Scary Movie 2

Scary Movie 2

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans
Produced by Eric L. Gold
Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Bob Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein
Written by Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Alyson Fouse
Greg Grabianski
Dave Polsky
Michael Anthony Snowden
Craig Wayans
Based on Characters 
by Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Buddy Johnson
Phil Beaumann
Jason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Starring Anna Faris
Regina Hall
Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Chris Masterson
Kathleen Robertson
David Cross
James Woods
Tim Curry
Tori Spelling
Chris Elliott
Cinematography Steven Bernstein
Edited by Tom Nordberg
Richard Pearson
Peter Teschner
Production
company
Dimension Films
Brillstein-Grey Entertainment
Gold/Miller Productions
Wayans Bros. Entertainment
Brad Grey Pictures
Distributed by Miramax Films
(Credited as Miramax International in other countries)
Release dates
  • July 4, 2001 (2001-07-04)
Running time
 78 minutes (in other countries)
82 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $45 million[2]
Box office $141.2 million[2]

Scary Movie 2 is a 2001 American horror comedy parody film and the second film of the Scary Movie franchise. The film stars Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans, and Marlon Wayans (all reprising their roles from the first film, despite their characters having been killed off), as well as Tim Curry, Tori Spelling, Chris Elliott, Chris Masterson, Kathleen Robertson, David Cross, and James Woods.

Where the original film was mainly based on the slasher films of the '90s, Scary Movie 2 parodies an array of supernatural and haunted house films from various decades, including The Haunting (1999), The Exorcist (1973), The Amityville Horror (1979), Poltergeist (1982), The Legend of Hell House (1973), House on Haunted Hill (both the 1959 and 1999 versions), and The Changeling (1980). It also spoofs some contemporary films, such as Hannibal (2001), and Hollow Man (2000).

The film is the last in the series to feature the involvement of stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and director Keenen Ivory Wayans. However, the Wayans would eventually go on to produce a similar horror-themed parody, A Haunted House, and its sequel, both starring Marlon Wayans.

Plot

A teenage girl, Megan Voorhees (Natasha Lyonne), becomes possessed by the spirit of Hugh Kane, the house's previous owner. Megan's mother (Veronica Cartwright) seeks help from two priests, Father McFeely (James Woods) and Father Harris (Andy Richter).After paying a trip to the bathroom, the men attempt to drive Hugh's ghost out, but the exorcism does not go as planned. After a chain of projectile vomits and various instances of pedophilia, Megan insults Father McFeely's mother. He responds by pulling out a gun and shooting Megan.

Cindy Campbell, Brenda Meeks, Ray Wilkins, and Shorty Meeks are at college. There is no explanation for them surviving their apparent "deaths" in the first film. Cindy and Brenda get tagged by a socially maladjusted girl, Alex (Tori Spelling). Shorty is still the same stoner he was before. Ray, still confused about his sexuality, has two new male friends, Tommy (James DeBello) and Buddy (Christopher Masterson). Buddy becomes romantically interested in Cindy. Still recovering from her previous relationship, she rebuffs him.

Professor Oldman (Tim Curry) and his paraplegic assistant, Dwight Hartman (David Cross), plan to study the paranormal activity at a local haunted mansion called Hell House (the house in the opening scene). They use the clueless college students as test subjects.

At the mansion, Cindy encounters a vulgar parrot (Matt Friedman) and Hanson (Chris Elliott), the caretaker with a badly malformed hand. That evening, the group is joined by sexy newcomer Theo (Kathleen Robertson). They sit down for dinner, but soon lose their appetite due to Hanson's repulsive antics.

At night, Cindy hears voices directing her to a secret room, where she and Buddy discover the diary of Hugh Kane's wife. Seeing her portrait, they note Cindy's resemblance to her. Meanwhile, other teens also experience bizarre encounters. The ghost of Hugh Kane has sex with Alex in her bedroom, but retreats when Alex expresses her interest in becoming the new Mrs. Kane. A toy clown (Suli McCullough) attempts to rape Ray, but gets raped by him instead. A weed-monster rolls Shorty into a joint. It tries to smoke him, but gets distracted by munchies and lets him escape. Cindy gets involved in a fistfight with the house cat, Mr. Kittles.

Oldman is seduced and killed by a ghost with a disfigured face – Hugh's murdered mistress. Shorty later encounters the same ghost, but seduces and has sex with her. After Dwight equips the teens with weapons that can injure their spectral enemy, they are pursued throughout the mansion. Buddy and Cindy get locked in the walk-in freezer. Thinking Buddy is dying from an encounter with the ghost, Cindy gives him a handjob and "revives" him. Cindy then uses a collection of random objects in the room to produce a Caterpillar tractor and escapes the freezer.

Hanson gets possessed by Kane and kidnaps Shorty, who is high on drugs. In the dining room, Hanson sets up a cooker and cuts off the top of Shorty's head. Instead of a brain, there is a small man rapping (Beetlejuice) inside. Cindy, Brenda, and Theo team up to fight Hanson, but wind up defeated. Dwight regroups with the teens. Cindy acts as bait to lure Kane into a device that will destroy him. The plan succeeds, freeing the group from the house's curse.

Two months later, Cindy and Buddy are in a relationship. They are out on a walk when Buddy disappears and Hanson shows up. As he closes in menacingly, he gets hit by a car. The car's driver is Shorty, who is receiving a blowjob from the ghost that he seduced earlier in the film.

Cast

Parodies

This film parodies and references many other films of the horror, thriller, and mystery genres.

  • The film's central parody is The Haunting.
  • The opening scene is modeled after The Exorcist.
  • The walking scene on campus with Cindy and Brenda references the 1990s film Clueless.
  • The thermal goggles which the characters use to see ghosts and the weapons they use references Thir13en Ghosts.
  • Hollow Man – The equipment which the group employs to fight an invisible enemy (thermal goggles, smoke, and so on) and use of a defibrilator to escape from a freezer room.
  • House on Haunted Hill – The labyrinthian basement, weapons with limited ammo, and Professor Oldman being lured to his death.
  • Charmed – Hugh Kane's vanquishing is the same as many of the vanquishings the sisters do on the show.
  • Brenda's reaction to the walking skeleton could be taken as commentary on the film's use of imagery no longer considered scary today.
  • In the scene in which Hanson removes the top of Shorty's head and he then said "Hello Cindy", is similar to a scene in Hannibal.
  • The scene where Ray and his friend read their back tattoos to each other repeatedly references a scene of Dude, Where's My Car?.
  • What Lies Beneath is parodied in a scene where Cindy seduces the professor in the kitchen, and then Ray suddenly appears in the same dress.
  • The scene in which a clown hides under Ray's bed and then pulls him underneath, the marijuana plant growing large and coming to life and Alex being dragged across the walls of the bedroom are all parodies of scenes from Poltergeist.
  • Poltergeist II – Hanson sings "God is in his holy temple" and the use of Kane as the name of the evil spirit.
  • Stephen King's It is referenced in a scene in which gardening tools form the letters "IT" across a wall in the room where Shorty hides in the third act of the movie. Tim Curry, who plays Professor Oldman, also played the role of Pennywise the Clown in the film adaptation of It.
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Hanson is a parody of the character, Riff Raff. Tim Curry played the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • Cindy, Brenda and Theo fighting Hanson in the style of Charlie's Angels. Furthermore, Tori Spelling's character is named after Lucy Liu's character (Alex Munday) from the same film, in which also Tim Curry co-starred.
  • Save the Last Dance – Shorty teaches Cindy how to be "black".
  • Mission: Impossible II – The wheelchair duel between Dwight and Kane parodies the motorcycle sequence between Ethan and Sean.
  • MacGyver – Cindy uses everyday items to build a mini-bulldozer and escape the refrigerator.
  • Paulie – A foul-mouthed blue-crowned parrot named Polly appears throughout the movie .
  • The Amityville Horror – Reverend McFeely tries to bless the house and ends up with flies all over him, only for the scene to change and reveal he is actually sitting and straining into a toilet, resulting in explosive diarrhea. The two red eyes in the dark looking through the window from the movie also appear in the scene.
  • Buddy hands Cindy a book titled "Harry PotHead", a clear reference to Harry Potter.
  • A scene where a basketball falls down the stairs is similar to The Changeling until the scene switches over to a parody of a Nike commercial.[3]
  • Dawn of the Dead – Ray has on a suit similar to Peter's SWAT team suit.
  • The dialogue between Cindy and Buddy in the freezer, when she is giving him a handjob has been taken from Titanic.
  • The use of the quote "do you feel lucky, punk?" from Dwight is a parody of Dirty Harry.
  • Twister – When Cindy is fighting Hanson and creates the tornado, which has various objects and even a cow blowing around inside it.
  • Rocky – Cindy's fight with the cat (editing style, blows, unseen cameras flashing and the cat's triumphant raising of its "fists").
  • Weakest Link – When the parrot says "You are the weakest link. Goodbye" after Alex gets knocked out by the chandelier.
  • The scene with Cindy singing badly along to the radio in the car then getting told to "shut up" by the radio could be a parody of Urban Legend because the opening featured a woman singing along to the radio badly.
  • The scene where Dwight and Hanson are trading insults about each other's disability is based on the scene from Wild Wild West where Jim West and Arliss Loveless trade insults on West's race and Loveless's disability.
  • The scene when Cindy is fighting with the cat and the name of the house is from the film The Legend of Hell House.
  • Ray carrying the paraplegic Dwight on his back is reminiscent of Chewbacca attaching the destroyed C-3PO to a harness on his back in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Final Destination – two people died by bus.

Reception

Box office

In North America, the film grossed $71,308,997. Worldwide, it grossed $141,220,678. Although it was a hit, out of the first four Scary Movie films, this was the least successful to date – until the fifth film was released twelve years later.[2][4]

Critical response

Despite its box office success, the film received mostly negative reviews. Achieving a rotten 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes[5] and a score of 29% on Metacritic.[6]

Home media

The film premiered on DVD on December 18, 2001.[7] It was later released on Blu-ray a decade later on September 20, 2011, after Lionsgate purchased Miramax and Dimension Films's catalogues.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SCARY MOVIE 2 (18)". British Board of Film Classification. July 16, 2001. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Scary Movie 2 (2001)".
  3. ↑ "Nike Commercial".
  4. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for April 12-14, 2013". Box Office Mojo. April 16, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Scary Movie 2". Rotten Tomatoes.
  6. ↑ "Scary Movie 2". Metacritic.
  7. ↑ Wallis, J. Doyle (December 26, 2001). "Scary Movie 2". DVD Talk. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Scary Movie 2 Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved May 4, 2016.

External links

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