Scary Movie is a series of American comedy films created by Keenan Ivory Wayans with his younger brothers, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, that mainly specialize in parodying horror films, which have collectively grossed over $895 million at the box-office worldwide. The two main recurring actors of the first four installments were Anna Faris and Regina Hall as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, joined by new or recurring actors and characters.
The franchise was conceptualized by The Wayans Brothers, who wrote and directed the first two films before leaving the franchise. Their entries were distributed by Dimension Films through two different studios: Miramax Films, as it was originally the studio's genre film label during executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein's run and produced the first three films, and The Weinstein Company, the brothers' newly formed studio, which currently produces the rest of the series' release after departing from Miramax and taking the Dimension Films label with them. When Disney sold Miramax to Filmyard Holdings, LLC (from Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2, and Scary Movie 3), Miramax left The Walt Disney Company in December 3, 2010. The franchise was rebooted in 2013 with Scary Movie 5, which disregards the events of the previous films and begins an entirely new storyline with new characters.
Scary Movie (July 7, 2000) is the first film that premiered in the series. Scary Movie was the highest grossing film of the series, grossing $278,019,771 worldwide. It is a spoof of several films, with a focus on the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer series.[1]
After a group of teenagers (consisting of Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), Bobby Prinze (Jon Abrahams), Buffy Gilmore (Shannon Elizabeth), Greg Phillipe (Lochlyn Munro), Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans), and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), accidentally hit an old man with their car they decide to dump his body in a lake and never talk about it again (in a spoof of I Know What You Did Last Summer). A year later a person with a Scream mask kills them one by one. The group attempts to find the identity of the killer. In the end, Cindy realizes that 'Special Officer' Doofy was the one who had killed everyone faking his mental disability. As soon as Cindy realizes he's gone she starts screaming on the road but gets hit by a car.
Scary Movie 2 (July 4, 2001) is the second in franchise. In the U.S., the film grossed $71,308,997. Worldwide, it grossed $141,220,678. This is one of two Scary Movie films to receive an R-rating and also marks the end of the Wayans siblings' involvement with the series.
The film starts with a parody of The Exorcist, in which Megan Voorhees (sharing the same last name as the fictional serial killer Jason Voorhees) is possessed by the devil, and two priests, Father McFeely and Father Harris (James Woods and Andy Richter) have to force the devil out. But after Megan insults Harris's mother he shoots her in the head.
The film then merges into a parody of The Haunting with story beginning when a perverted college professor, Professor Oldman (Tim Curry) and his wheel-chair bound assistant, Dwight (David Cross), plan to study ghosts inside a haunted mansion with the clueless teens as bait.
When at the house, strange things happen, Ray gets attacked by a clown (whom he also rapes), Shorty gets attacked by a living marijuana plant, Cindy gets in a fight with a possessed cat, and Dwight has an argument with a bad mouthed pet bird. When they find out about the professor's plan they try to escape the house, finding out that there is a ghost who still lives in the house. They must defeat the ghost in order to escape.
Scary Movie 3 (October 16, 2003) is the third film in the series. With $220,673,217 earned worldwide,[2] it is the second most successful film in the series. The plot of the film is a spoof of The Ring and Signs as well as several other films and celebrities. Michael Jackson planned to sue the filmmakers for parodying him in such a way that made him seem like a child molester and having a fake nose.[3] This was the first Scary Movie film to receive a PG-13 rating in the United States[2] as well as the first to have no involvement from the Wayans family.[4][5]
The film revolves around strange crop circles found near an old farm and the circulation of an unusual videotape. Upon watching this tape, the phone rings and a creepy voice says: "You're going to die in seven days". Cindy falls in love with a rapper named George (a parody of Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. of 8 Mile), when she hears that she is to die in seven days. Meanwhile, George and his older brother Tom - the farmers who discovered the crop circles in their corn field, learn that extraterrestrials are coming to Earth come to destroy the killer responsible for the deaths of those who have watched the tape.
Scary Movie 4 (April 14, 2006) is the fourth in the series. The film opened with $40 Million at the weekend box office, making it the third best opening in the series. With a $178,049,620 at the worldwide box office, Scary Movie 4 ranks as the third highest grossing entry. The main target of spoof was War of the Worlds and The Grudge. The film concludes the story-arc that began with the first film and is also the last in the series to feature any of the original cast members.
Scary Movie 5 (April 12, 2013) is the fifth installment in the series and is the first film to not feature Anna Faris and Regina Hall. The film received largely negative reviews, and grossed $72,992,798 worldwide in the box office, thus being the least successful film in the franchise.
Jody (Ashley Tisdale) and Dan Sanders (Simon Rex) move into a new home after adopting three mysterious children. There are videocameras to record the events and Jody and Dan soon discover that a powerful creature known as "Mama" is haunting them, trying to claim their newly adopted children.
