Published on
After two Scary Movie installments directed by and starring the Wayans brothers, the series gets a major overhaul at the hands of someone who practically helped invent this style of comedy: David Zucker. As one-third of the legendary Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team behind classics like Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Hot Shots!, Zucker brings the franchise back to its spoof-movie roots. The shift in direction is immediately apparent in the cast. Marlon and Shawn Wayans are nowhere to be found, leaving Anna Faris and Regina Hall as the only returning faces connecting the film to its predecessors. Joining them are several Zucker regulars, including Leslie Nielsen and Charlie Sheen, along with a host of new additions.
Cindy Campbell is now a television reporter investigating a mysterious videotape that kills anyone who watches it within seven days. At the same time, farmer Tom Logan discovers strange crop circles appearing in his fields, suggesting an alien invasion may be imminent. As the cursed tape, extraterrestrial visitors, and a series of increasingly absurd events collide, Cindy finds herself trying to save the world while stumbling through a barrage of parodies of films such as The Ring, Signs, 8 Mile, and The Matrix Reloaded.
The first Scary Movie was a pleasant surprise. By closely following the original Scream, it managed to be both coherent and genuinely funny. The sequel was less successful, but its focus on haunted house movies, both old and new, kept things together well enough. Scary Movie 3 shifts its attention to then-current hits like The Ring and Signs, using them as the backbone of the story, while films such as The Matrix Reloaded and 8 Mile are reduced to material for individual gags. As a result, the plot is even less coherent this time around, and the movie often feels like a series of comedy sketches loosely strung together.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Zucker delivers plenty of funny moments that rely less on endlessly repeating the same joke, a habit that plagued the previous Wayans-led entries. As with almost every spoof movie, its success depends entirely on how many of the jokes land. While Scary Movie 3 never comes close to the heights of the classic ZAZ productions, a surprising number of its gags still work. Few of them are outright laugh-out-loud funny, but they consistently earn a chuckle, which is more than can be said for most parody films from this era.
If there is one department in which Scary Movie 3 surpasses its predecessors, it’s the casting. The movie is packed with familiar faces, and many of them are clearly having a great time. Aside from newcomers Charlie Sheen and Leslie Nielsen, the film features actors like Anthony Anderson, George Carlin, Eddie Griffin, Queen Latifah, and Kevin Hart in roles that are often more substantial than simple cameos. The opening scene alone sets the tone perfectly, featuring former Baywatch stars Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy in a parody of The Ring that lets you know exactly what kind of movie you’re in for.
Scary Movie 3 is a mixed bag that excels in some areas while falling short in others. Ask me anything about the actual plot, and I would struggle to give you a coherent answer beyond “Charlie Sheen has aliens on his farm, Cindy is now a reporter investigating the girl from The Ring, and Leslie Nielsen is somehow the President of the United States”. The story is little more than a framework for the jokes, but that’s probably for the best. Despite its flaws, I enjoyed it more than Scary Movie 2, which leaned far too heavily on gross-out humor and too often confused being disgusting with being funny.
