Review of "Scary Movie 3" (2003) DVD

The tagline on the original Scary Movie (2000) claimed, "No Mercy. No Shame. No Sequel." Well, obviously, they lied. So, is the third time a charm? Not necessarily, without the charm of the original creators, writers, and director - various brothers Wayans, to be somewhat exact. This time around, David Zucker (of Airplane! fame) sits in the director's cockpit and while there are plenty of chuckles, Scary Movie 3 feels pretty played out, overall.

Spoofing horror movies The Ring, Signs, and The Others (with a little of 8 Mile and The Matrix incongruously thrown in), Scary Movie 3 follows girl reporter Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), who has a nose for trouble ("Call it women's intuition, or ESPN, or both! I can tell when danger's coming..." she says to her boss in the newsroom, shortly before whacking her head on a microphone hanging from the ceiling), as she follows the creepy clues on a mysterious videotape. The clues lead to crop circles emblazoned on a corn field owned by widowed farmer Tom (Charlie Sheen) and his wannabe-rapper brother George (Simon Rex), which in turn lead to a bunch of cheesy aliens and a plot to overthrow the President of the United States (Leslie Nielson). Scary Movie 3 never really finds its footing. In fact, it stumbles pretty badly when it tries to connect the dots between so many disparate story lines. There are teeny snippets of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Final Destination tossed into the mix, but the lack of continuity in the horror storylines are ultimately what kills Scary Movie 3.

The DVD is filled with "extras", mostly with a rather telling commentary from Zucker, producer Robert Weiss, and writers Craig Mazin and Pat Proft. The deleted scenes reveal even more totally confounding spoofs, including a riff on The Hulk and A Beautiful Mind. I'm still wondering why the makers of a movie called 'Scary' Movie 3, chose to spoof so many non-horror films… but then again, why bother wondering? It's a just a stupid film and not worth much contemplation. I must say, I did enjoy the filmmaker's honesty on the deleted and extended scenes commentary, especially over the deleted scenes: "We should have deleted scenes from the deleted scenes!" and "I thought all these prints had been burned!"

The deleted scenes reveal an entire romantic storyline between Cindy and George which was excised, plus the twist on A Beautiful Mind which suggests that her child Cody and the lecherous reverend are both figments of Cindy's imagination. There are also two alternate endings (neither of which would have redeemed this turkey).

The "Making Of" featurette reveals even more explanation as to why Scary Movie 3 turned out to be such a mess: None of the original script was shot, and the screenwriters (of which there were several over the course of the project) were changing plotlines and churning out new material on a daily basis throughout the shooting. The "Making Of" featurette shows the usual love-fest interviews with the cast, each saying how great it was to work with the others - but this time, they actually say why they admire their co-stars and have some different, original perspectives on working with them.

Finally, the over-the-movie commentary - again featuring Zucker, Weiss, Mazin, and Proft - is standard fare, in which the speakers pretty much just state the obvious and remark on what we can already see with our own eyes.

Scary Movie 3 is by no means the worst DVD I've seen in recent memory, but I can really only recommend it for people who can appreciate really low-brow comedy, and go with the flow when it comes to squirting scatological humor.

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson for Horror.com