Scary Movie 2

Rating: 2/10 (21 June 2005)

I did used to like the Scary Movie films in a rather immature way, now only the first film is the one I can say good things about, because as they go on the sequels get worse and worse, and the spin off films from the same makers, e.g. Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie and Vampires Suck are abysmal, this was the second film in the near pointless continuing horror films, television and popularised celebrity news spoof series. This film predominantly parodies the haunted house movies, specifically the remake of The Haunting and Poltergeist, as well as spoofing or referencing The Exorcist (the opening), The Amityville Horror, The Legend of Hell House; Save the Last Dance, Dude, Where's My Car?, Paulie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Wild Wild West, the Nike basketball advert, Child's Play, Stephen King's It, What Lies Beneath, Thir13en Ghosts, Ghostbusters, The Weakest Link (quoted), Hollow Man, Titanic (quoted), Days of Thunder, Mission: Impossible II, Dirty Harry (quoted), Hannibal, Charlie's Angels; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Twister, Final Destination, The A-Team, Alien, Alien: Resurrection, Big Trouble in Little China, Carrie, Cats & Dogs, The Changeling, The Convent, Gladiator, Gone in 60 Seconds, Jumanji, A Knight's Tale, The Mummy, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Pet Semetary, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Red Heat, Rocky IV, Scream, The Shining, Snatch, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and The Usual Suspects. Basically the film opens at Hell House where a Mother (Veronica Cartwright) is concerned for her sick daughter Megan (American Pie's Natasha Lyonne), so Father Harris (Andy Richter) and Father McFeely (James Woods, apparently the part was to be played by Marlon Brando) have been called in to perform an exorcism, which sees the possessed girl's head twist all the way round and masses of vomit going on each other. A year later, charming but perverted teacher Professor Oldman (Tim Curry) and his paraplegic assistant Dwight Hartman (David Cross) have invited a group of clueless college students to spend a few days inside a large mansion, Hell House of course, in the hope of witnessing paranormal activity, the students include previous film "survivors" Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), Brenda's stoner brother Shorty (Marlon Wayans) and Brenda's gay boyfriend Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans), as well as idiotic Buddy (Christopher Masterson), deluded Alex Monday (Tori Spelling) and sexy Theo (Kathleen Robertson). The house has a foulmouthed parrot in a cage there to mock and antagonise the guests, and there is also disgusting caretaker Hanson (Chris Elliott) with his badly malformed hand, but soon enough one by one the guests start to realise that the various spirits that inhabit the house, their voices echoing in the corridors, causing inanimate things to come to life and possessing. After various events, like finding out about the main ghost of the house Hugh Kane (Richard Moll), Alex wanting to have sex with the various demons, Cindy fighting with possessed black cat Mr. Kittles, Ray wrestling with a possessed toy clown doll, Shorty being frightened by a growing and living marijuana plant, and the Professor being killed, the remaining guests are ready to defend themselves against the evil forces. In the end, after a fight with the possessed Hanson and the ghost of Hugh Kane being destroyed by the device the house curse is lifted, and the group go their separate ways, and two months later Cindy and Buddy are a couple, and he suddenly disappears when she sees Hanson at a hot dog stand, he antagonises her until he is hit by a car, being driven by Shorty who is receiving oral from the female demon with a bag on her head. Also starring Cordelia Reinhard as Father Harris' Mother, James DeBello as Tommy and Lester 'Beetlejuice' Green as Shorty's Brain. The film is sadly no longer reminiscent of the classic spoof films, like Airplane! or The Naked Gun, the character stupidity and most of their personalities are unbearably irritating, the ridiculousness is unfunny, the gross and disgusting material is unpleasant, Cindy is far too clumsy and accident prone to be amusing, Shorty is still relatively amusing but becomes annoying at times, Ray is okay being obviously gay but oversteps the mark in moments, Curry and Woods in their moments are alright, stars Cross and Masterson are not very likable, and Elliott and Spelling are the worst. You may recognise the films being parodied, and The Exorcist parody is a not bad start, but the repetitive and predictable jokes do not work, the story is pointless, it feels trashy and is a waste of time, and sadly this feel was to continue for one or two of the following sequels, a rubbish and rather unfunny horror comedy spoof film. Pretty poor!