(SeaPRwire) –
By: Christian Pierce
The core problem with Scary Movie 6 isn’t that it’s offensive. It’s that it’s completely irrelevant to what modern audiences want from parody comedy. Hollywood has been craving more comedy hits for years, but retreading 20-year-old gags misses the mark entirely. Studios keep digging up dead franchises for cheap nostalgia plays, and audiences are growing tired of the low-effort cash grabs.
The first Scary Movie pulled in $278 million at the box office when it launched as a Scream parody. It spawned five sequels, plus a wave of low-quality parodies like Epic Movie and Disaster Movie before the trend died in the early 2010s. Thirteen years after Scary Movie 5, the new installment brings back the Wayans Brothers, who were pushed out of the franchise by the Weinstein Company after the second film. Its plot leans heavily on the Scream 5 reboot, with throwaway gags at recent horror hits like Get Out and Longlegs that don’t dig into modern horror’s actual evolution. Most of its jokes rely on tired toilet humor and cheap shots at the LGBTQ+ community, a style that felt dated even in 2007. The only bright spot is Anna Faris, who still retains her sharp slapstick comedic edge.
Modern parody films have already moved past the broad, scattershot humor Scary Movie relies on. Recent hits like The Blackening, Weird: The Al Yankovich Story, The People’s Joker, and last year’s The Naked Gun update the genre with fresh, specific takes that resonate with current audiences. If Scary Movie 6 turns a profit, more sequels will follow. The Wayans Brothers would do well to study what’s working in modern parody, instead of leaning on jokes that stopped landing a decade and a half ago.
Scary Movie 6 is currently playing in theaters.
Author bio: Christian Pierce, chief financial columnist and markets commentator covering entertainment industry IP performance and consumer trend shifts.