Scary Movie Revisited: How It Parodied Scream and Defined 2000s Comedy

Tyler

Parody films often come about because of a consistent trend in cinema. All the airport and plane movies in the ’70s led to Airplane! The success of Top Gun in the ’80s gave us Hot Shots! And on the horror side, nothing was more successful in the ’90s than Scream. So, of course, the Wes Craven/Kevin Williamson classic would be a prime candidate for the same treatment. In step the Wayans brothers, who had successfully parodied blaxploitation movies with their film I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. What followed was a pop culture milestone that spawned a slew of imitators. So join us as we get into all the parodies as we revisit Scary Movie.

Early Horror Parodies vs. Scary Movie

The Scary Movie franchise wasn’t the first to parody horror films in a fun and comedic way. Both Student Bodies and Saturday the 14th provided plenty of chuckles but failed to make much of a cultural impact, at least not in the way that Scary Movie did. And as strange as it is to admit, it helped serve as a great entry point into horror for a lot of people. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard someone say they watched Scream after seeing Scary Movie.

Why Scary Movie Works

Once I recover from the initial shock and break it down, it kind of makes sense. I mean, heck, when simplified, Scary Movie really is just a more palatable comedy version of Scream. Which is weird to say, because I think Scream is already hilarious.

Scary Movie essentially tells the story of Cindy Campbell and her friends as they’re being hunted down by a psycho killer in a Ghostface mask. Given that she and her friends accidentally killed a guy one year prior, they think their victim is alive and out for blood. Sounds familiar, eh?

The Films Being Parodied

Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer were the primary films being parodied here. I mean, Scary Movie was literally the original title for Scream. There are also smaller references to other films, which we’ll get into. But the 1996 and 1997 slashers provided the backbone of the story. And since this wasn’t released until 2000, that meant they also had Scream 2 to pull from. Hell, they even pulled from Scream 3, which released that same year.

Cast and Character Parodies

First, let’s look at the cast. Most of the characters are based on those in Scream, but there are some I Know What You Did Last Summer stand-ins here and there. Cindy Campbell is obviously meant to be Sidney Prescott and has a lot of the same characteristics, including a similar backstory. Bobby Prince is a mix of Billy Loomis and Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Ray Bronson, which makes things slightly confusing with the character of Ray, who is based on Ray Bronson as well as even a little Steve from Scream 2.

Greg is loosely based on Barry Cox from I Know What You Did Last Summer. Then Brenda is mostly just a ramped-up version of Maureen from Scream 2, complete with super obnoxious theater etiquette. I’ve seen the argument made for Brandy’s character in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer as well.

Gail Hailstorm is obviously a play on Gale Weathers. Oddly, they don’t really parody Randy Meeks, although Shorty does get a version of his “rules” speech at the very end of the movie.

Buffy Gilmore is based on Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character Helen Shivers, though obviously the name is a play on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, I guess, Happy Gilmore. They sound alike. She also has traits of Tatum Riley, especially with her exaggerated death.

Officer Doofy is clearly meant to be Dewey Riley, played with… let’s just say fewer IQ points.

Recreating Scream with Comedy

Then, in the opening, Drew is a clear callback to Drew Barrymore’s memorable appearance in the opening of Scream. This intro is a near shot-for-shot remake with, obviously, added humor.

That’s really what we’ve got for most of the movie: a Scream scene, but with added jokes. The back-and-forth between the killer and victim follows a very similar path, even using some of the exact same lines. With some funny variations.

Structure and Key Differences

The movie mostly follows the same structure as the first Scream, nearly scene for scene. It starts with the opening kill in the countryside, moves to Cindy on the computer with her boyfriend, then her dad snoops around. Then we see how the school reacts to the murders.

This is where things start to diverge a bit. Most of this ends up being ultimately pointless, but also serves as an excuse to parody other movies, which adds to the comedy. They straight-up kill a guy, and there are no repercussions.

I mean, it depends on your sense of humor, but I think it’s funny in retrospect.

Memorable Scenes and References

Buffy gets her beauty pageant moment, complete with her boyfriend getting killed before her eyes. It looks almost identical to the pageant in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Cindy gets attacked, Bobby is set up as the killer, and at this point it would’ve been smart to use him as a red herring. Anyone who’s seen Scream knows what’s coming… but instead, they follow the Williamson playbook. And it kind of works.

Every scene is recreated but given its own twist, like when the killer calls Cindy at Buffy’s house and Dewey comes out… having clearly done unspeakable things with a vacuum hose.

As a massive Scream fan, it’s moments like this that make me chuckle. It’s the little things.

Anyone who remembers the marketing will recall the The Blair Witch Project parody, complete with a never-ending stream of snot from Gail’s nose. Heck, even Shorty’s “I see dead people” joke shows the filmmakers’ ability to tap into trends, since The Sixth Sense had come out just 11 months earlier.

The Killer and Horror Elements

The killer himself is more like Freddy Krueger, quipping constantly. His appearance is similar to Ghostface, with slight differences.

As much as this is a comedy, they do a great job making the killer feel like a real threat. Just look at the scene where he kills the stoners; he handles it with no problem. And I’ll always appreciate a Friday the 13th reference.

Playing with Horror Tropes

If you remember, Julie gets laid at the beginning of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Sidney gets laid at the end of Scream. Both are final girls, and both survive, so Scary Movie plays with that idea in a fun way. We can’t show that here, so go watch it yourself. It’s comedy gold.

Ending and Meta Commentary

The ending recreates Scream, with Bobby and Ray revealed as the killers. They add a comedic angle involving Bobby’s frustration with Cindy, plus some digs at the films they’re parodying:

“Does Scream have a plot? No.”
“Did I Know What You Did Last Summer make any sense? Don’t think so.”

While it’s easy to disagree (how dare you disrespect Scream!) it’s a bit harder to defend some of the sequel choices… like Jack Black’s appearance.

The Future of the Franchise

One downside of following Scream so closely is that we never really got expanded parodies of the later films, but maybe that can change. It’s been 11 years since the last Scary Movie, and that wait may be ending soon. Given its connection to the Scream franchise, it wouldn’t be surprising if Scream 5 and other legacy sequels become the main targets for Scary Movie 6.

Hopefully, they follow the original’s blueprint: focus on one main film and mine the humor from it instead of random, disconnected gags. Then again… Doofy being revealed as both the killer and a handsome genius à la The Usual Suspects kind of proves that random jokes can still work.

Though I shudder to think what they’d do with modern Kevin Feige-era Marvel movies.

Box Office Success and Legacy

Scary Movie was released on July 7, 2000, debuting at number one with $42 million. It went on to earn $278 million worldwide against a $19 million budget, a massive success for Dimension Films.

Naturally, a sequel was quickly greenlit. Should we cover that one?

Final Thoughts

So what do you think? Was Scary Movie a worthy parody of Scream and late-’90s slashers? Where should the franchise go next? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll see you in the next one.

Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!