Scream is timeless. It was a perfect satire of a genre that lost any spark of originality decades before. Scary Movie doesn’t seem to understand that.
By parodying specific horror movies, Scary Movie is now hopelessly dated, and the pop culture references now terribly unfunny (as opposed to just unfunny when the movie was released). The barrage of fart, snot, and poop jokes simply don’t work, as even these feel forced.
Scary Movie has one bright spot. Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) talks to her father (Rick Ducommun) about his upcoming leave of absence from the home. His calm demeanor as he discusses drug lords coming to kill him and leaving some drugs in the house for Cindy to sell is priceless. It is the type of humor the modern spoof movie contains little of, more content to cram than be witty.
Scary Movie contains pointless scenes, such as a romantic interlude as only the Wayans could shoot. Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans) and Brenda (Regina Hall) are ready to make love, yet Ray has been established as a closet gay. The bizarre sequence that follows involves a football jersey and blatant humping, adding nothing to the film… including laughs.
Unbelievably, Scary Movie barely makes it to the 80-minute mark, showing a complete lack of available content. Of course, what is included lacks the spark Scream added to the genre, particularly as Scary Movie aims so pathetically low. At least is succeeds in that. [xrr rating=2/5 label=Movie]
One of the earliest examples of how not to transfer a film to Blu-ray, Scary Movie is a DNR-riddled mess. Completely flat, unnaturally digital, and lacking any fine detail, Scary Movie is a poster child for how not to present film in hi-def.
Glaring edge enhancement is thick throughout. Some artifacting from this AVC encode shows sporadically. Smearing is consistently evident, and faces are waxy messes. Aliasing and flickering are evident any time the transfer is asked to handle minute details such as the flag on the sheriff’s uniforms.
Despite the amount of digital manipulation at work here, print damage still remains. Specks and dirt still pop-up, unacceptable given the overly digital nature. If you’re going to wipe all of the detail from the frame, the specks on the print should not to be difficult in the process. [xrr rating=1/5 label=Video]
An uncompressed PCM mix is fine, if lacking opportunity to shine. The highs are crisp, including numerous screams and glass breaking. The subwoofer is given little to work with, although a few thuds when people are hit by cars are marginally sharp. The score nicely bleeds into all channels, creating full and immersive musical accompaniment, as if that were critical for a movie like this.
Still, this is serviceable given the dialogue-driven nature of the film. The kills are mostly static, so the action is placed where it should be. [xrr rating=3/5 label=Audio]
Extras are sparse, carried over from the DVD. Six deleted scenes are listed here for a reason, while a promotional behind-the-scenes featurette fails to break the seven-minute mark by four seconds. A selection of scenes included in the “Movie Showcase” are laughable given the video quality, and the trailer is basic fare. [xrr rating=1/5 label=Extras]
Matt Paprocki
Matt Paprocki has critiqued home media and video games for 20 years across outlets like Washington Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, Forbes, IGN, Playboy, Polygon, Ars, and others. His current passion project is the technically minded DoBlu.com. You can read Matt's body of work via his personal WordPress blog, and follow him on Twitter @Matt_Paprocki.