SCARY MOVIE 5
US, 2013, 86 minutes, Colour.
Ashley Tisdale, Simon Rex, Erica Ash, Terry Crews, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Jerry O’Connell?, Mike Tyson.
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee.
Scary Movie 5 comes in quite a long line of film parodies of horror stories. They began in the 1990s, introduced by members of the Wayans family. They relied on broad parallels with some of the popular horror films of the time, on some fairly obvious puns and jokes, on a fair amount of crassness. And the some of the Wayans family participated in writing and acting. Anna Faris was a regular as the put upon heroine. This time it is Ashley.
Once again, current films have been targeted.
The obvious popular target at this period is the film series, four of them to date. This means that a lot of the film is done with handheld camera with the timing patterns, and the speeding up, in the bottom right hand corner. However, while there are parallels to scenes in these films, the basic plot is taken from the thriller Mama, with Jessica Chastain: an uncle searching for his nieces who disappeared, their reappearance in a wild state, the inability of their uncle’s partner to deal with them, her getting used to them. In the meantime, the eerie mama keeps appearing in the background until the anticipated cliff-top climax.
The film unexpectedly brings in The Black Swan, the aunt having a career in ballet, scenes with a very camp director, auditions, a black rival who is able to do pole dances, but helps the heroine in the search for the children - along with a gratuitous lesbian fantasy. And the finale of the ballet is nothing like Tchaikovsky!
Another film parodied is The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with the uncle working in laboratories, bringing of the Caesar, the ape home, his reactions after its discovery that it could speak, its collaboration with other apes – but not nearly as much mayhem as in the original.
Given the list of films that are being parodied, it is not so much a matter of surprise with parallels but rather audiences enjoying the parallels as well as the contrasts.
This kind of spoof film is ephemeral, and pokes fun at the tastes and interests of its period.
