Every Scary Movie, Ranked From Worst To Best
How does one rate the Scary Movie franchise? It’s a question that has troubled scholars and intellectuals for years.
Is it the quality of the spoofs? Is it the offensiveness of the jokes? Or is it, more interestingly, the depths of stupidity that are plumbed? Whatever your choice of metric, the release of the franchise’s sixth instalment—which genuinely shifts the Wayans brothers’ spoof series from a ‘00s curiosity into a genuine legacy franchise—calls for a definitive ranking.
If you’ve just seen it and are looking to revisit the earlier movies or are considering putting in a little groundwork before checking the new one out, use the list below—which I've ranked in ascending order—to find out which are worthy of your attention and which can be second-screened, at best.
Read on to learn a bit more about each entry in the Scary Movie franchise and the guide to find them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
In the end, it’s always hard to beat the original. Released at the height of the late-‘90s slasher revival, the first Scary Movie was nothing short of a phenomenon, making almost $300M at the box office and changing the way people thought about horror movies forever. Oh, and it also inspired a lot of dudes to say wassssaaahhh and make jokes about being stoned.
The movie opens on a sequence that perfectly parodies the start of Scream and has a later one that perfectly parodies the opening of Scream 2. One of the running jokes is uncomfortably homophobic by 2026 standards, but the rest has aged pretty well, all things considered; and it still looks great, too.
There aren’t many cameos, but keep an eye out for James Van Der Beek, and if you enjoyed Regina Hall’s awesome performance in One Battle After Another, you’re gonna have a blast going back to see her here.
Key Parodies: Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Blair Witch Project
For the third movie, the Wayans largely handed over control to spoof legend David Zucker (Airplane!, Naked Gun) and a then unknown screenwriter named Craig Mazin who went on to pen the Hangover sequels as well as two little shows named Chernobyl and The Last of Us. I wish I could say all that experience and fresh talent amounted to something extraordinary, but Scary Movie 3 will just have to live with being the second best instalment in the Scary Movie franchise. This is good, silly, inoffensive fun.
For this one, Zucker gets good mileage out of two massive M. Night Shyamalan movies and draws solid comedic performances from Anna Faris, Simon Rex (of later Red Rocket fame) and Charlie Sheen. There’s also a great part for Zucker’s old collaborator Leslie Nielson (as the president) with additional cameos for the likes of Simon Cowell, Pamela Anderson and various members of the Wu Tang Clan.
Key parodies: The Ring, Signs, 8 Mile, The Sixth Sense
Unlike the three movies that followed it, Scary Movie 2 was actually written and directed by the Wayans. Unfortunately, the decision to swap out the slasher parodies of the original for the supernatural horror of movies like The Exorcist and The Haunting led to some jokes and set pieces that were just kind of icky—think bodily fluids galore.
Otherwise, it’s still a pretty good time, with the Wayans using their much larger budget on some pretty neat practical effects (the giant weed monster is a real highlight). There is also a cameo role for James Woods as Father McFeely and a proper part for the always great Tim Curry as Professor Oldman.
Key parodies: The Exorcist, The Haunting, Charlie’s Angels
In fairness, Scary Movie 4 isn’t bad at all: Anna Faris is consistently funny (as always in the franchise), there’s a solid Million Dollar Baby bit at around the halfway point and a great George Bush gag later on, but it’s clear the franchise had lost its edge.
The three year gap from Scary Movie 3 left some good material to work with (especially the traps from Saw) and there are plenty of big cameos from the likes of Bill Pullman, James Earl Jones, Michael Madsen and Shaquil O’Neil, but too many jokes just don't land.
Key Parodies: Saw, War of the Worlds, The Grudge, The Village
With all the material they had to work with, I kind of wanted this movie to be about 25% better than it ended up being. In the end, we got a pretty decent legacy reboot that starts off kind of choppy but eventually finds its rhythm with some solid bits in the second half. This is thanks largely to having most of the original cast as well as the Wayans back in the fold—though sadly not Simon Rex.
It is, without doubt, much better than its predecessor—and especially when Marlon Wayans, Anna Faris and Regina Hall are just left to cook. In terms of cameos, we’ll let you find out for yourself, but we can confirm one typically bad taste bit involving Kenan Thompson as the former King of Pop—or at least somebody close to him.
Even the staunchest Scary Movie fan will probably tell you that the fifth in the franchise is a big stinking heap of trash. But hey, maybe that’s your thing—and if so, no shade!
Released in 2013, seven long years after the previous instalment, it's the only movie in the series that doesn’t feature Anna Faris’s Cindy or Regina Hall’s Brenda—both of whom are dearly missed. It does, however, feature a cold open with Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen—then at the peak of their respective public meltdowns—doing a bit about ankle monitors and sex tapes. Let’s just say it sets the tone.
Key parodies: Paranormal Activity, Black Swan, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
