For Spooky Month at RFMC, we’re looking back at the “Scary Movie” franchise that started by making fun of “Scream” and – despite its promise of “No Sequel” — just kept going. Next up is “Scary Movie 4” (2006):
Horror movies parodied
Writer Craig Mazin, returning from part three, pops over to “The Grudge,” “The Village” and “Saw,” although the plot comes from elsewhere (see the next entry). This is the weakest of the four-film “Scary Movie” “trilogy,” with some sequences (note the locked-car-door gag) that would’ve been cut from the previous entries. Still, it hits on enough jokes that I wasn’t bored.
Other movies parodied
The elephant in the room is that “Scary Movie 4” uses the plot of Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” which isn’t a horror movie. But my bitterness comes mostly from having not seen that film recently enough to get the detailed references.
Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart spoof “Brokeback Mountain,” making the series four-for-four in making fun of gay people. And it somehow manages to make broken necks amusing in the “Million Dollar Baby” flashback.
Best actor
Last time, I gave Anna Faris a shout-out for her loyalty to the franchise that put her on the map. (She’s back here in Sarah Michelle Gellar’s role, and turtleneck sweater, from “The Grudge.”) So here’s a nod to Regina Hall, who this time is a reporter covering the alien invasion. The writers have gradually made Brenda into a sex maniac, which allows the film’s denouement to also be its punchline.
Best spoof-film legend
Bill Pullman (“Spaceballs”) gets the Richard Crenna Award for being in both a movie (“The Grudge”) and its spoof. However, he’s actually spoofing the William Hurt role from “The Village,” and he’s a rare actor since the first entry who achieves a caricature of the original performance.
Oh yeah, that guy
Craig Bierko was always short of the A-list, and his biggest role didn’t happen till he was past his leading-man hunk phase, in TV’s “UnReal.” But anyone who watches TV or film has seen him in something, and he does everything asked of him here in the Tom Cruise struggling-father role.
Funniest sequence
Mr. Koji (Henry Mah) is desperate to hire a caretaker for the haunted house, so while showing it to Cindy, he frantically covers up things like the pasty ghost boy in the bathtub. When “Scary Movie 4” targets “The Grudge,” it nails it, so in that way the film’s collage nature hurts it.
A close runner-up: I’m an easy target for bathroom humor, so I have to give a shout-out to Carmen Elektra — in Bryce Dallas Howard’s blind-girl role from “The Village” — thinking the church assembly room is her home bathroom. Not as great as James Woods’ work in part two, it’s still worth a hearty chuckle.
Meta humor
Cindy greets best-friend Brenda with “I thought you were dead.” Brenda died in “Scary Movie 3,” not to mention the first “Scary Movie.” And “Scary Movie 2’s” alternate ending. She has more lives than “South Park’s” Kenny.
Also of note, Leslie Nielsen’s President Harris is a guest in a school classroom, and seems nonplussed when he receives news of the alien attack. This is a spoof of President Bush hearing about 9/11. Although it’s a five-year delay for the joke, that much time had to pass for 9/11 jokes to be safe.
Time-capsule humor
In the end-credits sequence, Bierko spoofs Tom Cruise acting crazy on Oprah’s couch in 2005 after falling in love with Katie Holmes, who had a childhood crush on the star. They divorced in 2012.
Best one-liner
Brenda (showing video footage to Cindy): “This is Detroit. And this is Detroit after the attack.” (Both shots are apocalyptic.)
“Scary Movie 4” (2006)
Director: David Zucker
Writers: Craig Mazin (story, screenplay); Jim Abrahams, Pat Proft (screenplay)
Stars: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko
Photo credits: Dimension Films