Film criticism and analysis is justified for all sorts of productions – lowbrow parodies included. Somehow Scary Movie returned.
The sixth installment of the franchise is its first entry in over a decade and the first in 25 years with a Wayans steering the ship. While reviews have been a bad tomato, that didn’t stop audiences from checking it out as it grossed over $105 million worldwide in its opening weekend (breaking the all-time franchise record). Meaning – Scary Movie 7 will most definitely be fast tracked.
Good? Bad? Meh? There is no way that Scary Movie 6 should have this many words written about it.
My perspective, the film inadvertently is more successful as a referendum on the current state of ‘legacy sequels’ in horror than as an actual comedic parody. Even though ‘legacy sequels’ in horror aren’t really in any state right now. We obviously saw some in the 2000s with H20 and New Nightmare and arguably Alien Resurrection, but that’s the closest I can ever think of to an era where the sub-genre really existed in any meaningful way. The only thing I can take away from this is that the age of ubiquitous slashers dominating the horror space is over (or at least hibernating), but a franchise (like Scream) can still find a way to carve a perennial space in that ecosystem if it does those things competently – but that can quickly become fragile if you’re relying on gimmicks or rushing scripts out the door. For real, Scream 7 and Scary Movie 6 are pretty much interchangeable.
The problem a lot of media has right now, nobody wants to let go of the people who watched this stuff as kids and now have kids of their own. Adults won’t let children have their own thing anymore. Everything has to be made for the olds who want the exact same characters, the exact same actors, the exact same VIBES forever. And studios are terrified of upsetting them by taking risks.
They know fans don’t want anything new, they want the old actors dragged back on screen forever, Aided plastic surgery’d, AI’d or whatever it takes to keep them frozen in time. And you can already see this happening in other franchises. Were not giving new stuff a chance to grow and become the next Marvel or Star Wars or fill in the blank IP. Avengers Doomsday is supposed to pass the torch to a new generation, but you already know a fit shall be thrown because “I only want the old crew that I grew up with.” Star Wars did the same thing. Episode 8 literally said “let the past die,” and fans screamed so loud they backpedaled and brought back the Skywalkers and Palpatine.
Anytime a franchise tries to move forward, the old guard freaks out. Look, I personally love Peter Parker, but like Batman’s parents’ story, I’ve heard it enough times. Miles Morales upbringing and situation, if given a chance, feels way more dynamic and interesting to explore, with fresh aspects of his personal journey to dig into. But try telling that to an angry YouTuber. They just flip out,- yelling about race swaps, bad stories, and poor writing.
Scary Movie 6 pointed out the obvious: people are terrified of change. But change happens anyway. Kids are finding their own stuff, the Backrooms, analog horror, weird indie YouTube universes, and they don’t care about HeMan or whatever legacy acts the powers that be keep dragging back from the grave. The new generation is already moving on.
Eff the comfort food. Even bad tomatoes.
– Dagobot