‘Scary Movie’ Is Bringing Back Regina Hall and Anna Faris
As a child, I was obsessed with the early films in the Scary Movie franchise. To me, they were funny and edgy and just scary enough to make me dart around the nearest piece of furniture to hide from an infamous horror villain. I liked that the movies made me feel clued in on all of the referential humor, like pop culture was something to participate in, not simply bear witness to.
Maybe those are some pretty esoteric thoughts for a 10-year-old, but it means that when Marlon Wayans announced that Regina Hall and Anna Faris were returning for Scary Movie 6 I didn’t go on a diatribe about “recycled IP” and “reboot hell” and “studios refusing to take a chance on original comedy.” Instead I just muttered, “Oh, hell yeah.”
The news that there will indeed be a Scary Movie 6 and that the comedic backbone of those films, Hall and Faris, would also be returning was confirmed in a joint statement by the actors. “We can’t wait to bring Brenda and Cindy back to life and be reunited with our great friends Keenen, Shawn and Marlon — three men we’d literally die for (in Brenda’s case, again),” Faris and Hall said, according to Variety.
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The news makes me feel a little more confident that SM6 will make me laugh. Scary Movie 5 was released in April 2013, and it was the worst reviewed and worst performing film of the franchise. It has a pretty impressive 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and also very noticeably lacks Faris, Hall and the Wayans.
When the original Scary Movie was released in 2000, it earned $42.5 million its opening weekend. It made the movie the biggest debut for an R-rated horror movie and a Black director to date. Scary Movie 5, in contrast, made just over $8 million at the box office. The franchise’s downfall in 2013 and the years leading up to the later Scary Movie movies, was due to the fact that Miramax, under the direction of Harvey Weinstein, mutilated the movies and stole the franchise from the Wayans.
“It was so toxic,” Marlon Wayans said in an interview with Variety. “The way the Weinsteins handled the business of Scary Movie, I could write a Scary Movie about it. We probably should have sued.”
While there’s no clear indication on what Scary Movie 6 will be about, it will be back under the creative control of the Wayans. The script will be from Rick Alvarez, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans, and both Marlon and Shawn will also have starring roles in the film.
“The fab four is back,” Wayans wrote on Instagram. “So excited to work and reunite with these two brilliant women. We are so proud of all they have done since the inception of the scary movie franchise.”
This information alone is promising, as is the goal of new Miramax studio head Jonathan Glickman, who doesn’t want SM6 to just be a “cash grab.” I’m hesitant to believe anything a studio head tells me, but I’ll absolutely put my faith in a cast that includes Regina Hall, Anna Faris, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans.
