Scary Movie (2026) Review: The Joke Has Finally Run Out Of Steam
Back in 2000, the original Scary Movie arrived at exactly the right moment. Horror was enjoying a major resurgence thanks to films like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Blair Witch Project, and the Wayans brothers saw an opportunity to poke fun at the genre. The result was crude, juvenile, often ridiculous, but undeniably popular. It spawned sequel after sequel, turning Scary Movie into one of the most recognisable comedy franchises of the early 2000s.
Fast forward more than twenty-five years and the franchise has risen from the grave once again. The Wayans brothers are back. Anna Faris returns as Cindy Campbell. Regina Hall returns as Brenda. Shawn and Marlon Wayans reprise their roles as Ray and Shorty. On paper, it sounds like exactly the nostalgic reunion horror-comedy fans have been waiting for.
Unfortunately, Scary Movie (2026) quickly proves that some things are best left in the past.
The film opens with a sequence clearly inspired by modern Scream movies. Teyana Taylor plays a woman waiting for a date at a bar before being lured into a dark alleyway. The twist is that we’re actually watching a scene from a fictional horror franchise called Horror Movie, the Scary Movie equivalent of Scream’s Stab series. The scene is being watched by Tuesday, a parody of Wednesday Addams, before she too becomes the victim of a masked killer.
It’s a decent enough opening and probably one of the stronger sections of the film. Sadly, things begin to unravel fairly quickly afterwards.
The plot, such as it is, revolves around a new Ghostface-style killer targeting a younger generation while drawing Cindy, Brenda, Ray and Shorty back into the chaos. However, narrative is clearly not the priority here. Instead, the film exists largely as a conveyor belt for references to recent horror films and pop culture moments.
Sinners, Weapons, Terrifier, Smile, Longlegs, The Substance, M3GAN, Final Destination, Get Out and numerous others all receive parody treatment. Some references last mere seconds before the film moves onto the next target. Others stretch into full scenes. The problem is that very few of them are actually funny.
That’s perhaps the biggest issue facing Scary Movie in 2026. The comedy style that felt fresh and outrageous a quarter of a century ago now feels painfully dated.
Jokes about racism, social media, memes, viral videos and cultural trends are thrown at the screen with machine-gun frequency, but most land with a dull thud. Physical comedy fares little better. Gags involving hospital beds launching people into ceilings or characters being repeatedly injured feel like material that would have struggled to stand out twenty years ago, never mind today.
The original Scary Movie films were never sophisticated, but there was at least a sense of energy and chaos that helped carry them through weaker moments. Here, the film often feels like it’s desperately chasing laughs rather than generating them naturally.
That isn’t to say there are no bright spots.
Anna Faris remains immensely likeable as Cindy Campbell. She has always been the secret weapon of the franchise and once again proves capable of elevating weak material through sheer commitment. Regina Hall is similarly entertaining whenever she appears, and the chemistry between the pair remains intact after all these years.
Marlon Wayans still gets some mileage from Shorty’s permanently stoned personality, while Shawn Wayans returns as Ray, though many of the jokes surrounding the character feel increasingly tired and repetitive.
One of the more pleasant surprises comes from Olivia Rose Keegan, who plays Cindy’s daughter Sara. She does an impressive job capturing some of Faris’s mannerisms without simply becoming an imitation, and she often brings more life to scenes than the script deserves.
Visually, the film is actually stronger than expected. Director Michael Tiddes and cinematographer Terry Stacey successfully recreate the look of many of the movies being spoofed. Horror fans will instantly recognise the visual nods to Scream, The Substance and Get Out. Technically speaking, the film is polished and professional throughout.
The issue is that parody works best when it has something clever to say about its source material. Far too often, Scary Movie simply recreates scenes and expects recognition alone to generate laughter.
The film also suffers from a strange obsession with explaining itself. Characters repeatedly break the fourth wall, comment on the franchise’s history and reference previous sequels. While meta humour has always been part of Scary Movie’s DNA, it becomes exhausting when every other scene feels determined to remind viewers that they’re watching a Scary Movie film.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that modern horror is overflowing with rich material for satire. The elevated horror boom, the rise of A24, analogue horror, prestige horror television and social media horror culture all offer fertile ground for comedy. Yet the film rarely digs deeper than surface-level references.
By the time the third act arrives, any semblance of structure has disappeared completely. The movie descends into an avalanche of cameos, references and random sketches that feel stitched together rather than organically connected. It’s less a story and more a collection of disconnected parody clips.
What makes this particularly frustrating is that there are occasional glimpses of what might have been. A handful of jokes work. Some of the cast clearly still have great comedic instincts. The production values are solid. But none of that is enough to overcome a screenplay that seems convinced that merely recognising a reference is the same thing as finding it funny.
Scary Movie (2026) isn’t quite as painfully bad as some of the genre’s worst offenders such as Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans or Disaster Movie. It sits slightly above those cinematic disasters. However, that is hardly high praise.
For longtime fans, there may be some nostalgic enjoyment in seeing Cindy, Brenda, Ray and Shorty together again. For everyone else, this feels like a franchise that has simply run out of ideas.
The horror genre has evolved dramatically over the last twenty-six years. Sadly, Scary Movie hasn’t evolved with it.
