Scary Movie 3 is an 2003 American dark comedy which parodies the horror, slasher, and mystery genres, and is directed by David Zucker. It is the third film of the Scary Movie franchise. The film's plot significantly parodies the films The Ring and Signs.
Plot
The movie's plot is introduced by two vulouptuous girls, Katie (Jenny McCarthy) and Becca (Pamela Anderson), meeting a gruesome supernatural demise seven days after having watched a cursed videotape and receiving a phone call with a ghostly message predicting the watchers' death. In a farm outside Washington, D.C., widowed farmer and former reverend Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) and his clumsy and easily discouraged brother George (Simon Rex) discover a crop circle making up a sign pointing to the farm that reads "ATTACK HERE".
In Washington D.C., Cindy Campbell, now an anchorwoman, goes to pick up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody (Drew Mikuska), who becomes a subject of repeated accidental abuse in the course of the film, at school, where her friend Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) works as a teacher. George Logan arrives to fetch his niece Sue (Jianna Ballard). George and Cindy take an immediate liking to each other, and he invites Cindy and Brenda to a rap-off with his rapper friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ (Kevin Hart). George is actually quite successful, but due to some unintentional blunders he is eventually thrown out.
Following the rap-off, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company, as she has watched the cursed videotape herself. After playing several jokes on Cindy, she goes to watch TV and is attacked and killed by the undead girl Tabitha (Marny Eng). After Brenda's funeral reception, during which George and his rapper friend Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) wreak havoc on Brenda's corpse in an ill attempt to bring her back to life, Cindy decides to watch the tape for herself and also receives the fateful message; she calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ comments his Aunt Shaneequa, an oracle, might be able to help Cindy. Aunt Shaneequa (Queen Latifah) and her husband Orpheus (Eddie Griffin) agree to help and Cindy gives them a copy of the killer tape. After watching a segment of it, Aunt Shaneequa discovers a backmasked picture of a lighthouse, and she tells Cindy to find it. But when Cindy returns home, she finds to her horror that Cody has also watched the tape, condemning him to certain death as well.
At work, Cindy looks through various pictures of lighthouses and finds the one depicted in the tape, but she leaves the tape at the studio where her boss finds it. Inside the lighthouse, she meets The Architect (George Carlin) who tells her the real story of Tabitha and how the killer tape got out in the world: He had once rented the movie Pootie Tang but accidentally returned the killer tape to the shop; Tabitha was their evil adopted daughter, whom his wife had drowned in their family farm's well but who had managed to imprint her curse upon the tape. Cindy tries to warn the population, but only a few people take her warnings seriously: George, Tom (who had just an uncanny encounter with an alien creature) and Baxter Harris (Leslie Nielsen), the President of the United States, who personally comes to the Logan farm to investigate the crop circles.
Upon arriving home again, Cindy discovers that her news show has broadcasted the killer tape for hours, dooming a wide selection of people to death, and in addition, Cody has gone missing. Cindy tracks him back to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom has everybody in the house go into the basement for safety, while he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight off the extraterrestrials. The aliens (voiced by Tom Kenny) arrive, but soon it turns out that despite the rough first touch these visitors are friendly. In fact, they have come to Earth to stop Tabitha as well, since they had accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted.
In the basement, Cindy realizes that a certain scene from the killer tape matches the farm's cellar, and underneath the floor she finds the well where Tabitha was drowned. Suddenly Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight follows, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George attempt to appeal to her, offering her a place in their family, but Tabitha refuses and prepares to attack again; however, she is unwittingly defeated by the President entering the cellar, who pushes her back into the well. The aliens leave in peace, and the film ends with Cindy and George getting married, but with Cody suffering yet another run-over by a car.
Parodies
The plot of the film intertwines parodies of several other films and other media such as:
- Pamela Anderson's sex tape - when Pamela Anderson asks Jenny McCarthy whether she heard about the video (meaning the one from The Ring), the latter replies with "The one where they do it on the boat, then in the car, then in the bathtub? And he's like, "Hey, baby, I love you?", obviously referring to Pamela's infamous sex tape and even doing an impression of Tommy Lee.
- "The Hot Chick" - The Scene where Pamela calls Jenny a slut and they start hitting each other with chairs, pillows and a laptop, similar to the pillow fight in The Hot Chick.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Becca's mom sounds like Gollum and even utter the phrase, "My precious".
- Psycho - Becca discovers Kate sitting in a chair is a mummified corpse.
- Airplane! - Leslie Nielsen's line "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you" is repeated multiple times later in the film.
- Air Force One - The President refers to a picture of Harrison Ford in the White House as "President Ford."
- The Ring - Main Parody
- The Others - Michael Jackson Scene
- 8 Mile - The rap battle and CJ throwing paint at people from the car.
- Malibu's Most Wanted - The rap scene and when George gets thrown out of the club
- Signs - Secondary Parody
- The Matrix - Brenda vs. Tabitha, The Oracle and Orpheus
- Bruce Almighty - Scene where Cindy edits the newsreader's text
- The Matrix Reloaded - The scene with the Architect. Scenes from the alternate ending.
- Jeopardy! - Brief scene where the scores show up on the screens inside the lighthouse.
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Tabitha had a chainsaw and was swinging it in the same way Leatherface did.
- Pootie Tang - A copy was rented by the Architect character and the cursed tape was sent back instead.
- American Idol - During the rap-off scene, Simon Cowell, the sarcastic British judge of American Idol, is asked to comment on a rap battle he had just viewed, and he gives it a horrible review, leading the pistol-wielding audience to riddle him with bullets.
- Ben-Hur- one of the dogs in the scene of the strange dogs is acting like a horse for a chariot for another dog like in Charleton Heston's 1959 film Ben-Hur.
- How High- the dogs that were acting strange were doing drugs like in Method Man's 2001 film How High.
- Lethal Weapon 2- Brief scene when CJ was trying to hug George and he gets pushed out of the way by Mahalik and George is like in Richard Donner's sequel to Lethal Weapon.George is supposed to be Mel Gibson,Anthony Anderson's character is supposed to be Danny Glover and CJ is supposed to be Joe Pesci
- Hulk-Scene from the alternate ending when George morphs into the hulk.
- Star Trek-The suits that the aliens wear.
- Sixth Sense- Cody has "visions" of the evil girl.
- BASEketball- When the President say "You're excited? You should feel my nipples!", during the White House scene. David Zucker directed both BASEketball and Scary Movie 3.
Cast
Rapper cameos
In one memorable scene many rappers appeared to assist in the climactic battle with the aliens and a shootout ensued between them in which no one survived. They were played by:
Something significant about these cameos is that four rappers (Raekwon, Method Man, U-God and RZA) are members of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. Method Man and Redman also formed a duo together.
Soundtrack
The Scary movie 3 soundtrack was released on the soundtrack label Varese Sarabande and was co-written and produced by Jorge Corante and Frank Fitzpatrick with the exception of one song produced by Rodney Jerkins. The songs on the soundtrack album are:
- "Just Got Serious" - by Buku Wise featuring Young Dre
- "Mexican Hat Rap" - by Delinquent Habits
- "Ridin Rollin" - by N-Kroud Kliq
- "Do You Wanna" - by Jug
- "Smoke It Up" - by Kebyar
- "Fearless" - by Dame Lee
- "Who U Lookin' At" - by Gage
- "Rock Rock, Bounce Bounce" - Dame Lee, Featuring Jug
- "White Boy" - by Simon Rex, Featuring Kevin Heart & the SM3 crew
- "Mayhem Remix" - by Jug, Featuring G-Man & Roz
Alternate scenes
The DVD edition includes a director's audio commentary, several deleted scenes and alternative endings (with optional commentary). A "3.5" special DVD was also released, and contained several more deleted scenes then on the original DVD with an unrated version of the film.
In an alternate ending, Cindy is told Cody doesn't exist, after hitting a few people in the face with a shovel, Cindy tells everybody who isn't real to stand over at a different spot, Cody goes over there, but is followed by Santa Claus. Followed by that, the aliens begin to invade but George stops them by transforming into The Hulk. President Harris tries to Hulk Out, but ends up soiling his pants. Cindy enters the Logan House, where she is attacked by Tabitha. Cindy is teleported away to Aunt Shaneequa who teaches her how to beat Tabitha. Cindy then teleports away again and is attacked again by hundreds of Tabithas. She wins against them by performing moves from The Matrix and teleports back to the Logan House. The cast then gets into a car with the President, but are horrified to learn that the driver is the man who accidentally killed Tom's wife.
One of the scenes that appeared on the Extended DVD named Scary Movie 3.5 was part of the unrated feature. After Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy shut off the TV, the two compliment each other on their good looks. Anderson then mentions if McCarthy wants her "shaved pussy", but it turns out to be a furless kitten.
In an extended scene, it is revealed that the person who runs Cody down during the end is Michael Jackson.
Reception
The film came in at number 1 at the box office for 2 weeks in a row.
- Gross Worldwide Takings: $220,673,217
- US Gross Domestic Takings: $ 110,003,217
- International Takings (outside the US): $110,670,000
Reviews were mixed, but the consensus was that it was a marked improvement on the previous installment. The film received a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 48% on Metacritic.[2][3] This is the first scary movie film to be rated PG-13. (The first two films were R rated.)
References
External links
