
Scary Movie or Scary Movie 6 (2026) is directed by Michael Tiddes director of A Haunted House (2013), A Haunted House (2014), Fifty Shades Of Black (2016), Naked (2017), Sextuplets (2019)and Half Baked: Totally High (2024). The film is the sixth installment in the Scary Movie series. It’s a spiritual sequel the first two films.
The Scary Movie series were without a doubt the most popular set of films that came from the parody movie era of the 2000s and the early 2010s. The first two films I still think are fun comedies that really nail down the whole idea of parody, there is still quite a bit of charm there that works well. The third and fourth movies have their moments, not everything works with the two but you do get some quite memorable moments. The fifth movie is quite horrendous and came out at a time when the parody genre was reaching its fall off.
Scary Movie is luckily FAR better than Scary Movie 5 (2013). Although that is not exactly saying much and I can’t necessarily say that this is a good movie, when it comes to a parody movie not being as bad as ones like Scary Movie 5 (2013), Disaster Movie (2008), Epic Movie (2007) and a few others that is absolutely considered a win.
First and foremost Anna Faris and Regina Hall once again do a really great job as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks respectively. They both still have the comedic timing that they pull off incredibly well even with the movie’s more lame jokes, it’s great seeing the two together again and really showcases that without the two, the Scary Movie series just does not work nearly as well. Other characters that return are Doofy (played by Dave Sheridan), Shorty (played by Marlon Waynes) Ray (played by Shawn Waynes), Greg Phillippe (played by Lochlyn Munro) and Bobby Prinze (played by Jon Abrahams (although the latter two have very small roles.) The cast works well together and have the same level of charm they had in previous entries of the series.
The introduction of the new characters is very mixed, their inclusion makes a lot of sense. After all the main story the movie is parodying is Scream 5 & 6, a majority of them however do feel underutilized. Credit where credit is due I do think the movie’s ending is a nice spin on the whole new characters in horror franchises sort of thing.
As far as cameos go, I do think the movie does a pretty great job. There is shockingly not a whole lot of them and the ones that do appear got laughs out of me, definitely a breath of fresh air when you compare this to other parody movies that focused more on shoving as many cameos as possible.
The first half of the movie is definitely the strongest, the movie comes out swinging with a quite strong and clever intro scene that while does capture the familiarity feel of these movies. It also has this nostalgic welcome back feel that you can’t help but appreciate, what follows is a steady string of good bits that you can tell the cast was having a blast with. While not every single one of these jokes lands as you do have a few that feel either forced, overly explained or stretched for way too long, for the most part the first half of the movie manages to stick the landing.
Unfortunately that’s when things go downhill, the second half of the movie really reflects as to why the parody movie genre died. Most of the jokes in the second half feel like they are stretched for way too long, the movie does not let its own jokes breathe, when you combine that with shockingly slow pacing (how is this even an issue?) and you have yourself a very rough second half to get through. It’s frustrating because there are some decently clever set ups for jokes, but unfortunately the delivery and timing is incredibly messy.
The movie also very clearly has a lot of scenes missing, there were points where it felt like this very messy project that was due the night before. There is a whole lot of jumping around from parody to parody that almost felt reminiscent of Family Guy cutaway gags. While a few of these jokes offer some great laughs, others feel like a complete waste of the movie’s time.
Overall Scary Movie is really about what you expect, I think the main problem here with this one is it does not go far enough with its humor and does not do a whole lot to stand out. It ultimately does feel like just another parody movie that has a few memorable scenes attached to it. As I said before, this is far better than Scary Movie 5 (2013) and if you are a fan of these movies you will get some entertainment out of it. Just don’t go in expecting this to be up there with the earlier installments.
Scary Movie is currently in theaters.
4/10 D+








