Scary Movie (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – The legacy sequel brings the “Core Four”—Cindy Campbell, Brenda Meeks, Shorty Meeks, and Ray Wilkins—back into the crosshairs of a Ghostface killer 26 years after their original encounters. No horror IP is safe as the group navigates mayhem and parodies the latest reboots of Scream and Halloween.

My Take – Do you like Scary Movies? I do. When Miramax first launched the spoof series, it quickly built a cult following by lampooning contemporary horror cinema. At the time, it felt fresh, since parody films rarely focused so specifically on the horror genre. But after five entries, the formula grew stale.

Each sequel leaned more on celebrity cameos, homophobic gags, fart jokes, random pop culture nods, and sexual innuendos. The films became cluttered with obscure references that only insiders could decode, losing the spark that made the original stand out.

Now, twenty-six years later, the franchise returns with the Wayans family back in the mix after leaving following the second film. The twist is that it still offers nothing new. Horror once again serves as the backbone of the sketches, but the execution feels recycled. Aside from a clever opening riff on one of the recent Scream films, most of the jokes fail to land.

Directed by Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House, Sextuplets), the film races through rapid-fire gags lifted from familiar film scenes. Some are funny, many are not, and the central Scream setup is constantly interrupted by bits pulled from Sinners, Weapons, Get Out, and more.

Sure, the storyline was never the draw, but the ratio of successful jokes is too low this time around. Worse, some sequences, like the two sequences borrowed from Sinners, barely scratch the surface of material that could have been mined for sharper satire.

On that note, at least the finale delivers. The conclusion is surprisingly dark yet crowd-pleasing, ending things on a high note. And yes, it is still miles better than the rancid low point of Scary Movie 5 (2013). But overall, this revival feels less like a fresh scream and more like an echo of laughs long past.

Opening with scenes that riff on Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023), the film once again follows Cindy (Anna Faris), Brenda (Regina Hall), Shorty (Marlon Wayans), and Ray (Shawn Wayans) who reunite to unmask a new Ghostface killer that is hunting the new generation and stalking Cindy’s estranged daughters, Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif). Dealing with kids who are easily offended, our four heroes must do whatever it takes to fight off legacy-sequel conventions.

What’s most hilarious is how the script, credited to Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans, and Rick Alvarez, largely ignores the plot points of Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Scary Movie 4 (2006). For much of the runtime it pokes fun at their existence, yet it also leans on them as major plot devices. This contradiction highlights how uncertain the filmmakers seem about their direction. The return feels designed only to please hardcore fans of the original, but that alone is not enough.

The film certainly has its share of referential humor, with callbacks to Wednesday, The Substance, Longlegs, John Wick, Terrifier, Get Out, Ma, and even KPop Demon Hunters. The problem is that the references are treated as the joke rather than being elevated into something genuinely funny. For a comedy marketed as boundary-pushing, the result feels oddly tame. One gag about immigration in the U.S. comes close to striking a nerve, but it passes so quickly that it barely registers.

There is a reason last year’s reboot of The Naked Gun worked. It did not rely solely on nostalgia. Instead, it staged sequences where visual and physical comedy played out in pure deadpan fashion, with the actors leaning into the absurdity. Here, the screenplay settles for a string of inconsequential vignettes that amount to little more than visual and verbal references to horror films from the late 2010s and early 2020s.

The original cast remains the most charming element. Anna Faris and Regina Hall slip back into their roles effortlessly, and their chemistry is still delightful. Marlon and Shawn Wayans continue their familiar bit. Among the younger cast, Olivia Rose Keegan and Savannah Lee Nassif bring energy and charisma, while Sydney Park, Cheri Oteri, Gregg Wayans, Ruby Snowber, Heidi Gardner, Lochlyn Munro, and Benny Zielke are serviceable in their roles. On the whole, ‘Scary Movie‘ is an abysmal comeback that remembers the references but forgets the laughs.