Countdown to Halloween: “Scary Movie” still just as hilarious as it was 25 years ago

Spooky Fest is coming up at the Dietrich Theater and this mini festival features some very entertaining selections to choose from! One of the Spooky Fest selections that will be featured during the small festival is the 2000 parody “Scary Movie.”

Defying the very nature of good taste, “Scary Movie” out-parodies the pop culture parodies with a no-holds barred assault on the most popular images and talked about moments from popular movies, TV and commercials.

The movie boldly fires barbs at the classic scenes from “Scream,” “The Sixth Sense,” "I Know What You Did Last Summer” and many others, then goes on to mock a whole myriad of teen movie cliches, no matter the genre.

The “Scary Movie” franchise has recently lost steam with their fourth and fifth movies (which I really don’t remember). In fact, the Wayans Brothers (who worked on the first two movies) are bringing their no-holds barred humor back with next year’s “Scary Movie 6.” So, for the upcoming Spooky Fest I wanted to revisit this 2000 parody and it’s still just as humorous (and crude) as I remembered.

The first “Scary Movie” delivers a good amount of humor that can be both hysterical and a tad on the crude side (well, most of the time). The humor of this 2000 parody did generate a divided critic/audience response, with many finding it a hilarious spoof of teen horror flicks, while some others dismissed its crassness.

“Scary Movie” is easily just some mindless entertainment and enjoy yourself for roughly an hour and a half. Even though this spoof is 25 years old, I still found myself laughing at the numerous jokes that are scattered throughout. It’s also still fun to see the movie mercilessly lampoon some of the popular 90s horror movies and some of the horror movie cliches.

One of the moments in this parody that still made me laugh is the infamous “Wasssssssap!” scene that is now iconic. For anyone who may not remember, this iconic, hilarious gag spoofs the infamous Budweiser commercials and in this scene we see the killer and the soon to be victims take a little break to answer the phone with the ad’s signature greeting.

“Scary Movie” also delivers many more memorable gags and characters that can really make you laugh - especially the fan favorite character Doofy, which is a parody of the Dewey character from “Scream.”

Despite some of the criticism of the crude humor, many audience members during its initial run and other retrospective reviews (myself included), found this 2000 parody genuinely hilarious. This movie successfully rode the popularity of 90s slasher movies by hilariously exaggerating their cliches, and its irreverent humor was exactly what most audiences were looking for.

Trivia: The title “Scary Movie” was actually the working title for the movie “Scream,” the main movie that’s parodied. The movie’s marketing tagline was “No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel.” When “Scary Movie 2” was released a year later, the tagline for the sequel ended up being “We Lied” (about the “No Sequel”). “Scary Movie 6” is currently slated for release next summer!

MPA: Rated R for strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use and violence   (runtime 88 minutes)

The Spooky Fest show dates and times for “Scary Movie” are as follows: Saturday October 18 (9 pm) and Friday October 24 (7 pm). If you can’t make it to the showings, you can also stream this still popular parody on Peacock or rent it through numerous PVOD services.

• The original script featured a cameo role for Jamie Lee Curtis as Cindy would discover her hiding in a closet in her house while the killer was chasing her up the stairs.

• When Anna Faris landed a part in the film, she was working in an ad agency and was only a week away from moving to her company's London office.

• "Scary Movie" was the working title of Scream (1996), the main movie parodied.

• After the release of Scary Movie 2 (2001), the covers for Scary Movie were modified - the "NO SEQUELS" is marked over with a large red X.

• Despite the screenplay credits for Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, little if anything from their screenplay was used. Marlon Wayans in particular has said that he and most of the other writers responsible for the final script never even read Seltzer and Friedberg's draft, after Keenen Ivory Wayans checked it over and assured them that it contained nothing worth retaining in their version. Despite this, Seltzer and Friedberg's later movies were marketed with the phrase "from 2/6 writers of Scary Movie."

• (at around 38 mins) In the scene outside the Sheriff's dept with Gail Hailstorm reporting, the Steveston County Sheriff's Dept sign shows it was founded in 2017.

• Most of the brand names seen in the movie have been slightly changed, for example, when the killer is telling jokes to the others there is a character wearing a t-shirt with Toke written in a can printed on it referring to Coke. Also, all of the drinks seen in the fridge have been misspelled, for example Cult instead of Colt. Same with when the killer is doing the 'wazzzzzup' scene he is holding a beer called Killer in reference to Miller.

• (at around 40 mins) The "Whassup" scene is a parody of a 1999 Budweiser TV commercial titled "True." The commercial became an inspiration for other Budweiser commercials using the "Whassup" catchphrase up till the year 2002.

• Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Lochlyn Munro later appeared together in White Chicks (2004).

• Grossed $42 million domestically in its opening weekend, the most of any R-rated film, surpassing Air Force One (1997), with $37 million. The record was broken the following year by Hannibal (2001), with $58 million.