Scary Movie Turns 17! – Retro Review

Back before parody films went overboard with the ridiculous-ness, Scary Movie perfectly combined hilarity and horror movie references. PopHorror celebrates the 17 year anniversary for one of the best horror parodies ever made! 

(Synopsis provided by IMDb.com):

A year after disposing of the body of a man they accidentally killed, a group of dumb teenagers are stalked by a bumbling serial killer.

One of the best things about this film is the cast. Everyone absolutely killed their roles! Could you imagine the movie with Alicia Silverstone cast as Cindy, Jared Leto as her boyfriend, Bobby, and Aaliyah as Brenda? Well, those were the intended actors for those roles but all three of them declined. However, Anna Faris, Jon Abrahams, and Regina Hall were perfect for those characters and I honestly can’t imagine anyone else playing them.

Scary Movie was actually a combination of two scripts, titled Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell On Friday The 13th, and Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween. Ironically, the finishing title, Scary Movie, was the original title for Scream, the main film that Scary Movie parodies.

Scary Movie also had to go through a series of rewrites. Sources say that in the film’s original script, Jamie Lee Curtis was going to have a small cameo, and Cindy was supposed to find her hiding in a closet in her house while the killer was chasing her up the stairs.

In another draft of the script, the killer was going to be Damon Wayans for his brothers holding out on him in this movie, but due to scheduling conflicts, he couldn’t be in the film and the ending had to be changed. I don’t know about you, but I would’ve loved to see those scenes in the film. But I still love the Usual Suspects parody at the end!

Scary Movie was one of the best parody films that, unfortunately, spawned many awful sequels and knock-offs (except Scary Movie 2 of course). What’s your favorite Scary Movie scene? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 

About Karli Lawson

I basically grew up watching horror films and spooky things. I watched my first horror film when I was 4 years old. I've wanted to be a writer ever since I've read Stephen King books in middle school. I love writing and talking about my favorite genre. I hope to one day be successful in screenwriting and filmmaking. Everything horror, of course!

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