Anna Faris and Regina Hall return for Scary Movie, but while the sixth installment still delivers some hilarious moments, too many of its jokes fail to land.
For almost forty years, the Wayans family has been bringing their own unique brand of comedy to America. Beginning in 1990, when Keenen Ivory Wayans (White Chicks) created a sketch comedy series called In Living Color, which several of his siblings helped co-write and starred in, the name Wayans has been synonymous with hilarious television shows and movies. Despite their success, it would take another 10 years before Shawn and Marlon Wayans, with help from some friends, wrote a parody of the popular Scream horror movie called Scary Movie. Little did they know the movie would begin a six-movie series spanning over a quarter of a century. The latest, Scary Movie (a.k.a. Scary Movie 6), is heading to 4K, Blu-ray, and Digital after a successful theatrical run earlier this year.
As another Ghostface killing spree begins in Woodsville, Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nasiff; Knight Squad) is stabbed and is in the hospital, where her half-sister, Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan; Gotham Knights), and Sara's boyfriend, Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts; The Walking Dead), come to visit her. Sara and Jack also go to visit Tuesday's and Sara's mother, Cindy (Anna Faris; The House Bunny), who lives as a recluse in a booby-trapped house, to ask for her help, as she had previously survived Ghostface. As more people in Woodsville wind up dead, Cindy, Sara, and Tuesday enlist the help of Brenda (Regina Hall; One Battle After Another) and Tuesday's friends, Jess (newcomer Benny Zielke), Elle (Ruby Snowber; Yellowstone), Brad (Gregg Wayans; The Unicorn), and Dei (Sydney Park; The Walking Dead).
When making a parody movie, you need to have a great group of actors to pull it off, and director Michael Tiddes (Naked) has such a group. Faris and Hall return from the previous films as the OGs, teaching the youngsters a thing or two. Keegan and Roberts pretty much play the straight guys, and Zielke, Snowber, Wayans, and Park set up the jokes so someone else can hit them out of the park. Unfortunately, the setups end up as foul balls just as much as they do home runs.
The Dolby Vision video quality is definitely a home run, with colors that run true and deep and offer a variety of hues. The details are sharp and clean and easily seen with the naked eye. The scenes shot at night are still very clear, with lots of shading that offers depth and richness throughout.
The Dolby Atmos also gives the viewer a nice, layered audio quality. Ambient sounds move effortlessly through the surround speakers, and the eclectic soundtrack has a warmth provided by deep bass tones and drum beats. The dialogue sits comfortably up front and blends well with the other audio tracks.
The combo pack includes the 4K disc, Blu-ray Disc, digital download, and 30 minutes' worth of extras that look at the history of the franchise and how the newer cast members fit into the series. The extras include Scream Together, Fresh Meat, Wayans World, and Scene Dissection. They combine some old footage (some of it dating back 25 years) with current stuff to make for an interesting quartet of featurettes that look behind the scenes.
Since we get one of these Scary Movies every time a new Scream movie is released, this is the sixth one in the series and, frankly, the writing isn't as strong as the first few films. There are still some very funny moments, but others aren't as good and, overall, I had more moments of "this is just stupid" than I did of "OMG! That was hilarious." I did, however, love the moments when they made references to other horror movies, including Ma, Sinners, Get Out, and Terrifier 3.
I enjoy a good parody movie when it is good, but honestly, at this point, I think both the Scream and Scary Movie franchises need to be over.
Grade: C
