With a tag line, “No more mercy. No more shame. No more sequels – Honest! – We lied,” “Scary Movie 2” has made its way to theaters. Keenan Ivory Wayans directed the comedic spoof of Hollywood teen horror movies, but added to his targets such supernatural classics as “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist,” “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.”
Taken from the movie “The Haunting,” college students Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), Ray Maker (Shawn Wayans), pothead Shorty Meeks (Marlon Wayans), Alex (Tori Spelling), Jamie Lee Curtisto (Kathleen Robertson), Buddy (Chris Masterson) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) are convinced by a professor (Tim Curry), into spending a weekend in the very haunted “Hell House.”
They are locked in and must survive their weekend by killing off the ghosts using high-tech guns and thermo-goggles reminiscent of the “Ghostbusters” movies in the 1980s.
The movie also stars James Woods as a priest, comedian Andy Richter, Chris Elliott as caretaker of the mansion, as well as Natasha Lyonne, David Cross, Jemuel Morris, Richard Moll, and Beetlejuice (from the “Howard Stern Show”).
“Scary Movie 2” also spoofs “Charlie’s Angels,” “Stigmata,” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The Mummy” and “The Sixth Sense.”
Like its predecessor, “Scary Movie,” this movie often uses some risqué humor.
“We’re not sitting there going, ‘How do we make it grosser?’ We go, ‘How can we be funny?’ If there’s something gross that leads you to something funny, cool. But we don’t want people just going, ‘Oh, what the hell? That’s not funny. That’s just nasty,’ ” Shawn Wayans said in an E! Online article.
Parts of the film had to be cut, such as a parody of the “Girls Gone Wild” commercial called “Grannies Gone Wild.”
“The pressure’s on to be funny. We don’t want to be just the ‘Scary Movie’ guys. I think right now if we do a third one, it wouldn’t come for a couple of years,” Marlon Wayans said.
The sequel is rather short, only one hour and 22 minutes, but packs a punch full of grotesque, off-color humor and creativity in incorporating so many films into the twisted plot. The majority of the film was spent watching the actors run around the haunted mansion. Some of the scenes were not necessary at all.
However, Kathleen Robertson’s performance as Jamie Lee Curtisto was enjoyable. It was amusing to see Tori Spelling and Robertson together again since their days on “Beverly Hills 90210.” Several of the jokes used in the commercials were not as humorous as when they were heard the first time, yet there were many surprising and outrageous moments.
The profanity shouting parrot got old after a while, ironically becoming himself “the weakest link.”
“Scary Movie 2” is certainly not for everyone, but offers a good contrast to such other films as “Kiss of the Dragon” and “A.I.” Overall, the movie is highly entertaining and is as off-beat as the original.
