Plotless, Grotesque Scary Movie Comes to Apollo

Scatalogical Parody Mocks the Horror Genre

We are all familiar with and have strong feelings regarding Jim Carrey's career and abilities. We might not be so decisive, however, in validating the talent of the Wayans brothers, the team that jumpstarted Carrey's career with their infamous 90s television series In Living Color. Fear not, young critics, for their signature grotesque comedy has been resurrected for this year's spoof of teen-horror films, Scary Movie.

To see Scary Movie is to feast the senses on characters, scenes and lines that have been ripped from recent teen horror hits such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Wes Craven's Scream, and transplanted into a world where plot lies (suffering from a comical, though severe knife wound) in the shadow of the recent "gross-out" trend. The gross-out aspect of the film forces us to recall pop-culture sweethearts American Pie and There's Something About Mary's focus on sexual tension, not to mention bodily fluids.

Perhaps what aids in lessening the gross-out effect is the sweet, naïve quality attributed the characters, especially "Last Girl" character Cindy Campbell (played by newcomer Anna Faris). Cindy is the good-girl who finds all the clues, but simultaneously serves as a commentary on character conventionalities.

Cindy guides the Scream-based plot, and along with her posse, encounters death around every corner.

In short, it's Halloween and the murder of a classmate brings together six teenagers who have kept silent about their accidental murder of a pedestrian one year ago. From there it's a farcical tale of mystery and mayhem.

One saving grace of this otherwise done-to-death plot is the hilariously incessant interjection of scenes from movies like The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and The Exorcist. The Wayans brothers also throw in Americana references such as Dawson's Creek's James Van Der Beek and the "whassup" commerical, just for kicks.

Deep beneath the surface of the flaky story-line (indeed too flaky and at times incoherent to be a plot) lies pointed criticism that makes the words of the absent characters a bit more intriguing. You see all the things in Scary Movie that you would see in any scary movie, only this time they are limitlessly exaggerated; big breasts, stupid victims and one-dimensional personalities are all mercilessly displayed. The Wayans also take the opportunity to comment on the unjust portrayal of race in horror films; a scene involving the slaughter of a too-sassy, fried-chicken-eating woman by her irritated audience members is such a moment.

It's hard not to laugh at Scary Movie. Whether it's the cliched story and characters or excessive lewdness that gets you, it will get you. It may not be the most thought-provoking comedy of the year, but it may well be the most absurd.

Scary Movie shows at the Apollo beginning Friday.