Scary Movie 2 (2001)

After the success of Scary Movie everyone knew that a sequel was going to happen. I'm not sure if many people thought the thing would become a money-making franchise, but the sequel was definitely coming, whether we liked it or not. Keenen Ivory Wayans returned to direct and the script was whipped into shape by no less than SEVEN writers. Seven writers and this is the best that they came up with? Someone needs to change job, in my opinion.

Starting off with a fairly amusing spoof of The Exorcist, made all the better thanks to a fantastic cameo from James Woods, the whole thing swiftly moves on to parody numerous haunted house movies. The Haunting, The Legend Of Hell House, The Changeling, What Lies Beneath, Poltergeist and . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hollow Man and Charlie's Angels all find themselves on the receiving end of some unsubtle spoofery. A group of young folks - Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Kathleen Robertson, Tori Spelling, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Christopher Masterson - all head out to a big, slightly spooky house as part of a school project. While there, they are also in the company of their professor (Tim Curry), his wheelchair-bound assistant (David Cross) and a strange house servant (Chris Elliott) with a deformed left hand. Oh, and the ghosts. They're also in the company of a lot of ghosts.

When I first watched Scary Movie 2 I thought it was one of the worst movies that I'd ever seen. I wasn't far wrong, and it's certainly not a film I would recommend to anyone, but I must admit that I do manage to get a few giggles from it when rewatching it nowadays. The opening section is particularly fun, but then it starts to go downhill fast.

The franchise gets a fair bit of goodwill from me thanks to the inclusion of Anna Faris and Regina Hall, both funny women who always try to make the best of the material. This is, however, offset by the fact that Shawn Wayans plays the most annoying character, Shorty, in any comedy franchise that I can think of. The rest of the cast here do okay, with the exception of Chris Elliott, who is the SECOND most annoying character in any comedy franchise.

Once again mixing crude gags amongst the spoof moments, and once again including a pop culture reference outdated within years of its release (this time it's a GAP advert), this should appeal to fans of the first movie, but even they might see sense and decide to skip it in favour of other instalments in the franchise.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scary-Movie-Collection-DVD/dp/B001ECPV6Q/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1377373211&sr=8-11&keywords=scary+movie

Campfire Tales (1997)

Campfire Tales is, as you might expect, a horror anthology movie based around some pretty well-known urban legends that are given a fun twist. While it's not all that scary, the tense moments somehow lack any real tension, it's certainly fun while it's on and benefits from a decent wraparound that ends things nicely.

Jay R. Ferguson, Christine Taylor, Christopher Masterson and Kim Murphy play people who have to kill some time after their car goes off the road. They set up some flares and then move into the woods to build a campfire and scare each other with some urban legends. As the movie opens we get a version of "The Hook" but then the car passengers go off road and settle down to tell the three main tales: "The Honeymoon", one that I won't name because the title gives away the punchline and "The Locket".

The direction by Matt Cooper, Martin Kunert and David Semel is okay. There's nothing too flashy here and nothing too terrible but the movie does feel a bit slow in places, despite coming in at just under the 90 minute mark. The script, by Cooper and Kunert and Eric Manes, doesn't really sizzle either, which is a shame because if the material had been handled better then the overall outcome would have been a significant improvement. The middle of the three tales is so badly fumbled that it's robbed of any tension it should have but the strength of the punchline is too good to be completely undone by the poor execution.

The cast assembled is a big plus. As well as those mentioned, there are small roles for James Marsden and Amy Smart. Ron Livingston (who appears in "The Honeymoon") will also be familiar to viewers while even those who aren't so well known acquit themselves reasonably well.

It's not a bad little movie but there are better urban legends to choose from and better ways to showcase the material.

6/10.

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