‘Scary Movie’ Almost Had a Much Different Ending That Wouldn’t Have Made Much Sense

Scary Movie, the sixth chapter of the horror spoof franchise created by the Wayans Bros., has already had a good amount of success despite critical disappointment. It’s now the third-highest-grossing film in the series, with time to go still. I didn’t love the film, but I did love the ending, which completely eviscerates the trend of legacy movies that pass the torch. But that very nearly wasn’t the case.

SCARY MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD

In a chat with THR, director Michael Tiddes was asked about the ending, in which our legacy characters played by Marlon Wayans (Shorty), Shawn Wayans (Ray), Anna Faris (Cindy), and Regina Hall (Brenda), kill off the surviving newcomers. “We wanted to address the underlying issue that the franchise was taken away from them,” Tiddes told the outlet. “So we knew the beginning and the end that we wanted, and we knew the statements we wanted to make: ‘This is our fucking franchise. We’re not giving it back to anybody now. The motivation for our Ghostfaces is probably stronger in Scary Movie 6 than it ever was in Scream. Audiences are connecting with that, and they’re loving it.”

I’d beg to differ on the motivation comment, but otherwise, not only do I love the mindset of the filmmakers regarding the franchise, but that ending is by far a highlight of the film. Yet, an alternate ending was once planned, in which the new characters do survive. But that didn’t seem logical if the plan was to make a statement that the franchise belonged to the Wayans.

Said Tiddes, “It was something that we were wrestling with during the filming of the movie. The ending that’s in there now was something we came up with while shooting the movie, but we didn’t shoot it until additional photography. After we finished principal photography, we watched the original ending, and the new idea for the ending just kept sitting with us. We were like, “You know what? It would be more impactful.” The original ending was a coda where we wrapped the characters’ stories up individually, and it just didn’t feel as effective.“