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There are many reasons to reboot a franchise. Frequently, it’s financial gain. Sometimes, it’s a resurgence of nostalgia. But with 2026’s Scary Movie, it’s personal.
The Wayans brothers were effectively booted from their own franchise after Scary Movie 2, citing pay disputes with nightmare producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Their baby, their comedic labors, were hijacked by monstrous suits who handed the reins to David Zucker (Airplane!, Naked Gun, Baseketball). It’s been over two decades since Hollywood robbed the Wayans boys, but they’re back now, with a horror satire driven by spoofy Ghostface hijinks and barbed vengeance—cocked, locked, and ready to roast their enemies.
The primary narrative follows 2022’s Scream, Radio Silence’s fifth installment, as a rebootquel (“rebootyquel”). All the familiar faces come home: Shorty Meeks (Marlon Wayans) is a stoner streamer, Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans) is definitely not gay anymore (sike), Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) has entered her reclusive Laurie Strode era, and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) is cosplaying Octavia Spencer’s Ma. It’s sweet to see Scary Movie’s “Core Four” reunite; however, some of their material feels stuck in the past. Ray’s masked homosexuality is barely a one-joke gimmick, while Faris contends with Cindy’s republican transformation and the stale jokes in tow. Breda’s cool-mom antics fare better with Hall’s comedic prowess, while Shorty engages in golden bits with the likes of animated demon hunters and vlogger celebrities.
But you can’t have a reboot without new blood. Olivia Rose Keegan plays Sara, Cindy’s pill-popping daughter—who does a killer “Anna Faris in Scary Movie” impression—and Savannah Lee Nassif portrays Tuesday, the moody Jenna Ortega stand-in. They’re not exactly on Faris and Hall’s level, but fall back on moderate supporters. Cameron Scott Roberts pokes fun at Scream’s golden rule of never trusting the boyfriend while playing Sara’s blatantly untrustworthy partner, while the rest of Radio Silence’s youthful protagonists are mocked with more respect than Kevin Williamson showed his predecessors in Scream 7. They’re a surprisingly fun group, yet never match the O.G.s at their plateau.
There’s plenty of horror love in Scary Movie, incorporating breakout hits like Get Out, Final Destination: Bloodlines, and The Substance into a roster of references that keep ideas fresh. With the Wayans clan back in creative control, there’s more emphasis on film-centric goofs from a prankster’s perspective. The Sinners musical number, the M3AGAN twerk dance, and Art the Clown’s cameo earn their yucks, but are expected given overwhelming popularity. What stands out are the quiet zingers: an It Follows joke about artsy indie horror, for example. The five-person screenwriting team aren’t just pandering to horror-loving crowds—they did their homework. Frankly, I laughed more than I anticipated, and enjoyed the deeper-cut humor on display.
That said, the Scary Movie flicks were always a bit immature. There’s an attempt to rectify old jokes that didn’t age well, but also a … let’s say commitment to tone. Dave Sheridan’s Doofy Gilmore schtick just doesn’t hit the same, nor do micropenis gags or the weed-infused high-larity that’s so prevalent. Scary Movie is about a 50/50 comedy split between snappy wits and perverse duds, especially when trying to push boundaries. The script’s at its weakest when trying to shoehorn in topical rips on the Epstein files, #MeToo, Britney Spears, and other attempts to prove how comedy should be a safe place to make unsafe jokes because it just feels … a wee bit tryhard.
Don’t get me wrong, comedies shouldn’t have “no fly zones” for their material—but you know what makes people stop clutching their pearls? Actually being funny. That, at times, is where Scary Movie fails. The film wants so badly to score off-color laughs, and will fall flat on its face to do so.
What flipped me positive on Scary Movie I didn’t see coming. There’s a healthy dose of self-reflection from a franchise standpoint, and the Wayans brothers don’t hold back about studio drama. Characters break the fourth wall early and often, including whole conversations that are good-natured interrogations about Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, and Scary Movie 5. Marlon and Shawn specifically have every reason to vent their beefs, which the likes of Hall and Faris allow on screen. Sure, it’s all playful because everyone involved is in on the joke, but there’s still an admirable confrontation of past ills that works beautifully within the context of a reboot that unabashedly reverts to the good ol’ days.
Scary Movie (2026) really is the anti-Scream 7. The Wayanses are angry for the right reasons, and channel that frustration into a rather scorched-earth reclamation of their own property.
Scary Movie is the welcome rebirth of a franchise that helped kickstart and then effectively killed the 2000s-2010s spoof movement. It’s hardly bulletproof; sketch by sketch, your mileage will vary based on the stupidity on screen. That said, on pure entertainment value, the Wayans family proves what a mistake it was to cut them out of the Scary Movie picture. Get ready to laugh thanks to another stoner-stupid parade of good-time horror spoofery, as unpretentious as it is boldly mindless and comfortably dumb.
Movie Score: 3/5
