Scary Movie 4
Scary Movie 4 is billed as “the fourth and final chapter of the trilogy”. This tagline would surely set off a few alarm bells in many minds, with its innumeracy proudly emblazoned for all to see. Add to this the conventional wisdom that movies appearing later in a franchise often run out of steam, and you have critics writing off this movie left, right and centre.
Yet, Scary Movie 4 is quite likeable as a parody flick. Granted, the reviewer must confess to both liking parodies and not having watched any of the other movies in the franchise, but as a parody, this movie stands on solid ground. Its jokes are crafted so that they do not depend heavily on the references made, thus allowing you to still understand them and laugh along with those in the know. At the screening that this reviewer attended, that was exactly what the audience did, all the way to the end. As is the case with most flicks, the plot is usually not the main course. Here, it reads like an itinerary for “Scary Movie — The Theme Park”. Still, what intrigued this reviewer was that beneath all the parody and the jokes lies an examination of the fine line between slapstick and cruelty. There is plenty of slapstick in this movie, and most of it elicits some laughter. The resolution of the plot, however, does give some pause for thought on the nature of cruelty, its presence in slapstick and to what extent our laughter actually endorses such cruelty. In other words, the guilt trip that makes this an actual guilty pleasure.
Scary Movie 4 ends with an extended parody of a well-known interview, which reinforces the subtext mentioned above and rewards the parody aficionados for whom it is made. Fans of the franchise may find this instalment rather run-of-the-mill or a tad too short (it clocks in at 83 min). As for the others? Well, if you desperately need a night out at the movies and you need some laughs (e.g. you spilt a can of paint on your best friend’s face), this movie may help. Only if your best friend is not a film critic, of course!
2/5
Rongmin Lu
