Scary Movie (2026)

Joey Magidson started his review by saying, “I love a spoof movie. Some of my favorite comedies or all time are spoofs. Mel Brooks is my favorite comedy filmmaker. The Naked Gun is perfect cinema. Heck, the first Scary Movie is really funny. I say all of this just to establish that I’m very much the target audience for this film. Well, in actuality, no one is the target for this new Scary Movie, though your wallets are. A shameless cash grab, there are a few funny moments, but they’re sandwiched between one of the worst things I’ll see all year.”

Magidson continued, “While I’ll concede that Scary Movie has a few pretty funny bits and some other moments that made me chuckle, overall it’s a pretty dreadful flick.” The hits are so random, even when a laugh happens, there’s a failure or two immediately after. Also, while the story is never what you focus on in this type of film, it’s stabbing a completely dated type of horror, so it already feels tired after it comes out.

Magidson said, “I’m certainly not going to run down the plot for this film, but in broad strokes, it follows the plot of the fifth Scream, which combined new characters with legacy ones.” Here, after a decent beginning with a surprise cameo, Ghostface attacks Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif), the youngest daughter of the new solitary person Cindy (Anna Faris). The attempted murder brings separated big sister/older daughter Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and her boyfriend Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts) into town. There, they encounter Brenda (Regina Hall) and her children, son Brad (Gregg Wayans) and daughter DEI (Sydney Park), along with Brad’s girlfriend Elle (Ruby Snowber). Obviously, other new characters are here, along with Shorty (Marlon Wayans) and Ray (Shawn Wayans). One of them is the murderer, right?

As the “Scream” plot is mainly followed, time is spent spoofing everything from recent horror like “Sinners” and “Weapons,” to older films like “Longlegs,” “The Substance,” and “Terrifier,” through an Art of Clown appearance. As you can guess, none of that matters and it’s all for laughs, but even at these low of standards, too many of these jokes are mean-spirited instead of funny.

Anna Faris and Regina Hall are the best here, but the acting is very poor all around. Faris and Hall at least lean into the funniest parts of their characters, especially since they’ve played them so many times up to now. Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans get more of the rest of the laughs, but it’s lessening returns here. The newcomers? All bad. Other supporting characters, new and old, include Jon Abrahams, Chris Elliott, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan, Benny Zielke, and more.

Director Michael Tiddes can only do so much with this terrible screenplay, but it has to be said, Tiddes still did very little with it. Magidson is right when he said, “The script, credited to a rogues gallery of Rick Alvarez, Craig Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans, and Shawn Wayans, is arguably the worst in the franchise yet. It’s so devoid of any ideas and lazy, you can’t ignore its shortcomings, even when they stumble into a funny joke.”

“Scary Movie,” released theatrically in June but on Paramount+ last month, is terrible. Magidson said, “I won’t lie that there are funny moments, but anything good is surrounded by so much that’s bad. It’s a shame, too, as the most recent version of The Naked Gun gave me hope for the spoof comedy.” Now? We’re probably back to square one, even if this is going to prove to be surprisingly profitable.

I’m sorry guys, but like all the rest of the films in the franchise, this one sucks. Why would they make another film in the franchise, seeing how the last one was so atrocious? To announce another one, with the involvement of the Wayans family, doesn’t sound like it will succeed. Not to my surprise, it didn’t. Just avoid this one, it’s the worst in the franchise, if you can believe that. I didn’t want to waste money on this garbage, and it’s a good thing I didn’t when it came out in theaters. Seeing it on Paramount+ was better, but it still sucked.

Alright everyone, we have now come to the finale of “Halloween Month 2026.” I’m sorry that for the majority of the month, I was reviewing bad horror films, but sometimes, that just happens. I hope everyone has a great Halloween, but be safe. Make sure to check the candy to see if it is eatable and that no one has snuck anything in it. Just don’t get a sugar rush, because that is bad, but if you’re going to have a party or a get together, have fun, but make sure to watch some horror films. Stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.