Scary Movie Essay, Research Paper

Scary Movie Review

By Michael Cattana

Release Date: November 16th, 2000

Not to be Confused With: Another horror spoof heading to theaters this summer is I Know What You Screamed Last Summer. This isn’t that movie. Also a note to sir even though this movie isn?t released till the 16th of November this year I have seen it on VCD from the internet.

Title Note: Anyone who knows their horror movie law knows the significance of the title, Scary Movie. It’s the original title of the first Scream movie.

Former Titles Note: This film began with the merger of two scripts that both spoofed the horror genre: Last Summer I Screamed Because Friday the 13th Fell on Halloween and Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween.

Rating: MA (for strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use and violence)

Running Time: 85 minutes

Distributor: Dimension Films

Cast: Anna Faris (Cindy Campbell), Regina Hall (Brenda), Jon Abrahams (Bobby), Rick Ducommun (Cindy’s Dad), Carmen Electra (Drew Decker), Shannon Elizabeth (Buffy Gilmore), Kurt Fuller (Sheriff), Dan Joffre (Kenny), David L. Lander (Principal Squiggman), Lochlyn Munro (Greg), Andrea Nemeth (Heather), Cheri Oteri (Gale Hailstorm), Dave Sheridan (Doofy), Jayne Trcka (Miss Mann), Marlon Wayans (Randy), Shawn Wayans, Marissa Jaret Winokur (Jill), James Van Der Beek (cameo), Keenen Ivory Wayans (cameo)

Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans (director of the the hilarious blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka)

Screenwriters: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Phil Beauman (cowriters of Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), Buddy Johnson (debut), Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer (cowriters of Spy Hard; they’ve also got Liberace in the works); (Wayans, Wayans, Beauman, and Johnson were the writers of the original Last Summer… script; Friedberg and Seltzer were the writers of the original Scream If You Know… script. All six screenwriters have been credited by the WGA.

Based upon: This is, of course, a spoof of the teen-slasher films of recent years: Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Sequel Note: (7/13/00) Okay, so the poster says “No Sequel.” Dimension’s Bob Weinstein has told EW Online that the easy way around that is for the sequel’s poster to say “Look, We Lied.” There’s no word yet on when the Scary Movie 2 might be greenlighted, but they probably won’t wait long.

Premise: No word on the actual plot of the film, but there’s probably, I don’t know… a guy with a sharp pointy instrument chasing many, many teenagers? I’ll post more when I hear it. (4/11/00) The trailer is out now, and that synopsis isn’t far from the truth. Basically, what we see are snippets of a story that pastes together elements of Scream (guy in white mask and black cloak chasing girls with a knife) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (kids hit a guy with their car). Other recent movies that are spoofed include The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and The Blair Witch Project. (7/1/00) Okay, having seen the film, I can give you a synopsis. Basically, it’s about a group of six friends (three couples) who accidentally killed someone last Halloween, and are now being threatened by mysterious notes, even as someone in a black costume (and Scream mask) is killing each of them… sound familiar? Of course it does. The plot is just the frame that the many jokes are wrapped around.

Filming Date: This film began filming on August 11th, and wrapped in the early Fall, 1999.

Official Site: http://www.scarymovie.com (teaser site now open with a new trailer)

Also at Theaters: November 2000

Bibliography

www.ytahoo.com