Scary Movie 3

Scary Movie 3 is a 2003 American parody film which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres. It is the sequel to Scary Movie 2 and is the third film in the Scary Movie film series, and the first to be directed by David Zucker.

Scary Movie 3
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Zucker
Written by
Based onCharacters
by Shawn Wayans
Marlon Wayans
Buddy Johnson
Phil Beauman
Jason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer
Produced byRobert K. Weiss
Starring
CinematographyMark Irwin
Edited byJon Poll
Music byJames L. Venable
Production
company
Brad Grey Pictures[1]
Distributed byDimension Films[1]
Release dates
  • October 20, 2003 (2003-10-20) (Los Angeles)
  • October 24, 2003 (2003-10-24) (United States)
Running time
84 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$48 million[3]
Box office$220.7 million[3]

The film stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall reprising their roles as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, respectively. New cast members include Charlie Sheen, Simon Rex, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, and Leslie Nielsen. It is the first film in the series to feature no involvement from the Wayans family. The characters of Shorty Meeks and Ray Wilkins, previously played by Shawn and Marlon Wayans, do not appear, nor are they referenced.

The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring, Signs, The Matrix Reloaded and 8 Mile. The film grossed $220.7 million worldwide, becoming the second highest grossing film in the series. It is the last film in the series to be released by The Walt Disney Company's subsidiary Miramax Films, under the brand Dimension Films. It was named the 2004 Teen Choice Awards in the category of Choice Movie: Your Parents Didn't Want You to See. A sequel, Scary Movie 4, was released in 2006.

Plot

The film opens with two women, Katie (Jenny McCarthy) and Becca (Pamela Anderson), talk about a tape the two watched, individually. While Katie believes it was a sex tape, Becca tells her of an urban legend: after watching said tape, you will receive a phone call predicting your death within seven days. The phone rings downstairs, scaring the girls, but is revealed to be Becca's mother. After several odd occurrences in the kitchen, Becca returns to find water coming from her bedroom and opens the door to find Katie dead, with the unseen entity killing Becca next. Meanwhile, in a farm outside Washington, D.C., widowed farmer Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) and his brother George (Simon Rex) discover Tom's daughter Sue, screaming in the middle of a crop circle, saying "Attack Here!"

Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) now a reporter, announces the crop circles on the news, but this is ignored by her boss, who only cares for stories on sex, violence, and the weather. She picks up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody from school, where her best friend Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) is his teacher. There she meets George, who came to pick up Sue, Cody's classmate. Cindy and George quickly become attracted to one another, and George invites her and Brenda to a rap-battle with his rapper friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ. (Kevin Hart). George proves to be talented, winning a rap-battle against Fat Joe, but is violently thrown out after he raises his unintentionally pointy white hood.

After watching the cursed videotape, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company. After playing several pranks on Cindy, the girl from the cursed tape, Tabitha, fights with and kills Brenda. George receives a phone call about the death, and Tom meets with Sayaman (Ajay Naidu), who apologizes for the accident involving himself and Tom's wife Annie (Denise Richards).

During Brenda's wake, George and Mahalik wreak havoc in an unsuccessful attempt to revive her, only to blow up her body and get kicked out of the house. Cindy finds the cursed tape in Brenda's room, watches it, and receives a phone call warning her of her death in seven days. She calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ says his Aunt Shaneequa (Queen Latifah) might be able to help. Shaneequa, the Matrix Oracle, and her husband Orpheus (Eddie Griffin) agree to watch the tape with her. Shaneequa discovers the hidden image of a lighthouse, which can break the curse if Cindy finds it, and gets in a fight with Tabitha's mother. When Cindy returns home, she finds Cody watched the tape.

At work, Cindy searches through pictures of lighthouses before finding the one from the tape. Desperate to save Cody, Cindy warns everyone by entering a message into the news anchor's teleprompter. Her boss interrupts her, and the anchor mechanically recites the wrong message. The Logans take it seriously since they encountered an alien disguised as Michael Jackson, and President Baxter Harris (Leslie Neilsen) personally visits the farm to investigate the crop circles. Cindy visits the lighthouse, where she encounters The Architect (George Carlin). The loquacious old man explains Tabitha was his evil adopted daughter, whom his wife drowned in the farm's well, but not before she imprinted her evil onto the tape. Unfortunately, he mistakenly returned it to Blockbuster believing it was Pootie Tang, unleashing the curse. When Cindy asks about how this relates to the Aliens, the Architect speculates that Tabitha is summoning them to aid her in destroying the human race.

Returning home, Cindy discovers her station has been broadcasting the evil tape for hours, and there have been various sightings of aliens around the world. Worse, Cody is missing. Cindy tracks him to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom orders Cindy, Sue, and Cody into the basement for safety, as he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight the extraterrestrials. The aliens arrive, as do President Harris and the Secret Service, but reveal they are friendly and have come to stop Tabitha, since they accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted, again believing it was Pootie Tang. CJ arrives to help, being his posse as backup (all played by famous rappers and musicians). However, the posse engages into an immediate fight, resulting in them shooting each other to death.

In the basement, Cindy recognizes the farm's cellar from the tape, and she finds the well where Tabitha drowned. Suddenly, Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight ensues, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George appeal to her, offering her a place in their family. Tabitha transforms into a little girl and claims her curse is broken, but changes back to her monstrous form and says she was “just screwing on them”. As she advances on Cindy and the others, President Harris opens a door and accidentally knocks her into the well. The aliens leave in peace, and Cindy and George get married. Leaving for their honeymoon, they realize they left Cody behind. After Cindy avoids hitting Cody at an intersection, Cody breathes a sigh of relief and another car strikes him.

Cast

Rapper cameos

As well as in "The Rap Battle", several actual rappers assist in the confrontation with the aliens and a subsequent shootout amongst themselves.

Production

On November 22, 2002, Dimension Films announced a third Scary Movie without the Wayans brothers returning. The movie was given the title Scary Movie 3: Episode I — Lord of the Brooms, and the movie was supposed to spoof the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises.[5] Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer were the writers of the movie. David Zucker was going to shoot that script but eventually decided to not use it.[6]

Filming started on March 12, 2003 and wrapped on July 16, 2003. The movie was shot in British Columbia and in Washington, D.C.[7]

Music

The score for the film was composed by James L. Venable. The original soundtrack was released on October 24, 2003, and features hip hop artists such as Buku Wise, Delinquent Habits, Dame Lee, Kebyar, and others.[8] Frank Fitzpatrick served as music supervisor for the film and soundtrack. Jorge Corante produced and co-wrote the majority of original songs used for the feature.[9]

Release

Alternate scenes

The DVD edition includes a director's audio commentary, several deleted scenes and alternate endings (with optional commentary). A "3.5" special DVD was also released, and contained several more deleted scenes than the original DVD, with an unrated version of the film.

In the alternate ending, Cindy is told Cody does not exist by her psychiatrist (played by William Forsythe). After hitting a few people in the face with a shovel, Cindy asks everybody who is not real to stand over at a different spot. Cody goes over there but is followed by Santa Claus. The aliens then begin to invade but George stops them by transforming into The Hulk. President Harris tries to hulk out but ends up soiling his pants. Cindy enters the Logan House, where she is attacked by Tabitha. She is teleported away to Aunt Shaneequa, who teaches her how to defeat Tabitha. Cindy must then confront hundreds of Tabitha's. She wins the battle by performing moves from The Matrix and teleports back to the Logan House. The cast then gets into a car with the President, but are horrified to learn that the driver happens to be M. Night Shyamalan.

One of the scenes that appeared on the Extended DVD named Scary Movie 3.5 was part of the unrated feature. After Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy shut off the TV, the two compliment each other on their good looks. Anderson then asks if McCarthy wants her "shaved pussy", but this turns out to be a furless kitten.

In an extended scene, the person who runs Cody down at the end is shown to be Michael Jackson.

Reception

Box office

Scary Movie 3 opened at the number one spot in the US, grossing $48.1 million in its opening weekend[3] and $57.5 million for that week. In its second week, it grossed $24.7 million.[10] At the end of its box office run, Scary Movie 3 grossed $110 million in the US and $110.7 million internationally, making $220.7 million in total.[3]

Critical response

Scary Movie 3 received a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 129 critics, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Though an improvement over the second Scary Movie, the laughs are still inconsistent."[11] On Metacritic, it has a score of 49 out of 100 based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Scary Movie 3". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  2. "Scary Movie 3 (15)". British Board of Film Classification. November 14, 2003. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  3. "Scary Movie 3 (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  4. @voiceoverprince (April 7, 2022). "In 2003, Tom Kenny and I recorded these adorable aliens everyone remembers from #scarymovie3 We were never billed,…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. November 22, Gary Susman Updated; EST, 2002 at 05:00 AM. "Dimension greenlights Wayans-free Scary Movie 3". EW.com. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  6. The Epic Disastrous Unmade Works and Spoofs of Seltzer and Friedberg and their History - Groovy Jake, retrieved December 15, 2022
  7. Scary Movie 3 (2003) - IMDb, retrieved December 15, 2022
  8. "Various Artists, James L. Venable: Scary Movie 3: Music". Amazon. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
  9. "Frank Fitzpatrick". IMDb. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  10. "Scary Movie 3: Weekly gross". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  11. "Scary Movie 3". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  12. "Scary Movie 3 at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
  13. "SCARY MOVIE 3 (2003) B". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
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