By Tj Ford
Contributing Writer
Dimension Films’ latest release, “Scary Movie V,” fails to live up to the already-abysmal standards of spoof comedies like its similarly horrible predecssors in the “Scary Movie” franchise.
The film is a disappointing reminder of the rare originality in spoof comedies.
“Scary Movie V,” featuring a new cast with a lazy and immature plot, is the fifth installment of the “Scary Movie” parody film franchise and the first of the five films not to feature the two recurring lead actors, Anna Faris and Regina Hall. Considering that the previous films were released from 2000 to 2006, the resurrection of the franchise with “Scary Movie V” is unexpectedly late.
Films in the “Scary Movie” franchise are always based around a fairly formulaic plot structure, which tends to poke fun at popular, recent horror films. However, this installment branches out from solely that genre and nothing else. “Scary Movie V” parodies scenes from “Paranormal Activity 4,” “Cabin in the Woods,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Black Swan,” tacking them together to haphazardly form what can barely be called a storyline.
The film opens with a crazed Linsay Lohan (played by herself) killing “Scary Movie” veteran Charlie Sheen (played by himself), orphaning Sheen’s children (Gracie Whitton and Ava Kolker). The kids’ aunt and uncle, Jody and Dan Sanders, (Ashley Tisdale and Simon Rex), must adopt them. They soon find out that the children are haunted by some sort of spirit.
The absence of “Scary Movie” mainstays Faris and Hall completely disconnects “Scary Movie V” from the rest of the previous films in the series. The film clears itself of any continuity with its predecessors as it removes the only common thread in the plots of the franchise. “Scary Movie V” only has the baseline themes of tasteless raunch and silliness as commonalities with the rest of the movie series.
Even the film’s signature reliance on parody hurts the film, as each joke is less sharp than the last. Co-writers Pat Proft and Danny Zucker exemplify their immature humor in an offputting sequence of apes throwing feces at a wall. These comedic low points add nothing of merit to the film but succeed in highlighting the franchise’s increasing laziness in its writing.
However, even on the rare occasion that the jokes are genuinely funny, they rely on dated pop culture references; the opening sequence of the film featuring Lohan and Sheen is based on media coverage of arrests that occurred more than three years ago, which detracts from the film’s cultural relevance. Using less-than-recent pop culture references and taking multiple scenes from movies like 2010’s Black Swan” makes “Scary Movie V” more painful and stuck in the past than fresh and recent. Its outdated nature is again a painful reminder of the better quality of writing of the franchise’s past films, even at their already-low standards.
Overall, “Scary Movie V” is a sad step for the “Scary Movie” film series with its lack of connection to the franchise and poor, outdated attempts at comedy. Although it can be funny at times, the level of humor remains disappointing even in comparison to the already-low quality of past installments. “Scary Movie V” is now in theaters nationwide.
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