary Movie (2000) alum calls them. It is, admittedly, funny to see the movie’s younger cast members blink uncomprehendingly at an I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) reference. It’s also kind of strange to see Marlon and Shawn Wayans waste so much time reviving their sketchy characters from the previous Scary Movies, as if there were anything worth remembering about Shorty the pothead (Marlon) or Ray the closeted ex-football player (Shawn).
Now Shorty’s a crypto bro who also runs a livestream where he mocks his audience for paying attention to him. And Ray’s still very closeted, only now it’s harder to know why, especially since his character only pops up in scenes that allude to horror movies starring, directed, and scripted by Black artists, particularly Get Out and Sinners. These uneasy and monotonous jokes don’t say anything about those recent milestone hits, but it’s funny to imagine viewers wondering why Shawn Wayans makes so many jokes about gay sex given that it’s been so long since Scary Movie (2000) and its tired riffing on Scream’s “meta,” trope-filled genre satire, that Ray’s stereotypical hypersexuality is now not only unfunny, but also incomprehensible.
Stopping Ghostface eventually seems like a pretext for a series of winking references to dated characters and world events, most of which lack a coherent perspective or concept beyond flattering us for recognizing so many pop culture references. The filmmakers clearly want us to know, with every gay panic and anti-Gen Z joke, that they’re committed to a politically incorrect style of humor. It’s also telling that, while some topics are ostensibly good for a laugh, others are either ignored or downplayed. So there’s a random nod to the Epstein Files during a brief and toothless The Substance parody, but no jokes about Diddy parties—maybe because Marlon has attended some—or Harvey Weinstein, possibly because Scary Movie (2026) begins with a Miramax logo. Instead we get half-assed jokes about they/them pronouns—“I’m over 40 [years old], how am I supposed to keep up with this?”—and the #MeToo movement. That kind of desperate-to-nettle humor says more about the Wayans brothers’ low expectations of their fans, as they even suggest when one character jokes that the Wayans’ audience doesn’t know how to read.
The best gags in Scary Movie give charming older comedians enough wiggle room to out-funny their undemanding material. And while Faris doesn’t have much screentime, she still occasionally makes something of the movie’s otherwise dull lampooning of Laurie Strode’s histrionic post-final girl trauma narrative from the recent Halloween sequels. It’s less funny watching her briefly play a “Joan Wick”-style killer, mostly because the filmmakers can’t imagine anything funny about Anna Faris with a gun that isn’t more amusing on paper than it is on screen.
Wasting moviegoers’ time with a heap of pandering callbacks wouldn’t be so bad if most of the movie’s jokes were more polished. Then again, tired jokes about Gen Z slang and identity politics may make you wish you knew less about what the Wayans brothers think about modern life. Watching seasoned older comedians target the young for caring too much is bad enough, but seeing them miss even their softest targets makes Scary Movie the most embarrassing movie spoof since Scary Movie.
Director: Michael Tiddes
Writer: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans, Rick Alvarez
Starring: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall
Release Date: June 5, 2026
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