13 Years Ago Today, This Awful Sequel Killed a Horror Franchise (& It’s Finally Returning in 2026)

While one critically maligned horror comedy from 2013 might have seemingly killed its franchise for good, an upcoming release proves that this isn’t quite true. It takes a lot to make a great horror franchise work, but sometimes, one bad movie is all it takes to undo all that hard work. From Jason X sending the Friday the 13th franchise’s titular villain into space to Jaws 4: The Revenge turning the series into an unintentional comedy, there are certain sequels that end up either ending their franchises outright or, at the very least, condemning them to restart anew with a reboot.

For years, it looked like the dreadful sequel Scary Movie 5 was one such movie. The Scary Movie franchise was never really much of a hit with critics, with even the very first cult classic in the series earning a mere 51% from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. However, even the franchise’s most forgiving fans turned on the Scary Movie series when 2006’s Scary Movie 4 was released, and Scary Movie 5 was the final nail in the coffin. That was, until 2026’s unexpected reboot, Scary Movie 6, was announced.

Scary Movie 5 Was Released On April 12 2013

Directed by Undercover Brother’s Malcolm D. Lee, Scary Movie 5 was the first movie in the series that didn’t come from either the Wayans brothers or David Zucker. The Wayans Brothers directed and wrote the first two movies in the series, and their work on iconic earlier spoof movies like I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood stood out to them. Although neither movie was critically acclaimed, both were big box office hits and soon became cult classics.

The Wayans brothers were replaced for 2003’s Scary Movie 3 and 2006’s Scary Movie 4, but Airplane/The Naked Gun co-director David Zucker might have been the only filmmaker who was even more suited to the franchise than its original creators. Scary Movie 3 kept stars Regina Hall and Anna Faris and was comparatively well received, but Scary Movie 4’s PG-13 rating was seen as a major misstep as it sanitized the lewd, ribald humor that made the series famous in the first place.

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However, it was Scary Movie 5 that truly marked the end of the franchise’s appeal. While this belated sequel was full of cameos from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Mac Miller, Sarah Hyland, and Terry Crews, series star Anna Faris was replaced in the lead role by Disney Channel star Ashley Tisdale, and iconic supporting star Regina Hall was also absent from the sequel. The fact that the scattershot movie parodied not only horror movies like Paranormal Activity, Black Swan, Mama, and Sinister, but also random hits like Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Help did not aid its reception.

Scary Movie 6 Can Still Redeem The Franchise’s Reputation

With a series-low Rotten Tomatoes critical rating of only 4%, Scary Movie 5 was the worst-received movie in the franchise by far. For a long time, it seemed as though the movie’s critical failure had killed not only the franchise but parody movies as a genre. However, 2026’s upcoming reboot Scary Movie proves that you can’t keep a good spoof down, and the return of the Wayan brothers might even improve the critical reception of the series.