Scary Movie 3

Theatrical Release Poster

Charlie Sheen

Regina Hall

Leslie Nielsen

Anthony Anderson

Kevin Hart

**Scary Movie 3** is a 2003 American horror comedy film, which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres. It is the third film in the Scary Movie franchise, and the first to be directed by David Zucker.

The film stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall reprising their roles as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks. New cast members include Charlie Sheen, Simon Rex, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, and Leslie Nielsen. It is the first film in the series to feature no involvement from the Wayans family or characters.

The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring, Signs, The Matrix, and 8 Mile. It is the last film in the series to be released by The Walt Disney Company's subsidiary Miramax Films, under the brand Dimension Films. After Dimension Films brand left Disney, Scary Movie 4 became the first film to be released by The Weinstein Company.

## Plot

Katie and Becca talk about what Katie believes is a sex tape, but Becca calls it a cursed tape. After several odd occurrences, they both die. Meanwhile, in a farm house outside Washington, D.C., widowed farmer Tom Logan and his clumsy brother George discover a crop circle, saying "Attack Here!"

Cindy Campbell, now a blonde news reporter, announces the crop circles on the news. She picks up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody from school, where her best friend Brenda Meeks is his teacher. George picks up his niece Sue, who is in the same class. Cindy and George fall in love, and George invites her and Brenda to a rap-battle with his rapper friends Mahalik and CJ. George proves to be talented but is disqualified for unintentional racist blunders.

After watching the cursed videotape, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company. After playing several pranks on Cindy, she gets the rest of the popcorn in the lounge, when the TV turns on. Brenda fails to turn it off. Tabitha climbs out of the well and the TV, Brenda gets into a fight with Tabitha. Tabitha kills Brenda, since Cindy is ignoring the ruckus. George receives a phone call about the death, and Tom meets with Sayaman, who apologizes for the accident involving himself and Tom's wife Annie.

During Brenda's wake, George and Mahalik wreak havoc in an unsuccessful attempt to revive her, only to blow up her body and get kicked out of the house. Cindy watches the tape, finding it odd. A phone caller tells her she will die in a week. She calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ says his aunt Shaneequa might be able to help. Shaneequa, the Matrix Oracle, and her husband Orpheus agree to watch the tape. Shaneequa discovers the hidden image of a lighthouse and gets fights with Tabitha's Mother. Shaneequa tells Cindy to find the lighthouse to break the curse. When Cindy returns home, she finds Cody watched the tape.

At work, Cindy searches through pictures of lighthouses before finding the one from the tape. Desperate to save Cody, Cindy warns everyone by entering a message into the news anchor's teleprompter. Her boss interrupts her, and the anchor mechanically recites the wrong message. The Logans take it seriously since they encountered an alien disguised as Michael Jackson, and President Baxter Harris personally visits the farm to investigate the crop circles. Cindy visits the lighthouse, where she encounters The Architect. The loquacious (and lecherous) old man explains Tabitha was his evil adopted daughter, whom his wife drowned in the farm's well, but not before she imprinted her evil onto the tape. Unfortunately, he mistakenly returned it to Blockbuster, unleashing the curse. When Cindy asks about how this relates to the Aliens, the Architect speculates that Tabitha is summoning them to aid her in destroying the human race.

Returning home, Cindy discovers her station has been broadcasting the evil tape for hours, and there have been various sightings of aliens around the world. Worse, Cody is missing. Cindy tracks him to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom orders everybody into the basement for safety, as he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight the extraterrestrials. The aliens arrive but reveal they are friendly and have come to stop Tabitha, since they accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted.

In the basement, Cindy recognizes farm's cellar from the tape, and she finds the well where Tabitha drowned. Suddenly, Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight ensues, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George appeal to her, offering her a place in their family. Tabitha appears to accept the offer but changes back to her monstrous form. As she advances on Cindy and the others, President Harris accidentally knocks her into the well. The aliens leave in peace, and Cindy and George get married. Leaving for their honeymoon, they realize they left Cody behind. After Cindy avoids hitting Cody at an intersection, another car strikes him.

## Cast

* Anna Faris as Cindy Campbell
* Simon Rex as George Logan
* Charlie Sheen as Tom Logan
* Regina Hall as Brenda Meeks
* Leslie Nielsen as President Baxter Harris
* Anthony Anderson as Mahalik
* Kevin Hart as CJ
* Drew Mikuska as Cody
* Jianna Ballard as Sue Logan
* George Carlin as The Architect
* Camryn Manheim as Trooper Champlin
* Queen Latifah as Shaneequa
* Eddie Griffin as Orpheus
* Pamela Anderson as Becca Kotler
* Jenny McCarthy as Katie Embry
* Denise Richards as Annie Logan
* William S. Taylor as Mr. Meeks
* Patricia Idlette as Mrs. Meeks
* Lori Stewart as Tabitha's Mother
* D. L. Hughley as John Wilson
* Ja Rule as Agent Thompson
* Edward Moss as Michael Jackson
* Darrell Hammond as Father Muldoon
* Monica Dillon as Brenda's Grandma
* Jeremy Piven as Ross Giggins
* Simon Cowell as Himself
* Marny Eng as Tabitha
* Naomi Lawson-Baird as Sweet Tabitha
* Ajay Naidu as Sayaman
* Tom Kenny as Aliens

## Trivia

* The film was nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award.
* At one point, Kevin Smith was attached to write the script.
* Mahalik was so popular in test screenings, additional scenes for him were quickly written and shot while the film was already in post-production.
* The Car Driven by Cindy Campbell is a Blue Toyota Prius Hybrid. It is the first mass produced gas/electric hybrid to appear in a major motion picture.

## Parodies

* **The Ring:** This is the movie’s main target. Katie and Becca first mention it before getting into a pillow fight. For the rest of the movie, Cindy tries to solve the mystery of the scary girl in the video and is shown on the evening news, and eventually brings a bunch of aliens to Earth so they can kill the girl in the video themselves.

* **Lord of the Rings:** There's a creepy voice on the other end of the phone that says, "I'm coming for you, my precious," in a decent Gollum impersonation. It's Becca's mom.

* **Signs:** Much of the plot also mocks M. Night Shyamalan's movie. It starts with Tom and George as brothers who live together on a farm. They discover a crop circle that says "Attack Here" with an arrow pointing at their house. That makes them think aliens are after them, but it turns out the well in which creepy video girl lives is under their house.
* **8 Mile:** George wants to be a rapper, so he travels to "Da Hood" to try to win a rap battle. Surprisingly, George holds his own with Fat Joe. He abandons his hip-hop dreams before long but hangs out with his black friends Mahalik and CJ.

* **The Sixth Sense and Minority Report:** Cindy's nephew Cody is a Haley Joel Osment–size precog who tells every random stranger what lies in their future.

* **The Matrix:** CJ's aunt Shaneequa plays a version of the Oracle. She reveals info to Cindy about the tape and then gets into a fight with the woman in the video. Her husband Orpheus helps her.

* **The Others:** Tom walks into his daughter's room and finds someone sitting under a sheet pretending to be her. It's Michael Jackson.

* **The Matrix Reloaded:** The Architect, or the creator of the Matrix, reveals that he's been watching Cindy for years. Also, the evil little girl is his daughter who his wife threw down a well.

* **Pootie Tang:** The Architect accidentally returned the evil tape his daughter made to Blockbuster in the case for Pootie Tang. Like the deadly tape, he says Pootie Tang has been circulating and killing ever since.

* **Air Force One:** President Baxter Harris wonders at one point what President Ford would have done and glances up at a painting of Harrison Ford.

* **BASEketball:** There are a couple things that mirror this movie, which was also directed by David Zucker. First, the scene at Brenda's wake where George and Mahalik are trying to bring her back to life happens at a hospital in BASEketball. Second, when the president is running from aliens he quotes Bob Costas and says, "You're excited? You should see my nipples."

* **Airplane!:** President Baxter Harris opens the door to the basement where Cindy and George are fighting Tabitha and says, "Good luck, we're all counting on you," as he does many times in Airplane!