Synopsis: A paranoid teenage nerd comes to believe that an escaped lunatic may be hiding in the neighborhood Halloween house of horrors and slowly starts descending into madness.
In Scary Movie, while transporting a deranged mental patient, the vehicle carrying him wrecks and the man escapes. Around that same time, Warren (John Hawkes) accompanies his friend and a couple young ladies to a haunted house put on annually by the locals. Let me preface by saying, Warren is a young man who is scared of damn near everything. Upon entering the attraction, he promptly gets separated from the group and is left to fend for himself. As rumors fly about the maniac being on the premises, Warren slowly starts to go mad as everyone he encounters within the walls of the haunted house could potentially be the psychopathic killer.
This campy haunted attraction horror movie is a surprisingly twisted little mystery. Without giving too much away, you’re left several times wondering if what you are seeing Warren experience is actually happening or just a figment of an overactive imagination. Either way he just falls deeper and deeper into his paranoia with little to no help from his friends. This flick delivers frights with a laugh and just the right amount of blood to make it scary but still family-friendly-ish. It kind of gives me Tucker and Dale meets Ernest Scared Stupid vibes. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and ends up being a pretty enjoyable 82-minute film for the spooky season.
It won’t be a great fit for everyone but fans of goofy horror films that have that late 80’s/early 90’s feel should definitely add this one to their list. As of this writing Scary Movie (1991) is streaming on Tubi.
We don’t have many October days left so join me again tomorrow as we enter the home stretch and continue this strange little journey down the horror rabbit hole.
