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Scary Movie -- directed by In Living Color's Keenan Ivory Wayans -- is a warm-hearted parody of slasher flicks, in much the same spirit that I'm Gonna Git You Sucka took on the blaxploitation genre with joyous abandon. Poking fun at every teen-horror-movie cliché we can recall (and, surely, then some), the movie zips along with loving glee, building gratuitous tension, flaunting horny teens, and savoring melodramatic rage. American Pie's Shannon Elizabeth gets major laughs as the beauty-pageant-winning ditz who shows off her "acting talent" by screaming in terror. Shawn Wayans also sparks titters as a killer-cum-football-player with a feminine side. Saturday Night Live's Cheri Oteri also cameos as the requisite hyper-obnoxious newscaster (knocking off Courteney Cox's Scream work), and making a much-needed comeback as Principal Squiggly is Laverne and Shirley's Squiggy (David L. Lander). If you haven't already guessed, there's enough broad humor here (fart jokes, booby jokes, etc.) to make Mad TV and latter-day Mel Brooks blanche. Still, you have to admire Wayans for upholding the sacred torch of juvenile satire and catching a few great laughs along the way. Daniel Weizmann

All Movie Guide

After parodying the blaxploitation films of the 1970s in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Keenen Ivory Wayans takes aim at slasher films of the 1980s and 1990s in this raunchy satire, which was produced under the clumsy but inarguably appropriate title Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween. As you might expect, a group of teenagers -- not-terribly-bright Buffy (Shannon Elizabeth), her best friend Brenda (Regina Hall), stoner Shorty (Marlon Wayans), fey football player Ray (Shawn Wayans), loudmouthed Greg (Lochlyn Munro), sexually overexcited Bobby (Jon Abrahams), and his prim girlfriend Cindy (Anna Faris) -- are on the run from a maniacal killer who is looking for revenge after the kids accidentally kill a man following an auto accident. They also find themselves having to contend with intrusive reporter Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) and eccentric high school principal Squiggly (David L. Lander). Incidentally, the title Scary Movie is something of an inside joke: it was the working title for Scream, the movie that kick-started the mid-'90s slasher film revival. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 717951004857
• Source: DIMENSION
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: Español, English
• Time: 1:28:00
• Sales Rank: 10,907

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Scary Movie 1 & 2
• Scary Movie Triple Pack

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