The beloved horror-comedy franchise that gave us iconic quotes such as “Cindy, the TV is leaking” and “I’ve taken balls to the face before” is gearing up for its long-awaited revival at Paramount and Miramax. And wildly enough, it’s getting a little help from Sonic the Hedgehog producer Neal H. Moritz.
If Scary Movie and Sonic the Hedgehog were two franchises you never thought you’d share a headline, you’re not alone. The announcement was made at CinemaCon where Paramount Pictures revealed that a reboot of the parody franchise will begin production in the fall.
Per Variety, the film will act “as part of the Paramount’s first look partnership with Miramax.” At the moment, a release window has yet to be confirmed. But if cameras start rolling in fall 2024, there’s a good chance the reboot will hit theaters by Halloween 2025.
As fans know, the unapologetically raunchy, R-rated comedy franchise first kicked off in 2000, parodying ’90s horror flicks including Scream, The Sixth Sense, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Future installments spoofed everything from horror classics like The Exorcist to modern favorites like Saw, The Ring, Signs, and many more in the franchise’s four sequels. Although the cast rotated with each installment, mainstays included Ana Farris as Cindy and Regina Hall as Brenda Meeks who, if we’re being real here, probably deserve Oscars for their performances.
It remains unclear whether or not Farris and/or Hall will reprise their roles for the upcoming movie, and if co-writers Keenen Ivory Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and Marlon Wayans will return in some capacity. An official cast has yet to be confirmed, but given recent reboots’ tendencies to pay homage to previous actors (i.e., 2024’s Mean Girls), there’s a good chance we could see some familiar faces pop up.
Not all of the lowbrow comedy featured in the first five Scary Movie films has aged well, to say the least. Still, you can’t deny that they’re no less hilarious today and are an essential staple of any good Halloween watch list. Well, aside from the bomb office bomb that was Scary Movie 5. This makes the franchise ripe for a good ol’ fashioned reboot, though filmmakers will have to pull a miracle to replicate even some of the magic of the originals.
And yeah, the new Scary Movie reboot certainly has plenty of modern horror movies to satirize: Blumhouse’s M3GAN, Ari Aster’s Midsommar, and The Conjuring, to name a few. With the current state of the horror genre being … questionable at best, it’ll be interesting to see which films from the past decade or so Scary Movie 6 will claim as its next victims.
(featured image: Dimension Films)
