Anna Faris in "Scary Movie."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Anna Faris, Cheri Oteri, Marlon and Shawn Wayans Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans Rated: R, with strong sex content, and drug use Length: 90 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(July, 7 2000) Scary Movie is a silly, sophomoric comedy that takes aim at an easy target -- the Scream trilogy and other popular horror flicks of the 1990s.

Scary Movie also is incomparably smutty. Filmgoers experience the cinematic equivalent of being mooned.

If my preview audience was any indication, lots of viewers (mostly teens and twentysomethings) didn't care. They were clearly enjoying themselves as a lot of giggles and guffaws greeted the ribald revelries.

As an apparent hedge against the parody humor, the filmmakers pull out endless sexual references, toilet jokes, flatulence and especially-gross penis sight gags. (Has anybody else noticed that one of the last great Hollywood taboos -- the erect penis -- has begun to appear in the recent spate of gross-out comedies?

Director Keenen Ivory Wayans and two of his stars and co-writers, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, have structured Scary Movie in the sketch comedy tradition of earlier Wayan works, including I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! and TV's In Living Color.

Parody is the easiest of comedy forms, because the structure is already in place. Scary Movie, for example, follows the Scream narrative formula, sometimes scene for scene.

Once again, a group of oversexed teens tries to avoid getting sliced by a serial killer, while goofing off with grass, booze, sex and horror videos. (Of course, the teens are all played by twentysomething actors -- a fact the film humorously notes.)

Appealing newcomer Anna Faris is a sexy but virginal school girl in the Neve Campbell-Katie Holmes tradition. When her boyfriend (Jon Abrahams) finally pulls down her panties, butterflies fly out.

Others in the gang include Regina Hall as Cindy's best friend; Shannon Elizabeth as Buffy, the class sexpot; Marlon Wayans as Shorty, who smokes so much pot he "sees dead people," and Shawn Wayans as Ray, a star football player who tries -- unsuccessfully, of course -- to keep his gayness in the closet.

Cheri Oteri has a few choice moments as the overzealous TV news reporter played in Scream by Courteney Cox, while Dave Sheridan zealously sends up the wacked-out David Arquette character with a deputy, aptly named Doofy.

The jokes are fired willy-nilly, with only a few hitting the mark. (A shot at The Blair Witch Project is unexpected and funny; bits from The Sixth Sense and The Matrix are more obvious and uninspired.)

Subtlety is not this film's calling card.

But, to be honest, the audience of mostly 20-year-olds sitting around me at the preview screening found Scary Movie hysterical, as do several presumably younger horror-movie buffs who praise the film on the Internet.

Clearly, the filmmakers didn't make Scary Movie for me. I'm not part of the demographic. If you are -- and you know who you are -- you'll probably have a ball.