'Scary Movie' is a scream

By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 7, 2000

Keenen Ivory Wayans outdoes even the Farrelly brothers in tastelessness, but his movie is as funny as it is raunchy.

Most of the great punch lines in Scary Movie wind up in someone's crotch. Imagine Ben Stiller's jammed zipper in There's Something About Mary multiplied by the number of inches in your pants inseam.

I'm ashamed to admit how much Scary Movie made me laugh: even more than Me, Myself & Irene, with its Farrelly/Carrey pedigree.

Never has this much male frontal nudity been represented in any film not rated triple-X. Genitalia, either grossly oversized, artificial or embarrassingly stunted, are a constant theme in Keenen Ivory Wayans' spoof of the Scream horror series. Penises are used for anything unnatural, as a clue, a weapon or just because three minutes have passed since the last flashing or sodomy gag.

Nothing is more shocking in films in these desensitized times than going the full Monty. Wayans keeps wagging the idea in our faces with exaggerated sex of all types and all variations of the crudest word describing it. Scary Movie is a slasher satire in form and a Martin Lawrence stand-up routine in def, bawdy spirit. It's so nasty.

Scary Movie also flirts with raunchy brilliance at times when Wayans and a posse of screenwriters truly try. They aren't reinventing the wheel here. Scream 1, 2 and 3 established the lock-step premise: Masked killer pursues oversexed teenagers with a pushy TV reporter carping on the side. If Wes Craven doesn't have a sense of humor, he's probably calling his attorney right now.

[Photo: Dimension Films] Jon Abrahams, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans get into Scary Movie.

The idea shouldn't work. The Scream movies were already parodies of Spam-in-a-classroom movies of the 1980s. Wayans takes a vicious detour, though. Scream cleverly poked fun at audiences for being scared by Freddy and Jason in the first place. Scary Movie proudly lowers itself to the base standards of moviegoers easily soaked for two more sequels and numerous knockoffs.

Entire scenes from those sincere flicks are stolen and mutilated by Wayans. A little Scream here, a dash of I Know What You Did Last Summer (and still knew the next year) there. Officer Dewey devolves into an even dumber Officer Doofy. The joyride leading to manslaughter in the latter film blends Hanna-Barbera slapstick with the lurid precision of a Porky's prank. The old ice-pick-through-the-ear routine gets an obscene twist.

The cast is game for anything Wayans throws at them. Anna Faris is center stage as Cindy, the obligatory virgin, with a devastating deflowering scene. Of course there are other Wayanses involved: Marlon as the standard jock-who-may-be-gay and Shawn as a blunt-smoking player with pot smoke seeping from his wounds.

[Photo: Dimension Films] Anna Faris is center stage as Cindy in the tasteless, funny send-up, Scary Movie.

Rick Ducommun is hilarious as Cindy's dope-dealing dad. Carmen Electra does an erotic sendup of herself and Drew Barrymore during the introductory stalking. Cheri Oteri (Saturday Night Live) chatters comically as always. Wait until you see who plays the high school principal, a nice call-back to Henry Winkler's role in the Scream flicks.

Scary Movie is more recklessly tasteless than Me, Myself & Irene, either taking better risks or being in better position than the Farrellys to take them, especially when it comes to hip-hop satire. Wayans' movie isn't scary, or for everybody, but it sure is funny.

Scary Movie

• Grade: B
• Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
• Cast: Anna Faris, Shannon Elizabeth, Cheri Oteri, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Lochlyn Munro, Carmen Electra
• Screenplay: Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, Buddy Johnson, Aaron Seltzer, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans
• Rating: R; harsh nudity, profanity, sexual situations and violence
• Running time: 85 min.