Susan Granger’s review of “SCARY MOVIE” (Dimension Films/Miramax)
It’s ironic that Miramax, the studio that launched the teen-horror satire genre back in 1996 with “Scream,” has now done its own raunchy spoof of the trend. Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, it dives into Farrelly brothers territory, wallowing in obscenity, profanity and splashing semen, boldly challenging the accepted NC-17 taboo of male genitalia. The shallow, sketchy plot, attributed to six different screenwriters combining two different screenplays, involves a serial killer who is pursuing a group of young people. In the opening scene, lifted directly from Drew Barrymore’s sequence in “Scream,” nubile starlet Carmen Electra gets a mysterious phone call, expels gas, sheds her clothes, runs through a sprinkler and gets stabbed in her breast implant. But Carmen and the other hapless actors are stereotypical caricatures of teenagers, played by 20 30 year-olds. They don’t converse; they chatter. And most of the jokes are gross and offensive, centered about the pubic region of human anatomy – funny only to those with the most sophomoric taste. There’s already much controversy about the R-rating for “strong, crude sexual humor.” Obviously, the 13-member, Los Angeles-based MPAA rating committee is tougher on serious, rather than comedic, sexuality. Among the movies parodied are the “Scream” series, the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” series, “The Usual Suspects,” “The Matrix,” “American Pie,” “The Blair Witch Project,” even “The Sixth Sense.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Scary Movie” is a crude, lewd 2 – its full 88-minutes are aimed specifically at the Gen-X and Gen-Y audience. What’s really scary is the amount of money it will probably earn while far more worthy films pass, unnoticed, onto the video shelf.
