Scary Movie (film series)

Scary Movie (2000)

Scary Movie is the first film of the franchise and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans.^[2] It is the highest-grossing film of the franchise, with $278,019,771 worldwide.^[3]

The film's plot mainly spoofs the slasher film genre, most notably the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer franchises,^[4] and it follows a group of clueless teenagers, led by the lovable, but dim-witted Cindy Campbell, who are stalked by a bumbling Ghostface-esque serial killer one year after disposing of the body of a man they accidentally hit with their car.

Scary Movie 2 (2001)

Scary Movie 2 is the second film of the franchise and was also directed by Wayans. It grossed $141,220,678 worldwide and is the second lowest-grossing film of the franchise.^[5] This is the last film to receive an R-rating and also marked the end of the Wayans siblings' involvement with the franchise, until the development of the sixth film.^[6]

The film is a parody of supernatural films, most notably The Haunting (1999),^[4] with the plot following a perverted college professor who tricks a group of unsuspecting students, including Cindy and her friends, into visiting a haunted mansion for a fake sleep-disorder study, using them as bait to capture a ghostly menace.

Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Scary Movie 3 is the third film of the franchise and was directed by David Zucker. With $220,673,217 earned worldwide, it is the second highest-grossing film in the franchise.^[7] This was the first Scary Movie film to receive a PG-13 rating, as well as the first film to have no involvement from the Wayans family.^[6]

Michael Jackson planned to sue the filmmakers for Edward Moss parodying him in such a way that made him seem like a child molester and having a fake nose.^[8]

The plot of the film is a spoof of the sci-fi horror films Signs and The Ring (both 2002). It follows Cindy, now a TV reporter, as she investigates a cursed videotape that kills viewers in seven days while uncovering a link to mysterious crop circles and an impending alien invasion. To save the world, she must team up with the clueless U.S. President and two local farmer brothers to stop the supernatural and extraterrestrial threats before her time runs out.

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

Scary Movie 4 is the fourth film of the franchise and was also directed by Zucker. With $178,710,620 at the worldwide box office, it ranks as the franchise's third highest-grossing film.^[9]

The film's main targets of spoofs were The Grudge (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), The Village (2004) and the Saw franchise.^[4] The film follows Cindy as she discovers her new house, where she works as a caretaker, is haunted by a ghostly boy, forcing her to team up with her clueless neighbor to save the world from an invasion of alien "Tr-iPods".

Scary Movie 5 (2013)

Scary Movie 5 is the fifth film of the franchise and was directed by Malcolm D. Lee. It is the only film in the franchise to not star Anna Faris and Regina Hall.^[10] It grossed $78,613,981 worldwide and became the lowest-grossing film of the franchise.^[11]

The Paranormal Activity films, Mama (2013), Black Swan (2010) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) are primarily parodied, and follows a young couple who, after adopting three feral children, must use home surveillance cameras and supernatural experts to battle a malevolent demon haunting their home.

Scary Movie (2026)

In April 2024, it was announced that a new film was in development, with producer Neal H. Moritz attached to the project. Production will be financed entirely by Miramax, while Paramount Pictures will distribute the movie. In October 2024, it was confirmed that the Wayans brothers would reunite for the first time in 18 years to develop the new film.^[12][13][14] It will be the first film in the series not to be produced by Dimension Films, due to the company being shut down on July 16, 2018 following The Weinstein Company's liquidation,^[15][16] and the second film in the series to be produced by Miramax.^[17] In August 2025, Regina Hall and Anna Faris were confirmed to reprise their roles as Brenda Meeks and Cindy Campbell, respectively.^[18] The film began filming in October 2025 and will release on June 5, 2026,^[19][20][21] after previously being slated to release on June 12.^[22]

Parodies

Scary Movie's (2000) main parodies are of Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The rest of its elements are from The Exorcist (1973), The Shining (1980), Kazaam (1996), Election (1999), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), The Matrix (1999), The Blair Witch Project (1999), and The Sixth Sense (1999).^[4]

Scary Movie 2's primary target is The Haunting (1999). The rest of the film contains traces parodies of House on Haunted Hill (1959) and its 1999 remake, The Legend of Hell House (1973), The Exorcist (1973), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), The Amityville Horror (1979), The Changeling (1980), Poltergeist (1982), Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984), Titanic (1997), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Stigmata (1999), What Lies Beneath (2000), Hollow Man (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), and Hannibal (2001).^[4]

Scary Movie 3's general parodies are of Signs (2002) and The Ring (2002). It also features elements of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Airplane! (1980), The Others (2001), Minority Report (2002), 8 Mile (2002), and The Matrix Reloaded (2003).^[4]

Scary Movie 4's parodies are of The Village (2004), The Grudge (2004), the Saw franchise (2004–present), and War of the Worlds (2005). It also parodies Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Brokeback Mountain (2005).^[4]

Scary Movie 5's central areas of satire are the Paranormal Activity films (2007–present), Black Swan (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and Mama (2013). Other notable parodies are those of the Madea films (2005–present), Inception (2010), Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), The Cabin in the Woods (2011), Sinister, Ted (both 2012), and Evil Dead (2013).^[4]

Scary Movie's (2026) confirmed parodies are Get Out (2017), Nope (2022), Longlegs (2024), Heretic (2024), Sinners (2025), and Weapons (2025). It may also do what the first film did by parodying Scream (1996–present), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997–present) franchises.^[23]

Box office

Critical response