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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Scary Movie
Dimension Films


6.9

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 41 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong crude sexual humor, language, drug use and violence

Starring Carmen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth, Marlon Wayans, Sean Wayans, Cheri Oteri, Jon Abrahams, Anna Faris, and Lochlyn Munro

A comic spoof in the tradition of "Airplane," which pokes fun at teen slasher films such as the "Scream" series, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "The Blair Witch Project."

GENRE(S):	Mystery
WRITTEN BY:	Phil Beauman Jason Friedberg Buddy Johnson Aaron Seltzer
DIRECTED BY:	Keenen Ivory Wayans
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 12, 2000 Video: December 12, 2000 Theatrical: July 7, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	88 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Film.com Ernest Hardy

It's very funny and - at times - even witty in a crude, drunken frat-boy-with-an-epiphany kind of way.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

While undeniably silly and violent in a cartoon-like manner, is by and large a hilarious skewering of the clichés of teen pix.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The jokes are wild, raunchy, surreal and dead-on.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Is it funny? Yes, it is.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The whole thing wobbles, like the garish, trashy, sexy shoes the young folks are wearing this summer on their way (in droves) to movie theaters, intent on abandoning themselves to pleasurable mindlessness.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Deadly funny.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

The scary thing about this spoof of '90s teen horror movies is how funny it is.

Variety Joe Leydon

Manages an impressively huge score in the hit-or-miss gag ratio.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Actually quite amusing, thanks mainly to a script that keeps the gags flying so fast that even though so many of them are bad, they're quickly followed by something new, and occasionally something good.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Political incorrectness, gross-out humor, references for their own sake, and some real wit are distributed over the 85 minutes with an unusually consistent sense of timing and proportion, and the tone is just right.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A raunchy, scattershot, but often hilarious spoof.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Gross, sophomoric, offensive, nasty, cheap and mean -- and so funny again and again that you plumb near forget all that's reprehensible about it.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The question facing the target audience for Scary Movie is whether the funny bits will be enough of a payoff for sitting through the tedious stuff between them.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Does serve up an inspired gag every once in a while.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Its grossness knows no bounds, and you'd have to be dead not to laugh.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

The gleeful teen-horror spoof that proves that the Farrelly brothers have no monopoly on outrageous, politically incorrect comedy.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

If you're amused by jokes involving male genitals, female pubic hair, flatulence and dismemberment, it should be a big hit.

TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly

Offers, on a drop-by-drop basis, more semen than a Ron Jeremy flick.

TV Guide Stephen Miller

Surprisingly cohesive.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Would it be asking too much if the hit-and-miss jokes could maybe nudge an inch beyond the obvious?

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It's easy to be offensive in a movie; it's much harder to be funny. Which is why Scary Movie emerges as such a waste; when you're so good at the latter, why keep falling back on the former?

Film.com Robert Horton

Destined to be remembered not for its laugh-per-minute ratio, but for breaking a barrier of crudeness in mainstream movies.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Some of the funny stuff is actually funny, some of it is funny and yucky, but most of it is just stupid.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

A big, stupid bull with bodacious tits, but that's not to say it doesn't dish out some lite hardy-hars.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Might have been funnier if it had been put together with more care.

Chicago Tribune Marc Caro

Usually what you're laughing at is ugliness, and that leaves a foul taste long before the 85 minutes have expired.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The only thing that's truly scary about the movie is the escalating vulgarity of the latest in a string of skanky comedies by filmmakers determined to out-gross the other.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Did I laugh? Yeah, I did, half a dozen times. Not a great percentage for a film with something close to 300 quote-unquote jokes.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate the startling sight of a phallus jammed into someone's ear.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Other (Specify)

There are a number of funny and unexpected moments in the film, but they are ultimately swamped by the mean-spirited tone and increasingly over-the-top raunch and drug humor.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

I walked out of Scary Movie feeling as if I'd been whacked around with a two-by-four for an hour and a half.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

I'd rather have a testicular nail-gun mishap than sit through this migraine-inducing train wreck of a film one more time.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Anna R. gave it a9:
I thought it was hilarious! And even if it was a little over-done, it was brilliant. I strongly recommend this for a "Saturday Sleepover", just like I watched it. BRILLIANT!

C. gave it a7:
First time I saw this, I laughed like hell. It was very funny. Re-seeing this, it's still funny as hell, but some jokes are worn thin. The infantile humour is getting annoying as the movie progresses. Profanity and fifth-grader tiltillation is no replacement for what brought the movie down most in my opinion: a dire lack of wit in the dialogue. And by that I mean the British definition (look it up). This is probably the only good movie from the Wayanses before they lost their funny and went desperate, aka: cluttering up movies with subpar spoofs of everything under the sun. This is the only one where the subpar and good parodies are in equal number. For the rest, it's a needle in a haystack. This is probably because... well... they didn't write it. Which begs the question. Why is it that when "Scary Movie" was directed by David Zucker (I still admire the guy for the sheer comedy of "Airplane" and "Naked Gun"), it still blew? Maybe the Wayanses wrote that one.

Gordon M. gave it a10:
This is the funniest movie I have ever seen. I can't believe people disagree with that! I hope there is a 5th one.

Anson G. gave it a0:
What so nice about this show? This movie probably is worse, stupid and boring. Its not talking about scary things. Its talking about sexual harrassment movie. It was gross and totally brain dead. If u havent watch this, dont.

Deepi T. gave it a9:
If you are not comfortable with sexual humor, then may not like the movie, but i really think it is funny.

patrick d. gave it a1:
Some funny parts, but mostly gross and offensive. There are so many things wrong with it: male nudity, sterotyping, and other offensive scenes. A horror spoof can be as bad as a horror re-make.

jeff f. gave it a1:
One laugh in the whole thing.Gross and disgusting but not funny.

Scary Movie Dimension Films

Scary Movie
Dimension Films