Scary Movie (2026) Review: Just Another Legacyquel

Scary Movie (2026) is exactly what you pictured it’d be: purely immature comedy. For some, that will be more than enough.

With audiences showing up to the cinemas in droves almost exclusively for event films that are worth leaving the house for, theatrical comedies have become rarer by the day. Can the latest installment by the Wayans brothers do the seemingly impossible and fill seats?

Cindy (Anna Faris, of The Estate), Brenda (Regina Hall, of One Battle After Another), Shorty (Marlon Wayans, of Him), and Ray (Shawn Wayans, of White Chicks) reunite to unmask the mystery behind the new “Ghostface” killer that is hunting the new generation. Dealing with kids who are easily offended, our four heroes must do whatever it takes to fight off legacy-sequel conventions. 

A comedy can’t just be a comedy; there has to be a catch. Comic-book comedy (Deadpool and Wolverine), horror comedy (M3GAN), sci-fi comedy (Project Hail Mary), thriller comedy (The Housemaid). The closest we’ve gotten to a commercially successful comedy in recent memory is Anyone But You, grossing $220 million worldwide, and that was nearly three years ago. While the Scary Movie series parodies horror films, its priority is to get a laugh from moviegoers as any authentic comedy would. It mostly worked in the original 2000 installment because, at the time, it felt relatively new for a spoof-comedy to specifically target the horror genre. Yet, twenty-six years later, and five movies in, every single entry has felt repetitive and increasingly lazy.

Part of it has to do with the fact that, rather than focusing on the genre it parodied, the filmmakers started throwing everything and everyone under the bus in the sequels—obscure pop culture references only people in the know would understand—losing what was somewhat special about the original. Scary Movie (2026) offers nothing new to spice things up. It does go back to prioritizing horror as its main source of sketches, though it ultimately gives us more of the same. Besides an admittedly clever opening sequence that mirrors one of the recent Scream films, very few jokes land. 

The original cast is easily the most charming part of Scary Movie (2026). Seeing Faris and Hall play off of one another is a lot of fun, as they step into their “characters” as if they never left. However, surprisingly, for a comedy marketed as crossing many lines to cause controversy, the movie feels oddly tame. Maybe one joke regarding immigration in the U.S. gets close to hitting a nerve, but it goes by so quickly you barely even get to process it. In addition, there is a layer of irony in the movie’s criticism of the culture around nostalgia in film while indulging the audience’s nostalgia for Faris, Hall, and the Wayans. So, rather than coming off as clever, it can be perceived as hypocritical.

Do I see myself revisiting Scary Movie (2026) down the line? Highly unlikely. I spent the better part of a week rewatching the series in preparation for this review; I think I’ve had enough of these for now. That said, I do hope this legacy sequel does resonate with people. I’m not going to fold my arms and pretend like I had an awful time with this one. It’s the perfect kind of movie to get wasted with friends and go along with the immature ride. It may not be my type of comedy, but if Scary Movie (2026) were to do well at the box office this summer, it’d be a win for all comedies. In the end, that might be more important than whether this was actually good.

Scary Movie (2026) will be released in U.K. cinemas, in U.S. theaters, and globally in theatres on June 5, 2026.