The Scary Movie series began all the way back in 2000, poking fun at various horror films and even pop culture, to the laughter of audiences around the world. The first two films were written by the Wayans Family before they departed the franchise.

The last movie was in 2013, and now, after 13 long years, a brand new Scary Movie has finally erected with the Wayans Family returning to write the sixth film that serves both a reboot and a sequel. Directed by Michael Tiddes and starring Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall and more, 2026’s Scary Movie is now creeping its way into cinemas worldwide.

26 years after outrunning Ghostface, the Core Four are back with Cindy Campbell, who reunites with her long-time friends Brenda Meeks, Shorty Meeks and Ray Wilkins. Cindy lives as an aloof recluse who prepares for Ghostface’s inevitable return. When Ghostface resurfaces and targets a new group of teenagers, the original crew team up once again to stop the killer. Every line will be crossed, and no horror movie IP is safe.

The original crew is finally back together with Marlon Wayans as Shorty, Shawn Wayans as Ray, Anna Faris as Cindy and Regina Hall as Brenda. Joining them is a new generation of characters with Olivia Rose Keegan as Sara Campbell, Savannah Lee Nassif as Tuesday Campbell, Gregg Wayans as Brad Meeks, Cameron Scott Roberts as Jack and Benny Zielke as Jess, just to name a few.

All the returning cast are just as funny and entertaining in the original films, and the new cast of characters who are being set up as the next generation provide some fresh new faces who could carry the franchise. There are also some fun cameos to look out for.

As good as the cast is and all the hype leading up to the film’s release, the overall movie unfortunately does not live up to the hype. The jokes are cleverly written with references to various horror films and even non-horror films, but a lot of the jokes feel recycled, or we’ve outgrown them, though this, of course, is subjective depending on who’s watching it.

It also doesn’t help that a lot of the movies they parodied aren’t from recent years, like anything from the Conjuring franchise, which would’ve created some hilarious jokes. Seeing horror characters we’ve already seen in past Scary Movie movies appear again in the latest film, but do nothing new, feels like they’ve run out of ideas.

There are some recent horror IPs like M3GAN and a few others that we’ll leave as surprises, so we get to see some new material, but they’re very few and far between. The film does have its moments and a lot of fun callbacks to past movies and memorable characters making cameo appearances that fans will appreciate. Even a few other movies starring some of the Wayans family get a feature that will unlock some memories, and are hilarious to see. The scene referencing a certain famous K-pop themed movie is definitely one to look out for.

The comedy, for the most part, is more casual funny than laugh-out-loud funny like the previous films. The slapstick comedy is entertaining, but nothing groundbreaking. A lot of the promotional material gave strong hints that the movie is going to be unapologetically offensive and anti-woke, but those jokes are surprisingly tame and just come across as lame.

With the tag line of “Every line will be crossed”, it feels like it was just to convince the moviegoers to see this film. One example is some characters just explain their preferred genders and pronouns without any punchline (except one literal punch). On the plus side, it doesn’t create new jokes that could be used to bully certain minorities in real life, but why have them at all if they don’t add anything to the comedy?

The set pieces are really well made, with many recreating the locations from movies they’re parodying. The horror characters, such as M3GAN and other horror icons, look like they came straight from their respective franchises, with some slight modifications to fit the movie’s humour and spoofs.

Even if the comedy is lacking, there are still plenty of entertaining scenes referencing non-horror movies. Even though this film falls short on expectations in many aspects, it still showed that the new cast of characters would do well if they become the new main protagonists in possible future films, though that remains to be seen if we’ll get any more after this.

When it comes to comedy movies, audiences want and expect to laugh out loud. The past five Scary Movie films have managed to do that, even if some weren’t as good as they could be, but the latest Scary Movie doesn’t land on that level of comedy.

The 2025 version of The Naked Gun is a fantastic example of modern film that is genuinely funny to the point it makes your stomach hurt (in the best way), and Scary Movie was expected to keep that momentum going, but it severely underdelivered. It feels like it reuses the jokes that made the older films successful, and the new jokes, no matter how cleverly written they were, don’t hit as hard as they should.

Laugh-out-loud movies seem to be few and far between these days, and the new Scary Movie isn’t one of the better examples. It’s a shame because the franchise has a history of hilarious and memorable moments with jokes that people still reference today, while the latest film will likely feel like an afterthought after exiting the cinema. The plot does hold your attention from beginning to end, keeping you in anticipation for the next laughable moment, but it keeps you waiting too long, and most times, the wait just isn’t worth it.

We waited 13 years for the next Scary Movie, and with the Wayans family returning to the franchise since 2001, we set expectations high. 2026’s Scary Movie does have its moments, but overall, it’s just an ok casual, funny movie at best that leaves you wanting more.

Written by: Sammy Hanson