Personally, I find it difficult to enjoy parody films. I've seen a few across varying genres just to try them, but I always found them lacking soul. They felt like they were just aiming for a cheap laugh with their mindless sex jokes and deep lack of understanding of the media from which they were inspired. In short, I rarely enjoy parody movies. That doesn't mean there aren't people that love them. Movies are made to be enjoyed. Just because I don't like them doesn't mean someone else won't.
One of the downsides of Scary Movie lies within how broad of a parody film it is. Instead of sticking to a select few movies within a specific genre to parody, they try to stick a joke or moment from as many cultural impactful movies within the past decade as possible. This leads to an incoherent plot and joke after joke that just fails to land a laugh. You think I jest? I saw moments from; K-Pop Demon Hunters, Get Out, Scream 6, Wednesday, Sinners, Ballerina, Terrifier, Squid Games, and more that I forgot to write down while I watched it in theaters. I do remember very vividly a shopping bag from "Gacy's" a reference of course to John Wayne Gacy, the American serial killer. The team shoehorns as many references as they possibly can and it is just a mess. That being said, I don't believe the film was all bad.
One thing I think a lot of people will end up remembering/discussing from this movie is how they treat their younger generation. We see teen activists that don't take the plot seriously but still feel the need to chime in with their 2-cents. They try to act like it's their burden alone to bear without the adults, but ultimately it's the adults that handle it. Teenagers should never have to bear the weight of the world on their shoulders, and yet we see them do exactly that in media all of the time. It was refreshing seeing a difference in Scary Movie. I know they were just trying to make fun of franchises that introduce new characters in order to keep beating a dead horse, but I think it's a multifaceted point.
Scary Movie as a franchise is something I never felt drawn to. I've seen some of the films they decided to parody and I enjoyed them. Attempting to turn them into jokes though didn't work for me. That being said, it's clear the film was made with some heart. The writers understood most of the media they were parodying and tried to use it their advantage. It's a movie about legacies in film not needing a new generation to take over in order for them to continue being enjoyed. Which is an important truth Hollywood needs to face. At the end of the day, Scary Movie will be a divisive movie, some people will hate and some will love it. Love it or hate it, at least it will have gotten people to theaters.
-Lucy
No comments:
Post a Comment