Intermission: With cliché instead of plot, slasher spoof full of laughs

"Scary Movie"

Directed by: Keenan Ivory Wayans

Starring: Anna Farris, Carmen Electra, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Cheri Oteri

Rated: R

In 1979 John Carpenter created a new sub-genre of horror film, now known as the "slasher" movie, with his epic low-budget thriller, "Halloween."

Since then, that movie, as well as "Friday the 13th," "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Scream," and "I Know What You Did Last Summer," have built franchises on their basic theme and have fueled the summer box office to the tune of untold millions.

Some of the movies have gotten so bad that they've become parodies of themselves, but leave it to the Wayans brothers to come up with the first real parody of this incredibly popular genre.

"Scary Movie" which was originally titled "I Still Know What You Screamed Last Halloween" is not only funny from opening to close, but has the slasher formula down to perfection. Director Keenan Ivory Wayans makes note of everything stereotypical in these movies, from scantily clad, big-breasted women to the fact that the "teenagers" are always played by actors in their 20s or 30s.

The jokes are non-stop, much in the way "Airplane!" spoofed disaster movies, but the one point where Wayans misses the boat (I think) is his choice to be so incredibly vulgar. I'm not prudish by any means and I realize that raunch sells, but "Scary Movie" doesn't let a scene go by without a reference to flatulence, genitalia or bodily functions. Many parents will be uncomfortable sending their kids to this, and kids are probably a large part of this film's target audience. That caveat aside, it really is a clever spoof on pop culture.

"Scary Movie" opens with big-breasted and scantily clad Carmen Electra about to pop a video in her machine. The phone rings and an ominous voice asks her what she's watching. "A scary movie," is her reply, and suddenly a masked madman is chasing her across the lawn, ripping her clothes off and sending her on a path directly through the sprinkler. Wetter is always better in these scenes. In the tradition of Drew Barrymore in "Scream," Electra, the biggest star in the film, is killed off immediately.

From this point on, the story is given over to the "teenage" cast, and every slasher film clich is exploited, examined and exploited again.

The stereotypical stoner, the rather manly girls' gym teacher, the absolute virgin, the frustrated boyfriend, the dense cop (in this film he's called Officer Doofy and is one of the best characters), the masked killer they're all here and all doing what they're expected to do.

There's really not much of a plot to discuss "Scary Movie." Like "Airplane!" it is merely an endless series of gags, hung against a backdrop of movie clichs. There's one classic scene poking fun at the uninhibited, loudmouthed moviegoer that we've all endured, usually at horror films. You know, the ones who scream things like, "No! Don't go in there!" This scene takes place at a screening of "Shakespeare In Love," wherein the subject shouts, "That Brad Pitt's girlfriend is a freak!"

This film is playing at Campbell 16 Cin, Battlefield Mall 6 and Town & Country 6.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)