The Scary Movie franchise, which has now extended to a sixth installment parodying modern horror movies and pop culture in general, throws a lot of spaghetti at the wall. While this inevitably results in some low comedic lows, plenty of that spaghetti sticks, resulting in high highs with huge laughs that are often propelled even higher by the many talented cast members that these movies have assembled over the years.
Without further ado, here are the 10 funniest moments from the original five Scary Movie movies.
10. Rachel’s Bad Luck, Scary Movie 4 (2006)
In Scary Movie 4, Rachel (Conchita Campbell) is an analogue for Dakota Fanning’s character from Steven Spielberg’s 2005 alien invasion movie War of the Worlds. The running gag where she is repeatedly clobbered by the world around her is pretty sophomoric. However, it’s probably the bit from Scary Movie 4 that best displays the cartoon reality in which the franchise takes place.
9. The Ice Cream, Scary Movie 3 (2003)
‘Scary Movie 3’ (2003)Credit: Dimension Films
Scary Movie 3 was the moment where the franchise took a major left turn. Although iconic characters Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) returned, it was the first film from the franchise that was made without the involvement of the Wayans Brothers.
Perhaps to make up for the fact that they were shifting gears, the franchise brought in The Naked Gun director and Airplane! co-director David Zucker to helm both this movie and its sequel. The man knows his way around a gag, and the comically oversized ice cream container that the two friends share, which is never commented upon, is an especially goofy and charming one. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the horror movies that the franchise parodies, which is why it has landed so low on the list, but it’s an underrated visual gag.
8. The Hat, Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Clearly, oversized objects were very much on the minds of David Zucker and Scary Movie 3 screenwriters Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, The Sheep Detectives) and Pat Proft (a frequent Zucker collaborator who had already written or co-written parody movies including The Naked Gun and its two sequels, Hot Shots! and its sequel, and High School High).
The increasingly large hat worn by Trooper Champlin (Camryn Manheim) adds another layer to the playfulness, though, by adding an intentional continuity error to the mix. The humor uses editing to enhance the visual comedy even more. The button on the end of the scene, where she struggles to get back into her car, is also quite charming.
7. “I Blame Myself,” Scary Movie 4 (2006)
‘Scary Movie 4’ (2006)Credit: Dimension Films
In addition to adding in more cartoonish sight gags, Scary Movie 3 and 4 channelled the previous Zucker parody movies by bringing in a lot more wordplay and dialogue-driven humor.
One of the best examples comes at the end of the scene where Cindy explains the death of her husband George (Simon Rex) to her new love interest Tom (Craig Bierko) via a flashback that somewhat randomly parodies the 2004 sports drama Million Dollar Baby. The button on that scene is the following:
Cindy: If I hadn’t have thrown that punch, none of that would have happened. I blame myself for it all.
Tom: As well you should.
While this exchange isn’t wordplay per se, the reversal of expectations that comes from Tom confirming that Cindy should blame herself feels extraordinarily Airplane!-esque, particularly as it relates to Bierko’s deadpan delivery.
6. “I’m So Scared,” Scary Movie (2000)
Here is where we arrive at moments from the franchise that are more focused on parodying the horror genre and specific horror movies. This scene, which comes from the original installment in the franchise, is a direct parody of 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, in which Heather Donahue delivers a tearful apology that includes snot dribbling from her nose.
In Scary Movie’s version, Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) records herself after being chased through the woods by the killer, only to have snot flow from her nostril like a fire hose, surging and bubbling in a wild exaggeration of the original scene.
5. The Stairway Chase, Scary Movie (2000)
This early chase scene in the original Scary Movie is another fun escalation, this time of the classic horror trope where victims run up the stairs rather than out the front door. Just like many a final girl before her, she throws things at the killer to try and stop him, but the throwable things that she finds on the seemingly infinite stairwell are increasingly unlikely, including her own grandmother.
4. “Are You OK?” Scary Movie 3 (2003)
The scene following Becca (Pamela Anderson) and Kate (Jenny McCarthy) from the opening of Scary Movie 3 has several targets for its satire (including the way that horror movies often feature characters being unrealistically scantily clad). However, the best moment in that scene comes when Becca sees Kate, obviously disfigured and dead (in an homage to the opening scene of The Ring), but can’t quite process what she’s seeing and continues to ask if she’s OK, satirizing how slow-on-the-uptake many horror movie victims can be.
3. “I Thought I Was Your Best Friend,” Scary Movie 2 (2001)
While this scene, where Brenda immediately bails on Cindy to save her own life, isn’t a direct parody of a horror movie, but it’s an exquisitely funny character moment. Even though the original Scary Movie movies are stuffed with references and gags, they live and die on the quality of the performances more than anything else. Luckily, Regina Hall is one of the best in the game, and she elevates every scene she appears in with her snappy, deliriously funny deliveries.
2. Cindy’s Cafeteria Run, Scary Movie (2000)
This moment is a little bit more of a direct horror parody, as it is an exaggeration of a scene from the original Scream. However, it is another actor-based moment, landing at this position by virtue of Anna Faris’ admirably committed physical comedy performance.
1. “Wanna Play Psycho Killer?” Scary Movie (2000)
‘Scary Movie’ (2000)Credit: Dimension Films
This scene with cheerleader Buffy Gilmore (Shannon Elizabeth) exquisitely combines the franchise’s wacky sense of humor with a parody of a specific scene from a horror movie (in this case, the prelude to Rose McGowan’s character Tatum being killed in Scream).
The scene starts off as a typical parody, having Buffy spout similar lines mocking how she’s supposed to lean into the killer’s recreation of a slasher movie. However, it continues to escalate more and more, to the point that she is sarcastically narrating her own murder. The fact that she is behaving so fundamentally differently from a regular slasher victim is amusing on its own, but the way that she is managing to irritate the killer himself is a delicious cherry on top.
Are you a Scary Movie fan? Sound off in the comments with your own favorite moments from the horror-comedy franchise!
