The Original SCARY MOVIE (now in 4K) Has a Lot To Answer For

SCARY MOVIE (4K UHD SteelBook)

2000 / 88 min

Paramount

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😼

With 2026’s lamentable Scary Movie inexplicably cleaning up at the box-office, I suppose it's inevitable that we’d be getting a 4K edition of the one that started it all…at least in the eyes of a certain generation of fans.

But those with longer memories might realize 2000’s Scary Movie didn’t really start it all. When it comes to modern movie parodies, that distinction belongs to Airplane!, which remains the best one ever made. It inspired a slew of similar films ranging from good to godawful…mostly the latter, made by people (even the great Mel Brooks) who tended to overlook what made Airplane! a masterpiece: More than just a string of gags and pop culture references, it was satire presented with a totally straight face and a cast not typically associated with comedy.

At the time it was released, Scary Movie represented what movie parodies had become. Not that it wasn't funny. Even 26 years later, sometimes it’s very funny and certainly more entertaining than many other anemic atrocities of the era, such as 2001: A Space Travesty, Fatal Instinct or Dracula: Dead and Loving It (sorry, Mel). Still, one can’t overlook the fact that it was mostly satirizing a film (Scream) that was basically a satire itself. 

An Arkansas Halloween (an Arkansas Christmas, too).

As directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, which he co-wrote with a slew of cohorts (including the future hacks Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, who’d soon run the entire genre into the ground), this one opened the door for movie parodies to devolve into collections of film and cultural references laced with scatological humor, sex jokes, slapstick and teams of comedians aping before the camera. But while Scary Movie never approaches the brilliance of the ZAZ team or Brooks in his prime (nor does it really try), it's Citizen Kane compared to the plethora of crap it inspired (including its own sequels).

I guess the film could be considered something of a classic these days, since it has been nearly as influential as Airplane! and certainly endeared itself to legions of fans over the years. And admittedly, quite a few of its gags stick the landing, sometimes by their sheer audacity (though some haven’t aged all that well). But the Wayans Brothers also have a lot to answer for, namely the eventual dumbing down of an entire genre.

Those who still consider Scary Movie to be the height of hilarity can now experience that brilliance in 4K, in a limited edition SteelBook, no less. I'm not sure how movies like this really benefit from the 4K treatment, but it’s here if you want it, with a decent overall picture and a 5.1 audio track (I couldn’t tell you if either improves much on previous Blu-ray releases). It also comes with a handful of vintage bonus features.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FEATURETTE

MOVIE SHOWCASE - This feature lets the viewer go to a few specific scenes.

ADDITIONAL SCENES

TRAILER