Can the Wayans Bros. Remember to Put the “Scary” Back in the ‘Scary Movie’ Series?

When Scary Movie hits theaters later this week, audiences and critics will pass a verdict on whether its comedy lives up to the standard set by the 2000 original. Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, Scary Movie pioneered the modern spoof genre with its brazenly irreverent attitude, copious gross-out humor, willingness to cross red lines, and habit of cramming as many movie parodies as possible into its plot.

While other spoofs had tepidly dipped their toes in this water before Scary Movie, the Wayans Bros. classic stood out by being genuinely funny — and, by grossing $278 million on a $19 million budget, a monster box office hit.

Yet there is one other aspect of Scary Movie that does not receive enough attention, and it is a quality I suspect the new film will also be judged on: Is it actually, literally scary?

You’d think this would be obvious for a film titled Scary Movie, but the new installment (directed by Michael Tiddes) still needs to live up to that standard. The first Scary Movie succeeded in large part because, despite its throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach to spoofing, it also focused on emulating the plots of two late-’90s horror hits: Scream (1996) and (1997). Both of those movies were slasher thrillers, relying on both the mystery of figuring out the villain’s identity and the horror of wondering who will die next — and then having that question answered.