Susan Granger’s review of “SCARY MOVIE 2” (Dimension Films)
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that this crude R-rated comedy will wind up on many WORST of 2001 lists. Despite the promise of the original’s tagline: “No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel,” Keenen Ivory Wayans picks up where the original over-the-top horror spoof left off. With a sleazy professor organizing an insomnia experiment for some parapsychology students at a creepy, haunted Tudor-style mansion, it begins in “Hell House” with a parody of “The Exorcist” and stumbles forward into “One Year Later,” along with burlesque segments from “Scream,” “Hollow Man,” “Save the Last Dance,” “Twister,” “What Lies Beneath,” “Raging Bull,” “Rebecca,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “House on Haunted Hill,” “The Matrix,” “Final Destination,” plus TV’s “Survivor,” “The Weakest Link” and Nike basketball commercials. Everything and everyone is fair game, including homosexuals and the disabled. “Re-possessing” their roles are Marlon & Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris and Regina Hall. They’re joined by David Cross, Tim Curry, Chris Elliott, Natasha Lyonne, Chris Masterson, Richard Moll, Andy Richter, Kathleen Robertson, Tori Spelling and James Woods. (Woods stepped in for Marlon Brando who had been touted as the constipated priest in “The Exorcist” segment.) Quite simply, if it’s gross, vulgar, disgusting or related to bodily waste, it’s here – like vats of sperm and streaming feces. It’s slapdash, not slapstick. Well-written satire is something else entirely – like the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams parodies “Airplane,” “Top Secret” and “The Naked Gun.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Scary Movie 2” is a repulsive 1 – but, mercifully, it only lasts 99 minutes.
