Scary Movie (2026) is actually the sixty movie in the franchise, which is probably why you hear more people actually calling it Scary Movie 6. Of course, the Wayans and their crew of comedic actors are, in part, parodying Hollywood’s “requel” obsession with recycling franchise titles and concepts, instead of the usual (and lazier) work of just recreating famous horror movie moments with either raunchy and/or zany new twists.
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That description should already tell you that Scary Movie 6 doesn’t rank at the bottom of the list of Scary Movie films – so where does it belong? Check out our ranking below and see how you feel about it.
6. Scary Movie 5
Scary Movie 5 was scraping the bottom of the franchise barrel when it hit theaters in 2013. The original stars were long gone, and the new cast included young 2010s hot girls like Ashley Tisdale and Katrina Bowden, oddly paired with older icons like Jerry O’Connell, Heather Locklear, Katt Williams, and Terry Crews, with rappers like Snoop Dogg and Mac Miller thrown in for good measure. It was a mess, even in the hands of Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip, Undercover Brother), and the lowest box office returns prove it ($78 million on a $20 million budget.
5. Scary Movie 4
Right behind Scary Movie 5 at the bottom of the rankings is Scary Movie 4. It was the second installment directed by comedy movie icon David Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun), and, clearly, wasn’t as effective as his first run. To be fair, horror was in a weird place by the mid-2000s, with J-Horror ghost stories (The Ring, The Grudge) colliding with the new wave of “torture porn” horror (Saw, Hostel), while big-budget creature-features tried to make a comeback (King Kong, War of the Worlds). It made the parodies seem more scatterbrained than usual, and Zucker’s old-school PG-13 zany comedy and sight gags quickly started to wear thin.
4. Scary Movie 2
Believe it or not, the Wayans originally intended for Scary Movie to be a one-off; then the film made $278 million on a budget of $19 million, and became a pop-culture phenomenon, so Dimension Films quickly pushed for a sequel. Scary Movie 2 was released exactly a year(!) after the first film, and it definitely felt like a rushed, half-hearted sequel. The writing wasn’t nearly as sharp, nor the direction and acting from the cast; the mandate to ‘up the ante’ on a sequel also resulted in some of the crudest and raunchiest comedy the Wayans have ever put out. That all said, a Wayans’ Scary Movie is still better than any other version of the franchise, but the sequel was definitely a disappointment.
3. Scary Movie 3
When the Wayans finally left Scary Movie behind, a lot of fans thought it was a wrap for the franchise. However, the studio took one of the boldest swings ever, replacing the Wayans creative engine with David Zucker of the Naked Gun franchise, and switching from R-rated raunch-comedy to PG-13 slapstick. Zucker also brought in his Naked Gun leading man, Leslie Nielsen, to star alongside returning franchise stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall. The new supporting cast included big stars or soon-to-be stars like Kevin Hart, Anthony Anderson, Denise Richards, Charlie Sheen, Eddie Griffith, and Queen Latifah.
Scary Movie 3 was an early requel (before cinema had adopted that term), but it worked by opening the horror-parody experience to a much wider audience, and delivering good comedy on the backs of some veteran talents. It still holds the record for the second-biggest box office earnings of the franchise, and will forever hold the crown as an unlikely underdog that somehow beat the odds.
2. Scary Movie 6
The Wayans return to Scary Movie 25 years after the second film, while the franchise is returning to movie screens 13 years after the fifth film. The world has changed a lot in that time, including how comedy is perceived and received within a very divided social order. But some things don’t change, and the Wayans are still able to do raunch-comedy and parody as few others can. The returning cast of Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Shawn, and Marlon Wayans feel like they never lost a step, and they come with an entire ensemble of friends and celebrity cameos.
Needless to say, the horror genre (and Hollywood) have given the Wayans plenty of material to parody, not to mention society, politics, and everything in between. No one is safe – and it feels good to have that kind of comedy in theaters again. Scary Movie 6 is proof of what the Wayans could’ve achieved if they’d had proper time to craft the sequel.
1. Scary Movie
David Zucker was the godfather of genre-parody, but the Wayans took it mainstream with Scary Movie (2000). The movie was a culmination of the Wayans Family’s journey through genre parody films, having already made cult classics like I’m Gonna Get You Sucka (a Blaxploitation parody) and Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (a send-up of 1990s “hood films” like Juice, Boyz n the Hood, and Menace II Society. With Scary Movie, the Wayans were taking their biggest swing at mainstream comedy by parodying the biggest horror films of the late ’90s, and they didn’t play it safe, offering audiences one of the raunchiest and silliest movie experiences to date.
Against all odds, audiences loved the film, and Scary Movie became an overnight cultural phenomenon, pulling $278 million at the box office, on a budget of $19 million. It also helped launch a generation of comedic stars (like Anna Faris and Regina Hall), helped propel the Wayans to new heights in their respective careers, and convinced Hollywood to roll out years and years of copycat films, parodying every other genre (or even sub-genre) of movie. Scary Movie isn’t just the funniest of the series; it’s a generational milestone.
Scary Movie 6 is now in theaters. Discuss the film with us on the ComicBook Forum!
Forum Conversation: SCARY MOVIE 6
Go to ForumI think it’s fine, but I wish it didn’t have so many tangents taking away from its central narrative. The first two better handled layering the parody and offsides jokes into the core story, and this one was best when it was a straight parody of Scream 5/6. Needed more of that and less random shout outs to KPop Demon Hunters. Also needed way more of Faris and Hall, both are criminally underutilized
Did you see it? Did you get your laughs’ worth?
I thought it was A) Much better than 3,4, and 5
B) A great reminder of why the Wayans are a comedic dynasty
C) A tease of the alt-universe where we got Anna Faris and Regina Hall as a comedic duo for many films, instead of all these Chris Pratt movies
D) Another good reminder that comedy – and def raunch comedy – needs to always be part of the theatrical slate.