The Correct Order To Watch The Scary Movie Franchise

Fun trivia: one of the working titles for Wes Craven's 1996 slasher satire "Scream" was "Scary Movie." Filmmaker Keenan Ivory Wayans got wind of this trivia, and decided in 2000 to make a film called "Scary Movie" intended to satirize the popularity of "Scream." The late 1990s were a curious time in popular culture, as there weren't too many dominant horror trends. Popular music was beginning to comment on its own self-awareness (see: "Flagpole Sitta") and irony became ironic. Self-reflection went from a healthy Socratic exercise into a loop of eternal recurrence. By 2000, we became so busy commenting on our own commentaries, that it was hard to see where we started. This is where "Scary Movie" dropped in. 

Make no mistake, "Scary Movie" is unfunny, as are its many sequels. They're cheap, homophobic, and vulgar. Wayans took his model from spoof filmmakers like Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker, but aimed to make something infinitely more crass; his spoofery was mixed with the gross-out comedy trends of the day. His references to other movies tended to be mere callbacks, presented without criticism or wit. The template laid out by "Scary Movie" gave rise to the Friedberg/Seltzer comedies of the late 2000s, some of the most abysmal comedy films ever made. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, not incidentally, wrote the screenplay for "Scary Movie."

There were only five films called "Scary Movie" released from 2000 to 2013, and they were handily marked by Arabic numerals so keeping track of them is simple. As such, we here at /Film will also include a master list of all the Friedberg/Seltzer comedies that night serve as spiritual successors to "Scary Movie." For good measure, we will also include the "Scream" movies on a tertiary list, just for a full diagram of the trends from beginning to end.

Here is the release order: 

• "Scary Movie" (2000)
• "Scary Movie 2" (2001)
• "Scary Movie 3" (2003)
• "Scary Movie 4" (2006)
• "Scary Movie 5" (2013)

The five movies, collectively, cost about $177 million to make, but grossed almost $900 million worldwide. It's easy to see why studios wanted more and more of them. Wayans was only involved in the making of the first two "Scary Movie" films, with the legendary David Zucker taking over for parts 3 and 4. One can sense a definite change in energy from "Scary Movie 2" to "Scary Movie 3," as the series tilted away from stoner humor and semen jokes, and more toward a broad sense of slapstick. There was still plenty of crotch trauma, however. After a while, the "Scary Movie" series ran out of horror trends to spoof, and ended up spoofing any movies or TV shows they wanted. 

Friedberg and Seltzer, as mentioned above, redirected their spoofery toward other genres, and many of us recall — like traumatized war veterans — the movies they unleashed on the world throughout the 2000s. The Friedberg/Seltzer comedies, in turn, inspired other "Movie Movies" by other filmmakers. Here, then, is a more complete list that incorporates the relevant 2000s spoof cycle. Note: this list doesn't include every spoof film from the 2000s (sorry "Delta Farce"), but just the Friedberg/Seltzers and the other "Movie Movies." There are 16 in all.

• "Scary Movie" (2000)
• "Scary Movie 2" (2001)
• "Not Another Teen Movie" (2001)
• "Scary Movie 3" (2003)
• "My Big Fat Independent Movie" (2005)
• "Date Movie" (2006)
• "Scary Movie 4" (2006)
• "Epic Movie" (2007)
• "Meet the Spartans" (2008)
• "Superhero Movie" (2008)
• "Disaster Movie" (2008)
• "Spanish Movie" (2009)
• "Vampires Suck" (2010)
• "Scary Movie 5" (2013)
• "The Starving Games" (2013)
• "Superfast!" (2015)

If one wanted to track what was going on in mainstream horror that inspired the "Scary Movie" movies to begin with, here is also a complete list that includes all six of the "Scream" movies: 

• "Scream" (1996)
• "Scream 2" (1997)
• "Scary Movie" (2000)
• "Scream 3" (2000)
• "Scary Movie 2" (2001)
• "Not Another Teen Movie" (2001)
• "Scary Movie 3" (2003)
• "My Big Fat Independent Movie" (2005)
• "Date Movie" (2006)
• "Scary Movie 4" (2006)
• "Epic Movie" (2007)
• "Meet the Spartans" (2008)
• "Superhero Movie" (2008)
• "Disaster Movie" (2008)
• "Spanish Movie" (2009)
• "Vampires Suck" (2010)
• "Scream 4" (2011)
• "Scary Movie 5" (2013)
• "The Starving Games" (2013)
• "Superfast!" (2015)
• "Scream" (remake) (2022)
• "Scream VI" (2023)

Of course, the "Movie Movies" were all predicated on referring to popular movies, and a complete list would perhaps have to also include every single movie they were spoofing. However, given the volume of spoofery, such a list would include literally hundreds of titles. Perhaps it's best to take for granted that most of the movies being spoofed will be recognized by a broad mainstream audience. 

Some of the references are definitely dated, though. "Scary Movie 2," for instance, includes a spoof of a Nike ad that played on TV in 2001. Only people who were teens in 2001 would recognize it, even at the time. Even if the "Movie Movies" aren't often funny, they may, at the very least, serve as a curious cultural annotation of society's pop obsessions at the time. Treat them like biological field notes or a sociological archive, and the "Movie Movies" begin to take on a fascinating quality, an object lesson for future generations. And, heck, you might get a guffaw or two.