Time For Another Scary Movie (Scary Movie 2 (DVD))

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Scary Movie 2 (DVD)
Date:	14/11/06 (197 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A funny film, ideal viewing for fans of spoof/horror films

Disadvantages: If you didn't like the first one than you'll more than likely hate the second

Once again, Keenen Ivory Wayans is back as Director and we prepare ourselves for another 'Scary Movie'. Released one year after the first film, we find in real time that our characters are now at college having progressed from High School and are now enrolling for classes. Anna Faris is of course back as Cindy and also returning are personal favourites Ray (Shawn Wayans), Shorty (Marlon Wayans), and Brenda (Regina Hall). Also joining the main casting list for this film as a part of the group are Malcolm In The Middle's Christopher Masterson as Buddy, Kathleen Robertson as Theo and even Tori Spelling as Alex, who actually played Sydney in the film within a film 'Stab' of 'Scream 2' fame. As well as the main group, we also have a few more main characters such as Tim Curry as Professor Oldman, Chris Elliott as butler Hanson, and David Cross as Dwight Hartman. We've moved away from 'Scream' with this one with it no longer containing the masked murderer, instead we have an amalgamation of 'The Exorcist' and 'House on Haunted Hill' to set us on our way and so the film begins.


- The Plot -

It's one year since the events which took place in the first film, and the group of friends are back for the second instalment of 'Scary Movie'. As with the first film, it begins by setting the film off with the familiar mark up of a popular Horror film. In this one, instead of going with 'Scream' again, in the first sequences of the film we are given the devil possessed plot line of 'The Exorcist' as we see two priests trying to rid a young girl of her possession. Right on cue, after we have seen the priests dealing with and attempting to exorcise the girl, we meet our group of friends; Cindy, Ray, Brenda, and Shorty. These are the surviving members of the group from the first film and we soon find out that Professor Oldman is planning an experiment to put people into the house where the girl became possessed, aptly named Hell House, a take off of 'House on Haunted Hill'. Professor Oldman is a Professor at the college and so he chooses people from the college that have had near death experiences to go into the house as he believes that these people will be more in touch with the spirit world than anyone else. He disguises his experiment as a class, one which he tells the pupils that they will gain an instant 'A' for upon completion. The group of friends is of course chosen, having survived the events which took place the year before and along with a couple of new faces, they enter into the haunted house and alas, strange things begin to happen.


- My Opinion -

Having been a great fan of the first film I was eager to see the second, and went straight off to see it upon release. Once again a number of popular films come into the mix such as 'The Exorcist', and 'House On Haunted Hill' at the forefront, along with other such as 'Poltergeist', 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'The Silence of The Lambs', 'Mission Impossible', and 'Charlie's Angels' to name but a few. The popular culture links are there again with amongst others a somewhat awful 'You are the weakest link, goodbye' joke which will surely do nothing short of make you cringe. As with the first film there are some jokes that you will find hilarious, while others will leave you wondering why they didn't leave them out. For the most part however, the jokes are good and it's probably actually a more amusing film than the first one in some respects in that a lot of the jokes are more laugh out loud funny, however it has definitely lost a lot of the wit that the first him possessed. I think I prefer the first one as I love 'Scream' so seeing it parodied was always going to go down well with me and I found it to actually be rather witty, however 'Scary Movie 2' is by no means a poor sequel and in actual fact I think they've done really well with it.

Although loosely based around 'The Exorcist' in that it is the house in which the girl got possessed that they are all staying in, unlike the first one, the rest of the film really has nothing to do with 'The Exorcist'. In fact, although containing elements of other films it doesn't really directly parody any film/films plots in particular so in this way is unlike the first one and I feel more interesting for it as they could have easily made the same film twice but have chosen not to and I respect them for this. The fact they are in a ghost ridden house and are unable to leave makes the film quite like 'House On Haunted Hill' and they all end up splitting up and exploring the house as is so often the case with the horror genre, making a point in the film in fact of how when it would make more sense to all stay together, it is all too often the case that a horror film the characters will all split up and go their separate ways. So, as with the first film, horror conventions are pointed out and ridiculed much to the amusement of the viewer.

Just like in the first film there has again been some interesting cast names given, for instance the girl who plays the devil possessed Exorcist girl is credited as Megan Voorhees, this of course being a nod towards 'Friday the 13th' killer Jason Voorhees. The references to other films are what I love about the 'Scary Movie' films as there are some that are so slight that most people will miss, however if you look carefully then you'll always be able to find something new written into the script. I think this is probably less of a significant factor than it was with the first of the 'Scary Movie' films, however there are still some cleverly written aspects that have been written into the film and signs of great wit on the behalf of Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Playing a minor role in this film at the beginning is James DeBello, a man that would later go on to star in one of my favourites - 'Cabin Fever'. As seems to be the case with all the roles he has ever played, he is playing the part of a rather foolish American 'jock' like stereotype. I enjoyed his part in the film albeit little and with him also starring in 'Cabin Fever', since the release of this film I have always been glad to see him in 'Scary Movie 2' when I have watched it back. He provides a few laughs at an early stage in the film and although he does not go on to be a part of the main bulk of the film, his presence in the film I felt was a strong one.

Another face I was pleased to see present in the film was that of Christopher Masterson as I've always loved the part of Francis that he plays in 'Malcolm In The Middle', a TV favourite of mine of some years. He plays his role well and as is true of his Francis character is extremely funny in this part. I think that the inclusion of him in this film was a good choice as his performing persona is well suited to films such as this and so his humour comes across well and he plays an enjoyable, memorable role within the film.

There are quite a few memorable moments that stand out in this film for me, the first of which comes early on in the film in 'The Exorcist' take off which we are given. There is a three way exchange of green slime sick to the face here, with not just the young girl in on the act here but the two priests who are exorcising her also. This is an amusing twist of the original and although rather disgusting is genuinely really funny, especially when you're seeing the film for the first time. Another scene that automatically springs to mind is that in which Tori Spelling's character Alex is lying down on her bed and a ghost comes in to see her and they have sex on the bed, up against the wall and also on the ceiling. The ghost is of course invisible so it is an amusing sequence in that all we see is her getting dragged up the wall and across the ceiling, but do not see the force that is doing this to her. After the sex scene we see them both smoking a cigarette, one in the mouth of Alex and one seemingly floating in mid air which he know to be in the mouth of the spirit. While they are both smoking Alex gets a bit serious and declares her undying love for the ghost, whom quickly scarpers and spends the rest of the film avoiding the besotted Alex. This provides one of the films many laughs and is probably one of my favourite sequences within the film. Although I've only named two scenes - believe me, there are far more that you will find amusing, I just don't want to spoil them by telling you the whole film and giving you no reason to go out and watch it and believe me - it's certainly worth watching for yourselves.

On the front cover of this DVD, right underneath the title is the line 'More Laughs. More Screams. Less Clothes.' and I think that this probably just about sums the film up really. There probably are more laughs this time round albeit cheap ones, but that's what you expect with a film of this sort, not too sure about 'More Screams' however seen as there aren't even any deaths in this one or in fact any form of a killer, but 'Less Clothes' is certainly a fair comment. If you liked the first film for it's cheap laughs rather than the imitation of various popular horror films and conventions then you may well love this one as it is more of the same really and is yet another fun comedy with it's laugh a minute style. If you weren't too keen on the first one however then this is probably one to avoid as you can pretty much expect more of the same and if you thought that the first film had a bit too much toilet humour for your liking then rest assured; the second has more.

'Scary Movie 2', much like its predecessor was never going to be a classic, however for what it's worth is an interesting film that should keep you amused for 79 minutes with its simple yet effective humour. I really enjoyed this film and what with it having many more laughs than the first film, I feel that the Keenen Ivory Wayans did extremely well with this sequel, making a good film out of what could have potentially been a disaster. Although not sticking closely to the script of any film in particular as the first film did and with the plot of the film not really being of any great importance whatsoever, 'Scary Movie 2' is still a good film and will always remain to be an enjoyable one for me purely on the basis of the number of laughs that it provides the viewer with. At times more like a series of sketches than a feature length film, 'Scary Movie 2' still makes for good viewing and a great job has definitely been done here in producing a follow up that does the original proud, straying far enough from the original format not to become tired, yet keeping the humour and some of the elements that made the first film the amusing and entertaining film which I thought it was.


- Extras -

~ Behind The Scenes Featurette ~

At just under 8 minutes long, this is once again a brilliant feature as was the case with the one that was present in the 'Scary Movie' DVD as here we learn about what it's like to work alongside Keenen Ivory Wayans and the fun that can be had whilst working on the film. Anna Faris here reveals to us how she felt that her best moments in the film came when she wasn't concerned about looking stupid or unattractive and just concentrated on putting in a good performance, Chris Elliott speaks of the freedom that he was allowed in this film to take his character in the direction that he so wished, and James Woods talks about how good it felt for him to be in a comedy of this sort rather than in the serious roles which he usually plays. We also gain insights into some of the other cast members and this is a pretty interesting feature to sit down and watch after you have seen the film. It's always good to gain insight into the cast behind the characters so I'd definitely recommend sitting down and watching this feature if you have the DVD and have not already done so as you should find it to be fairly interesting.

~ Alternate and Deleted Scenes ~

After finding a couple of decent deleted scenes in the first film, I thought that the bonus scenes here may well be worth a look in. How wrong could I have been?! There are 6 scenes here and it is only the last of these 6 that is even remotely interesting, this scene being 'A Little Bit of hot Sauce' - a scene that pleased me as the parrot guilty of the awful Weakest Link joke gets eaten by Cindy and Shorty as Shorty states 'I told you, a little bit of hot sauce and it tastes just like chicken!' It is obvious to see why this scene wasn't included in the film however as it wasn't up to that much, but it was far more interesting than the other scenes present here which were quite frankly awful. I think I was pleased to see this scene purely because I felt that justice had been done for the inclusion of the awful Weakest Link one liner, a programme that over the years I have come to hate more and more, and a joke out of which brings nothing but feelings of frustration and anger to the surface with me. As I say, not a bad scene is this one, just no classic and therefore rightly not included in the film itself.

~ Special Effects Tour with Lou Carlucci ~

This could have been a decent feature had they had someone talking about the special effects that actually had any personality, however it seems that Lou Carlucci is deprived of one and has one of the most droning and monotonous voices I have ever heard in my life. Coupled with this, there aren't really that many special effects to speak of in 'Scary Movie 2', so the special effects that are shown aren't particularly interesting either and with the person speaking about them being so dull there is just absolutely nothing to gain from this feature. Had the person behind this feature had some sense of a personality then it may have turned out alight, however as it is - it's not really worth wasting your time over.

~ Here Kitty, Kitty ~

Again, this is a pretty boring feature to be honest. There is a possessed cat within the film and in just under 2 minutes here we are shown one of the cats being made, shown the making of a couple of the scenes in which the cat is involved, and are told that it takes 45 days to make each cat of which we see about 10 sitting there which gives us a fair idea of just how much effort must have gone into making all these different cats. The fact they spent such a long time making these cats probably made them feel that they had to give it a mention in the extras really, however really I'm not sure why they included this feature as it really is rather boring and I definitely wouldn't say that it makes for an interesting viewing experience. If you buy the DVD then feel free to leave this feature out, it really is a bore.

~ Scary Effects ~

Once again we come to a fairly interesting feature and I think the secret lies in the fact that it is not too long. At just over 2 minutes we are shown how some of the effects within the film are done such as the breakaway glass and rubber glass which is used as a means of creating broken glass effects without any potential injury to the cast members, and how the sex with a ghost scene was done. Although extremely short, I feel that this was a decent feature and although non-essential it certainly makes for interesting viewing which is more than can be said about 'Here Kitty, Kitty'.

~ Behind the Make Up with Barry Koper ~

It is important to end on a high and that is exactly what has been done here. We come to and end of the bonus features on this disc by being shown a bit of the work that went into the make up used in 'Scary Movie 2'. An interesting insight which is gained here is the fact the in 'The Exorcist' scenes at the beginning of the film, the tongue that is used when Megan Voorhees is possessed is actually the same one that was used in 'The Exorcist' itself. The make up team tried to make it better than the original, however Barry Koper reveals that with the tongue they made, there were problems with it actually staying on so they rang up the people behind the original and asked them how it was done. As a result, the original tongue was sent to them for use in the film and they needed to get insurance out on the tongue for use of a historic prop. This is quite an interesting fact file for film enthusiasts, and in fact when I first watched this feature and heard about that, as sad as it is, I was genuinely impressed. This is an interesting feature to come right at the end of the list of features as with some good and some bad features here you are left wondering whether or not they will end the DVD on a high and thankfully, they do.


Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Year of release: 2001
Genre: Horror Spoof
Language: English
Runtime: 79 mins
BBFC Rating: 18

Summary: A second great Scary Movie spoof from Keenen Ivory Wayans