Scary Movie: Difference between revisions

 

This movie series pastiches horror film tropes in the vein of ''[[Airplane!]]'' and ''[[The Naked Gun]]'' (whose ZAZ team was in charge of the third and fourth movies). The first movie was mainly a parody of the first ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'', although it also heavily spoofed ''[[I Know What You Did Last Summer]]'' and took jabs at various other films, and not necessarily just from the horror genre. Depressingly, the writers seemed to miss the irony of parodying the first ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'' movie, which was that it was itself a parody of the Slasher Genre; just not one in particular.

 

 

The third movie combined the storylines of ''Signs'' and ''[[The Ring]]'', while it had a subplot spoofing ''[[8 Mile]]''.

 

 

Unfortunately, this film's success is largely to blame for the later careers of [[Seltzer and Friedberg]], who had been part of the writing team on the original film <ref>In the vaguest sense -- they wrote the initial script, which the Wayans Brothers jettisoned and rewrote from scratch. That never stopped them from putting the tagline "From two of the six writers of ''Scary Movie''" on their films, however.</ref> and proceeded to co-opt the idea with [[Follow the Leader|more]] and [[Cash Cow Franchise|more]] puerile iterations of it in different genres.

 

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* [[Absurdly Ineffective Barricade]]: In ''[[Scary Movie]] 3'', the protagonists are shown boarding over a cellar door to keep aliens out (in a parody of ''[[Signs]]''). Cue Cindy opening the door with no problem. It turns out they'd just nailed some planks to it without fastening them to the wall.

* [[All Part of the Show]]: Parodied in the first movie.

* [[Asshole Victim]]: [[Played for Laughs]] in the first film. One of the teenagers being stalked by the masked killer is watching a movie in a crowded theater; she's being loud and obnoxious, ruining the movie for everyone else. The masked killer is then shown to be sitting in the seat next to her... but before he gets the chance, one of the other moviegoers steals his knife and stabs her. He then just sits and drinks his soda while ''all the other audience members'' continue to stab her to death. When she stumbles in front of the screen and finally falls dead, they ''applaud''.

* [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]: Parodied in the fourth movie, when the ghost boy (from ''[[The Grudge]]'') and Cindy have a conversation in "Japanese" that is really just random product names and commonly known Japanese words.

'''Cindy:''' Harikari tsunami kamikaze banzai. '''''Subtitles''': How sad, my life is also tragic.'' }}

* [[Awful Truth]]: Parodied mercilessly.

* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: Buffy, especially to her parents.

* [[Black Best Friend]]: Brenda (to Cindy) and Mahalik (to George). Heavily parodied

** Defied in the first film, when the black news crew leaves as soon as the deaths start.

** Also lampshaded in the second film, as Brenda yells at the white folks for suggesting [[Let's Split Up, Gang!|they split up]].

'''Brenda''': We gonna die, y'all. }}

** Ironically, its also ''inverted'' in the first movie. The last victim of the killer is Ray, who is black (though he's [[Unexplained Recovery|gotten better]] in the next movie).

** Played straight in the third movie, when Brenda is the first main character to die because of the tape. (Cindy would have helped her if not for the boy-who-cried-wolf scenario of the scene).

** And the most clueless of them all, Cindy!

** Only in the later films. [[Anna Faris]] is definitely beautiful, and Cindy is definitely brainless in ''3'' and ''4'', but in the first two films she's a parody of unpopular, [[Hollywood Homely]] [[Final Girl|Final Girls]].

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Lots. In the first movie alone, the film's crew is featured in one scene, and when the ''[[Dawson's Creek]]'' theme song starts playing during another scene, James Van Der Beek shows up, only to realize he's on the wrong set.

** Happens in-universe in the second movie, where Cindy is singing along ([[Hollywood Tone Deaf|badly]]) to Vitamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)" on the radio. Eventually, Vitamin C stops the song to tell Cindy to "shut the fuck up and let me sing!".

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Virtually every character.

** Oliver (played by Michael Madsen) in ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'' stands out, as demonstrated in [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs]]. Another notable quote:

* [[Continuity Nod]]: In ''Scary Movie 4'', Cindy got hid on the face with a baseball.

* [[Covers Always Lie]]: In this case, Posters Always Lie. [[King Kong]] appears on the poster for ''Scary Movie 4'' but is not even referenced once in the film itself.

* [[Crazy Cultural Comparison]]: The aliens greet each other by getting the person they're greeting in a choke hold. They say goodbye with a [[Groin Attack]].

* [[Deconstructor Fleet]]: The entire series of films.

* [[Delusions of Eloquence]]: In ''[[The Village]]'' parody, an entire series of jokes is built around this:

* [[Dem Bones]]: in ''2''.

* [[Depraved Homosexual]]: Ray.

* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]: Parodied in the second film with Dwight, a wheelchair-bound cripple, who gets offended every time someone offers to help him with anything. He does this even when it makes no sense or is ridiculously hard to do by himself, such as giving ''[[Screw Yourself|himself]]'' a blowjob and going up two flights of stairs.

* [[Dressing as the Enemy]]: Parodied in the fourth movie, when Cindy and Brenda pull two "village" women into the bushes, and after a brief scuffle the women emerge looking disgruntled, followed by Cindy and Brenda, who were the ones actually beaten up. They later settle for spare garments on a clothesline.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Parodied in the first movie, where the main character yells into the air "What are you waiting for?!" in frustration. Little does she realize that on the roof behind her a man is actually getting ready to jump to his death. Upon hearing her he asks "What am I ''waiting for''? WHAT AM I WAITING FOR?!" and jumps.

* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Cindy Campbell in the later films.

* [[DVD Bonus Content]]: Alternate endings not included in the theater release (including one in ''Scary Movie 3'' parodying ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'').

* [[Genre Blindness]]: Most characters, most blatantly parodied in the first movie when a character sees two signs pointing towards "Safety" and "Death" while running from a killer. Guess which one she chooses?

* [[Hand Wave]]: Happens to Brenda repeatedly. She got stabbed to death in the first movie, but then comes back for the 2nd with no explanation. And then in the 3rd movie, she dies again. In the 4th, Cindy finds her on crashed plane. The following exchange occurs.

'''Brenda:''' Oh Cindy, I thought you were dead too. }}

** Found in ''2'' as well.

'''Cindy:''' Oh... right. }}

*** She also dismisses forever the facts that Ray slept with her ex-boyfriend and tried to kill her.

** [[Supernatural (TV series)|Zachariah]] plays the sheriff in the first film.

** Buddy in the second film is played by [[Malcolm in the Middle|Francis]].

** [[Leslie Nielsen]] played the President in the third and fourth movies.

* [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: Shorty in ''2''; after watching the deformed butler molest the turkey (ruining everyone's appetites), he reaches for a bottle of red wine and quickly polishes it off.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Scores of them.

* [[Missing White Woman Syndrome]]: Parodied when Cindy sends an email to the police reading "White woman in trouble!" and the next shot shows the house surrounded by police cruisers.

** Also in the third movie

* [[Mugging the Monster]]: Second movie, the [[Monster Clown|scary clown doll]] pulls Ray Wilkins under the bed and gets a major surprise.

'''Clown''': Hey, get your finger out of there! }}

* [[Narrator]]: Several, including James Earl Jones in ''Scary Movie 4'' {{spoiler|who, at the end of the movie, is hit by a bus}}.

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: One [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0zAlXr1UOs trailer] for ''Scary Movie 4'' suggests that Shaquille O'Neill and Dr. Phil are trapped along with the main protagonists.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: Repeatedly and gleefully broken, often with an [[Aside Glance]].

* [[Nostril Shot]]: Parodied in the first movie, where the character [[The Blair Witch Project|talking to the camera]] has a runny nose that just keeps running.

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: The guy they ran over in the first movie in the flashback.

* [[Nuclear Candle]]: In the second movie, when Cindy shows Buddy the secret study, he lights one candle, which then illuminates nearly the whole room.

* [[Black Comedy Rape]], [[Double Standard Rape (Male on Male)]]: Quite literally in the second movie, particularly the ''[[Poltergeist]]'' spoof involving [[Mugging the Monster|Ray and the Clown Doll]].

* [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie]]: The trailer for ''[[Amistad]] II'' in the first film.

* [[Refuge in Vulgarity]]: Several times, but the award goes to the onscreen trepidation of a character's skull by an erect penis. {{spoiler|[[Unexplained Recovery|He gets better]].}}

* [[Reset Button]]: Parodied in the context of dead characters being alive in the next movie with little (or no) explanation. It often gets a Lampshade Hanging.

* [[Sassy Black Woman]]: Oh, ''Brenda''...

* [[Seinfeldian Conversation]]: About issues such as whether one can wake up dead, the difference between mice and rats, or the paradox of turning up missing by Mahalik and CJ.

* [[Sequel Snark]]: The [[Tagline]] of the first movie was "No mercy. No shame. No sequel." This didn't stop a sequel from being released the very next year (with the [[Tagline]] "[[I Lied|We Lied]]").

* [[Sexy Shirt Switch]]: Parodied.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Among other things, to the Zucker brothers' film ''[[Airplane!]]'' which also starred Leslie Nielsen in an [[Actor Allusion]]:

** Also of note is Brenda, named after Regina King's character on the 80's sitcom ''227'' (yes, that was her as a child).

** The character of [[Buffy]] [[Gilmore Girls|Gilmore]].

* [[Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror]]

* [[Slow Motion Drop]]: Parodied in the first movie, when Cindy drops a coffee cup after realizing the identity of the killer, and a ''goldfish'' is seen flopping around in the contents.

* [[Take That]]: Doofy, a parody of David Arquette's character Dewey.

** Also "MJ" in the third film, a parody of [[Michael Jackson]], albeit implied to be gay rather than a pedophile in order to try and avoid pissing off Jackson too much. It didn't work and Jackson threatened a lawsuit anyway, so when the next movie came around the character was actually called "Michael Jackson" and shown to be a full-on pedophile.

** [[Exaggerated Trope|Exaggerated]] with Buffy Gilmore, who's convinced that the serial killer is a prankster even as he cuts her head off and throws it into a bin.

* [[Transparent Closet]]: A [[Running Joke]] with Ray in the first film. Throughout the movie he does many questionable things such as tucking his shirt like a [[Camp Gay]], describing a male character as having "long hair", a "pretty little mouth", and a "perfect ass", and show enthusiasm at the prospect of going to prison on account of [[Prison Rape|the sex-starved convicts looking for a fresh piece of meat]], among many others. In spite of this he has a girlfriend who he apparently makes out with regularly, and denies it when somebody points it out to someone else. The second movie makes him out-and-out gay, while he ''still'' has a girlfriend.

'''Bobby''': Whatever Ray! }}

* [[Troll]]: The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36kyD0TwgM parrot].

* [[Unexplained Recovery]]: It's never explained how Brenda came back on a plane in the fourth movie even though she died in the third.

** Or indeed, how most of the cast of the first movie came back for the second after they'd all been killed.

* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]: A big problem with ''Scary Movie 2'', even taking into account the fact that spoof movies generally don't age too well. In addition to the film featuring a lot of spoofs of adverts and music videos from 2000--2001 (which are a lot less likely to be remembered than films from the same time period), most of the films being spoofed got horrible critical receptions and were quickly forgotten, which hurts the film quite badly these days.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: ''[[Kevin Smith]]'' was in talks to write and direct Scary Movie 3 at one point...

** ...but then again, so were [[Seltzer and Friedberg|Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg]]. Say what you like about David Zucker's version of the film, but we probably dodged a major bullet there.

[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Film]]