Scary Movie

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Scary Movie

Theatrical release poster.
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans
Produced by Eric L. Gold
Lee R. Mayes
Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Buddy Johnson
Phil Beauman
Jason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Written by Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Buddy Johnson
Phil Beauman
Jason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Starring Anna Faris
Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Jon Abrahams
Carmen Electra
Shannon Elizabeth
Kurt Fuller
Regina Hall
Lochlyn Munro
Cheri Oteri
Dave Sheridan
Marlon Wayans
Shawn Wayans
Music by David Kitay
Cinematography Francis Kenny
Editing by Mark Helfrich
Distributed by Dimension Films
Release date(s) July 7, 2000
Running time 88 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $19 million (est.)
Gross profits $156,997,084 (US as of November 19, 2000)
Followed by Scary Movie 2
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Scary Movie (2000), an American film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, is a comedy-gross-out film spoof that parodies the horror and mystery genres. Several mid- and late-1990s movies are spoofed, including the more subtle horror film parody series Scream trilogy, The Sixth Sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Usual Suspects, The Matrix, and The Blair Witch Project.

This is a sexual movie with the tagline "No mercy. No shame. No sequel.", with the last reference being to the tendency of popular horror movies to become long-running franchises. However, in 2001, Scary Movie 2 was released (with the appropriate tagline "We lied"). A second sequel, Scary Movie 3, followed in 2003. Scary Movie 4 was released on April 14, 2006. A fourth sequel, Scary Movie 5, is planned for a 2008 release. The franchise has also spawned similar films, Date Movie which parodied romantic comedies and Epic Movie which parodied superhero and adventure genres.

Contents

[edit] Detailed plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The opening starts with a young woman, Drew Decker (Carmen Electra), being called at home by a mysterious caller, who claims to be able to see what she is doing and threatens to kill her. When he finally appears inside her house (dressed as the murderer from Scream), she flees in panic. The killer chases her to the road, where her father arrives by car - but since he is busy receiving oral sex from his wife, he does not pay attention to her standing in the road and inadvertently runs her over. Drew survives the impact, but the killer finishes her before the opening title rolls in.

The next scene flashes to the main star, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), a student at the B.A. Corpse High School with a teenager's 'standard' problems: her boyfriend Bobby, who constantly tries to push her into having sex, and her father, who is involved in various illegal schemes (mostly drug dealing). She has a small host of friends: other than Bobby, these include Ray (who constantly denies having homosexual tendencies), Ray's girlfriend Brenda, rich hyprocrite Buffy, and hot-tempered school athlete star Greg, Buffy's boyfriend. She is also on friendly terms with Brenda's grass-consuming brother Shorty and deputy sheriff Doofy, Buffy's feeble-minded brother.

Cindy is troubled upon hearing about the death of her classmate Drew, and is even more disturbed when she receives a message reading "I know what you did last halloween" and sees a masked figure (the killer) on the school grounds. As it turns out (as revealed in a flashback), Cindy and her friends have run over a man while having a wild joyride last summer. The girls were reluctant to cover the whole thing up and get rid of the body (which had turned out to be very much alive, in fact, but the poor man was inadvertently finished off by the teens as they argued about what they had done), but Greg had bullied them into swearing to keep silent about it. When Cindy suspects that the killer must be the man they had run over, though, her friends do not take her seriously. Several times she tries to tell someone official about this, but she cannot pluck up the courage.

In a sideplot, paparazzi Gail Hailstorm tries to collect on the story of the murders and begins pestering about everyone, including Cindy and Doofy (with whom she has sex - off-screen - in order to obtain some information from him). Later, her camera-man (in a parody on Blair Witch Project) is slain by the killer after they had witnessed him murdering a student lovers' pair.

The killer soon begins to pester the others by revealing some of their intimate secrets, and finally he strikes. Greg dies first, murdered by the killer as Buffy acts on stage to win the school's beauty competition. Buffy's cries for help as she sees him murdered are taken as a dramatic act, though, and she quickly dismisses the incident when she wins the contest.

At home, Cindy is attacked by the killer, and coincidentally Bobby shows up. He is arrested as a knife and gloves fall from the inside of his jacket, though without evidence, he isn't held for long. After the attack, Cindy tells the gang she doesn't feel safe so they should hang out, but make it small. Shorty responds to this by yelling in the cafeteria, "Party at Cindy's house, drunk white bitches for everyone!"

The next day Buffy is murdered by the killer in the school locker room. Actually, Buffy childishly "plays along" as the helpless victim (even breaking her own leg), and even after the exasperated killer cuts off her head she doesn't finish babbling, so he dumps her into a "Lost and Found" bin. Later, he attempts to kill Brenda as she and Ray are visiting a movie - but since Brenda proves to be very obnoxious, the audience takes the job out of his hands.

In the meantime, the party at Cindy's home is in a wild swing, and Cindy and Bobby have their first time. However, the killer shows up at the party, killing several isolated party guests, including Shorty's friends - after he has had a grass-smoking party with them first. Shorty himself is shot by Bobby, who has suddenly turned mad because Cindy had denied him sex for so long. Then he and Ray, who turns out to be his accomplice, declare that they intend to murder Cindy and her dad and claim to the police that they are the sole survivors of the massacre - and Bobby reveals that he and Ray are gay lovers, which Ray vehemently protests -, but then the real killer shows up and stabs them. In desperation, Cindy takes up the fight (in Matrix-style) and manages to drive off the killer, who escapes.

The following morning, Cindy talks to police agent Kujan about what had happened, but as it is revealed, the killer was not the man they had run over - he had turned up quite dead after the teens had thrown his body into the water. Just as Cindy despairs about the killer's identity, Doofy shows up briefly - and something in his behaviour stirs up the suspicion that he is the murderer!

Cindy and Kujan run out to find him. However, in a scene paralleling the ending of The Usual Suspects, Doofy sheds his outfit and mustache, revealing himself to be a 'cool' guy, jumps into reporter Gail Hailstorm's car, and the two drive off, with Doofy throwing the fright mask out as the final piece of evidence. In her despair, Cindy stands in the middle of the street, yelling, "Noooo!" until a car comes by and runs her over.

[edit] Parodies

[edit] Soundtrack Listings

  1. "Too Cool For School" - Fountains Of Wayne
  2. "The Inevitable Return Of The Great White Dope" - The Bloodhound Gang
  3. "Stay" - Radford
  4. "The Only One To Be" - Save Ferris
  5. "My Bad" - Oleander
  6. "Punk Song #2" - Silverchair
  7. "Everyone Wants You" - The Unband
  8. "Superfly" - Bender
  9. "I Wanna Be Sedated" - The Ramones
  10. "Scary Movies (Sequel)" - Eminem featuring Royce Da 5'9
  11. "All About U" - 2Pac featuring YGD Tha Top Dawg, Nate Dogg & Dru Down
  12. "I Want Cha" - Black Eyed Peas
  13. "What What" - Public Enemy
  14. "Feel Me" - Rah Digga, Rampage & Rock
  15. "I'm The Killer (Killer Rap)" - Lifelong featuring Incedent

[edit] Cast

In addition, James Van Der Beek, Rick Ducommun, David L. Lander, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Kelly Coffield have cameo roles.

[edit] Characters

  • Bobby Prinze - Played by Jon Abrahams, Bobby is the parody character of Billy Loomis from Scream and shares many of the same interests and personality such as forcing Cindy to lose her virginity towards him and is constantly being blamed for being the killer of the movie. His name is taken from Freddie Prinze Jr who starred in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
  • Shorty Meeks - Played by Marlon Wayans, Shorty is the parody character of Randy Meeks from the Scream trilogy. He is shown to smoke weed and take many drugs and alchohol. He is also the brother of Brenda Meeks.
  • Ray Wilkins - Played by Shawn Wayans, Ray is the parody character of Phil Stevens from Scream 2. He is shown to be extremely gay but keeps denying it by dating Brenda Meeks. He dies in a similar manner to the character of his parody. His name was taken from Ray Bronson a character from the I Know What You Did Last Summer trilogy.
  • Drew Decker - Played by Carmen Electra, Drew is the parody character of Casey Becker from Scream. Her first name is taken from the actress who played Casey, Drew Barrymore.
  • Deputy Doofy Gilmore - Played by Dave Sheridan, Doofy is the parody character of Dwight "Dewey" Riley from the Scream trilogy. He is the brother of Buffy, in a similar way to Dewey being the brother of Tatum Riley (Buffy's parody). He fakes mental retardation and is also the killer in the movie.

[edit] Trivia

  • The principal (Principal Squiggman) is played by David Lander, who played greaser Squiggy on "Laverne & Shirley", a spin-off of "Happy Days". (there's a bottle of Schotz beer, from the brewery where Laverne and Shirley worked, in his office). The principal in Scream, which Scary Movie parodies, was played by Henry Winkler, who played greaser Fonzie on "Happy Days".
  • When Ray and Brenda are in the movie theater, they flash a RED movie rating screen for a brief second, saying: "The following peeveiw has been assproved for immature audiences only. If you can read this you are too close. Pee Pee Poopy Boogers Farts Butthole
  • A poster in the police station reads "Serve, Protect, Shoot to kill".
  • Scary Movie was at one point the working title for Scream, which was also released by Dimension Films.
  • The lowest budgeted Scary Movie film at $19 million. Scary Movie 2, 3 and 4's budget production was $45 million.
  • The only Scary Movie film to feature exposed genitalia (penis and scrotum).
  • Anna Faris dyed her hair brown for the first two films. Her hair is actually naturally blonde (as seen in Scary Movie 3 and 4).
  • In the opening scene, Carmen Electra referenced Shaquille O'Neal's lack of acting skill in Kazaam. Shaq would later appear in Scary Movie 4.
  • Writers Phil Beauman and Buddy Johnson went on to write Not Another Teen Movie. Writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer went on to write and direct Date Movie and Epic Movie.
  • The song "I'm Your Boogie Man" by KC & The Sunshine Band has been used in every Scary Movie film trailer.
  • The catch phrase "Wassup!" is from a short independent film intitled, "True" written & directed by Charles Stone III and parodied in the film by Marlon Wayans's character "Shorty" along with Shorty's friends and the killer. The phrase was used for a commercial campaign for Anheuser-Busch Budweiser beer in the early 2000s. The ad campaign became well known and popular all over the world.
  • The last scene of the movie was filmed in Vancouver, Canada in Steveston Village.
  • Cindy says in one scene "But Ginger was such an important part of the Spice Girls" Obviously referencing to Geri Halliwell's departure from the Spice Girls.
  • The name of the school is shown in a few scenes as "B.A. Corpse High School."
  • The name of the high school's football team is the "Predators."

[edit] External links

The Scary Movie series
Scary Movie | Scary Movie 2 | Scary Movie 3 | Scary Movie 4
Key people
Anna Faris | Regina Hall | David Zucker | Keenen Ivory Wayans | Marlon Wayans | Shawn Wayans | Jason Friedberg