Awesome opening, decent movie

Rating: 7/10 (18 August 2006)

The second movie in the "Scary Movie" series is, in my opinion, the weakest overall. That doesn't mean that it isn't without its merits, but the whole thing seems kind of like it was slapped together over a weekend. Many of the jokes just don't work, but there are enough side-splittingly funny bits to make it all worthwhile.
This movie opens with an absolutely brilliant parody of "The Exorcist". It starts with the singalong scene with Andy Richter as Father Harris behind the piano. "You guys know this one?" he asks, and then proceeds to play the opening bars of -- get ready -- "Shake Ya Ass". Megan Voorhees (played by Natasha Lyonne) comes down the stairs and starts peeing on the floor, interrupting the singalong. Her mother treats her like a dog! This segues into the more obvious parody of the movie with Father McFeeley (James Woods) coming in to perform the exorcism with Father Harris ("F--- this!" McFeeley says when he first encounters the possessed girl). It's classic.
Then the movie kind of dries up. The basic story is a parody of "The Haunting", a movie that was so bad that parody seems kind of unnecessary. It centers around a bunch of college kids going on an overnight trip to Hill House, ostensibly to study their sleep disorders but actually so the professor (Tim Curry) can summon the ghosts in the house. The only real connection with the first is found here, as some of the kids were picked because of their prior traumatic experiences (which they encountered in the first movie).
Honestly, I thought the whole thing kind of rambled when I first saw it, and there were some eye-rollingly dumb jokes. But there were also a lot of very funny jokes and the cast (including Anna Faris, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, and the incredible Regina Hall from the original, mixed with vets Chris Elliot, David Cross, and Curry, Woods, and Richter) was very good; it was the writing that suffered more than anything. That, and the sloppy production values, but I guess that's nitpicking with a movie like this. Also, I didn't think the ending was very satisfying. Still, Brenda (Hall) and Cindy (Faris) messing with the "scary" skeleton that tries to terrorize them ("This is a skeleton -- this is bones! Would you run from Calista Flockhart?" Brenda chides Cindy when they run into each other); Hanson (Elliot) and Dwight (Cross) arguing; and Cindy fighting a cat "Raging Bull"-style were just some of the few very funny moments found in this movie.
This may not seem like a glowing review, but I actually did like this movie and recommend it if you're into the spoof genre. Just don't expect "Airplane!" or even the first "Scary Movie" when you see it. On the bright side, it ain't "Spy Hard" either.