The Internet seems to have spoken: they don’t like Scream 7. Even I have to admit that I found it disappointing. The Ghostface reveal was weak, it was relying too much on returning star power over the next generation, and they teased up Stu Macher being alive, only for it to be a letdown. There was one good thing about going to see it in theaters, though: it was the perfect platform to reveal a trailer for another movie. A Scary Movie.
Back in the 2000s, the Scary Movie films, created by the Wayans Brothers, were like the South Park of horror comedy. They parodied all the best horror movies of the time while also spewing some of the gross-out and offensive comedy you could think of. They fell off after the Bros left, though, and in 2013, Scary Movie 5 was so bad, it looked like the end of the series. Plus, with the way society’s changed since then, it wasn’t like they could make another one, right? Wrong. Not only are the Wayans bros back, but in Marlon Wayans own words, “cancel the cancel culture.”
Judging by the trailer, he means it.
Guess Who’s Back?
The trailer comes out of the gate swinging, directly parodying the subway scene from Scream 6, but with everyone dressed up like horror movie icons. At first, I was confused about what was happening until the person dressed like M3gan from M3gan starts menacingly dancing their way to this woman with a picket sign. Then they pull off their mask and grow like Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun into Ghostface while a remix of Eminem’s “Guess Who’s Back?” plays.
When I first saw the trailer attached to Scream 7, I had no clue what was happening. But then an onlooker said the woman got stabbed, and the victim’s top priority was to say they’re non-binary. And then, the Wayan Bros appeared and said they were back, and all was made clear. Scary Movie was back, back again! And as the tagline for the trailer says, all lines will be crossed!
As previously stated, there is no way that the original Scary Movie could have been made in the present day. It has moments considered gross and disgusting, and I’m not just talking about making people want to puke. I’m talking about jokes that would be seen as racist, homophobic and transphobic by people today. I like to keep an open mind, but even I thought that a few jokes and characters were pushing it with how deliberately unsettling they were. But then I remembered how these films are like South Park: they’re supposed to be disgusting and offensive. As much as people complain about something being purposefully offensive, there’s that part of us that sees it, asks “oh my heavens, what were they thinking when they did this,” and laughs at the sheer audacity. Or a work of art does it because its creator finds humor in getting a rise out of the people that hate it. And in this case, it looks like the Wayans Bros are aiming for the latter, as their stated goal is for Scary Movie to “cancel cancel culture.”
Judging by the trailer, they might pull it off.
Sink!
As it is a parody film, Scary Movie has to have other works to parody for it to work. In this case, it’s parodying the reboots and “requels” that have been dominating slasher films lately, such as the return of Scream and Halloween. It’s not pulling any punches, either, as we see how Cindy Campbell is channeling Laurie Strode from the 40-year timeline. When her daughter shows up at her fortified house, she’s got the paranoid appearance that Jaime Lee Curtis had. Even better, though, she and Brenda reunite, and prove to be as funny as ever. That “Republican” joke is so on the nose!
It’s not just Scream and Halloween that Scary Movie is sticking to, either. I managed to find parodies of Sinners, John Wick, Smile, Wednesday, the Terrifier films, and Get Out. The bottom line is that they are casting a wide net for pop-culture, and it is awesome. Even more awesome, though, is the fact that most of the cast from the original movie are reuniting, especially the Wayans Bros. Shorty was my favorite character from the first movie and a meme icon. I was grinnig like crazy when I heard him shout “run, b****, run!!” We need that kind of humor right now, if you ask me!
Curiously, though, the trailer that I saw attached to Scream 7 is different from the one that Paramount’s posted online. In my case, the last scene was about the cast making a joke about how Neve Campbell didn’t come back as Sydney in Scream 6. The online trailer ended with a joke about the hospital wing in one of the Scream movies was empty. Either way, the humor was on point.
I won’t lie: Scream 7 felt like a step back for the franchise. But after seeing the trailer for it in theaters, I think I’m going to add Scary Movie to my list of movies to see this summer. Something tells me that it’s going to be the comedy medicine that we need right now.
