The Exorcism of Horror Spoofs
I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoyed "Scary Movie" at the time it was released it was one of the better spoof movies and did a good job of parodying "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer". But that's where my enjoyment stopped because all of the sequels sucked especially "Scary Movie 2" which is one of the most pointless movies I have watched, not only does it come up short on storyline but it also comes up short on comedy. In fact there are very few scenes in "Scary Movie 2" which are funny and the majority of them border on the disgusting, and from someone who isn't easily offended that is not a good thing. The only redeeming feature of "Scary Movie 2" comes from all the in-joke and horror movie spotting which at least makes for some fun.
Professor Oldman (Tim Curry) and his assistant Dwight (David Cross) pick a group of teenagers including Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) for a little experiment in a haunted house. But whilst the Professor convinces them it is for a school project he has his own plans which include drawing out the ghost of Master Kane which is supposed to haunt the house. Well it doesn't take long for Master Kane to show himself and making their night in the haunted house a misery.
Now having already ripped into "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" "Scary Movie 2" starts off with a bit of "Exorcist" parody before leading into a "House on Haunted Hill" storyline. How they connect is weak and so is the rest of the movie because the storyline which is created is ultimately pointless. Okay so we have the set up of a group of college students stuck in a haunted house and have to survive but so much of the movie ends up not being about it. Instead "Scary Movie 2" ends up being a parade of parodied scenes from other horror movies with many having no relevance to the movie at all. And so "Scary Movie 2" almost ends up feeling like a sketch show as you get one set piece gag after another.
Now whilst the lack of anything close to a semi decent storyline is friggin' annoying the tone of the comedy is simply terrible. Maybe some will find a girl peeing on a carpet or a giant cock strangling a puppet amusing but for me it just didn't even raise a smile. Yes I knock you don't expect clever humour from a spoof movie but the jokes are as low as they can go with many of them being totally unrelated such as a mickey take of a sports ad.
All of which makes "Scary Movie 2" a bad movie and to be honest the acting doesn't really help with everyone from Anna Faris and Marlon Wayans through to David Cross and Tim Curry going well over the top. Yes I know that the acting is meant to be over the top but with the irrelevance of many a scene it just fails to entertain on so many levels. And as for why someone of James Woods acting class would agree to such a poor cameo is beyond me as he plays Father McFeely in the opening "Exorcist" spoof.
Now "Scary Movie 2" has one redeeming quality and that is whilst the parodying of horror movies is terrible spotting which horror movies are being spoofed is a bit of fun. It doesn't take a genius to spot the references to the likes of "Hollow Man" but at least it distracts you from what other wise is a very poor movie. And it leads to the question how in heck did they end up making more in the series when this one was so inferior to "Scary Movie".
What this all boils down to is that "Scary Movie 2" is simply a bad movie which goes over the top in trying to be funny. Maybe there is an audience who enjoy the in your face crudeness which is meant to pass as humour but for me it is as low as comedy can go. It doesn't help that it is also short on storyline and like the jokes the acting is all over the top. The only redeeming quality is the spotting of various horror movies which get spoofed.
