The promise for the return of Scary Movie was that ‘Every line will be crossed’. With the Wayans Brothers involved for the first time in a quarter of a century, and comedy seemingly dulled by a supposed fear of causing offence in the 13 years since Scary Movie 5, the boast at least seemed deliverable. Couple that with a tonne of new horror to spoof, and you have the conditions for some of the most outrageous, offensive and hilarious dumb fun of the year.
In the event, it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough to back up that tagline. It’s mostly the same tired old jokes about weed, copying bits from recent horror movies rather than spoofing them properly, and referencing how much money everyone made out of it, or how the Wayans weren’t in the last few movies while other cast members were. Even by Scary Movie standards, it is abysmally lazy.
The plot is basically that of the never-ending Scream franchise: someone gets attacked by Ghostface (in this case Tuesday Campbell), and her older sister Sara and boyfriend Jack reckon it’s a repeat of what’s happened before. This leads them to find their mother, Cindy, who’s holed up in a fortified house a la the last Final Destination flick, who thinks the whole thing is a setup to by Ghostface to trap her. There’s an eventual reunion of old characters and new, they decide they’re in a ‘rebootquel’, loads of people die, loads of bongs get ripped, and very few laughs are had.