Scary Movie — the 2026 edition, colloquially Scary Movie 6 — opens with a scene so well-constructed that it briefly makes you believe the rest of the film will live up to it. Teyana Taylor plays a heightened version of herself, fresh off an Oscar loss, when Ghostface shows up and the movie leans fully into the absurdity with timing and confidence that feels like the franchise at its best. It’s a genuinely funny five minutes. Then the actual film starts, and the gap between what this could be and what it is becomes increasingly hard to ignore.
Twenty-six years after the original, the core four — Shorty (Marlon Wayans), Ray (Shawn Wayans), Cindy (Anna Faris), and Brenda (Regina Hall) — are back in the masked killer’s crosshairs. The plot is structured as a parody of Scream (2022) rather than a broad horror spoof, restaging its scenes with the franchise’s signature gross-out and running gag approach. The problem is that the running gags are the same ones from 2000. Shorty is still stoned. Ray is still doing the closeted gay bit. The jokes haven’t evolved in over two decades and the film treats that as a feature rather than a liability.
What Works — And There Is Stuff That Works
The guest appearance strategy is the film’s strongest asset. Beyond the Teyana Taylor cold open, several celebrity cameos land well — Kai Cenat, Kenan Thompson, and Anthony Anderson all get moments that feel timed correctly and written with an awareness of who those people are in 2026. The film is at its funniest when it’s engaging with genuinely recent cultural material: horror references to Sinners, Smile, Weapons, and the current Scream landscape hit more reliably than the callbacks to 2000-era gags.
Faris and Hall remain genuinely talented comedians, and in moments where the material gives them room to be chaotic rather than just reactive, they’re as good as they’ve ever been in this franchise. The scenes where Cindy and Brenda are operating as reckless middle-aged women who should know better generate the film’s most consistent laughs. The two of them together still have the chemistry that made the originals work, and it’s a shame the script doesn’t trust that dynamic more.
The Core Problem — Scattershot Rather Than Sharp
Scary Movie 2026’s fundamental issue is structural. The film cycles through horror references and social commentary at a pace that doesn’t allow anything to breathe — one target is set up, partially executed, then immediately dropped for the next one. COVID-era absurdity, ongoing social debates, modern horror IP, franchise meta-commentary, celebrity gossip — all of it collides without the coherent thread that would make the individual pieces resonate. Parody works when the jokes build on each other. This one tends to reset after each bit.
The decision to parody Scream (2022) so specifically — essentially restaging its plot beats with Scary Movie characters — is also a constraint. The original Scary Movie worked because it was satirising the slasher genre at the peak of that genre’s cultural moment. Parodying a specific legacy-sequel of a specific franchise is a narrower target, and the film’s reach extends well beyond it without the structure to support the stretch. The new generation of characters — stand-ins for the Scream (2022) cast — are mostly given one note and not asked to do much with it.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good | The Bad | The Ugly |
|---|---|---|
| The Teyana Taylor OpeningA genuine highlight — the franchise at its best, using a real celebrity’s real cultural moment (the Oscar loss) to generate a cold open that’s sharp, absurd, and perfectly timed. Sets up expectations the rest of the film doesn’t meet. | 26-Year-Old Running GagsShorty being stoned and Ray being closeted were 2000-era punchlines. Running them unchanged in 2026 isn’t nostalgia — it’s a script that didn’t ask whether those jokes still have somewhere to go. | The Scattershot StructureReferences fly past faster than the film can land them. Horror parody lives and dies on timing; cycling through targets at this pace without coherent connective tissue means a lot of swings that don’t connect. |
| Faris and Hall Still Have ItBoth are genuinely funny when the script trusts them. Their chaotic middle-aged energy generates the film’s most reliable laughs and is a reminder of exactly what this franchise was built on. | New Generation Cast WastedThe younger cast standing in for the Scream (2022) ensemble are mostly given a single note. No one gets enough material to leave an impression. | |
| Strong Celebrity Cameo GameKenan Thompson, Anthony Anderson, Kai Cenat, and others are used well. The film is funniest when it’s riffing on genuinely current cultural material rather than franchise history. | Parody of a Parody ProblemSpecifically parodying Scream (2022) — itself a meta-commentary on legacy sequels — creates a layer of remove that flattens the jokes. It’s parody of parody, and the margins are thin. |
The Verdict
Scary Movie 2026 is funnier than a 25% Rotten Tomatoes score suggests, but that doesn’t mean it earns the goodwill it’s banking on. The Teyana Taylor opening, several well-deployed celebrity moments, and the still-reliable Faris/Hall double act give it enough genuine laughs to justify a casual streaming watch. It doesn’t justify the 26-year gap, the unchanged running gags, or the structural incoherence that makes the second half feel like a highlight reel without a film around it. A franchise reunion that’s more serviceable than satisfying — and for people who grew up with the originals, there’s enough nostalgia fuel to carry it through.
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Score Breakdown
