Scary Movie

The film opens inside Horror Movie, the in-universe version of Scary Movie. Teyana Taylor, playing herself, leaves a restaurant on a date in New York and gets lured outside by Ghostface in a Scream VI send-up. His knife bounces off her abs. She calls in her friends to beat him up, and when he mocks her for losing the Oscar, she reminds him she won the Golden Globe and knocks him out with it. Watching this movie at home, teenager Tuesday Campbell is attacked by the real Ghostface and ends up in the hospital.

Tuesday's older half-sister Sara, who has a drug problem, works at a Final Destination theme park with her boyfriend Jack Kirsch, where rides keep killing people in the background. They hear about the attack and think it looks like the killings Doofy Gilmore committed in 2000. They go to Sara's estranged mother, Cindy Campbell, who has turned into a paranoid recluse with a house full of guns and booby traps, like Laurie Strode in the Halloween sequels. Cindy refuses to help because she thinks the killer is trying to draw her out, and Sara leaves angry.

Tuesday's friends get pulled in too. Brenda Meeks's twins Brad and Dei, Brad's girlfriend Elle, and Jess, the transgender son of Sheriff Greg Phillippe, all hear about the attack. Brenda's stoner brother Shorty joins them. Brenda goes by Ma now, dresses like Octavia Spencer in Ma, and goes to church with her husband Ray Wilkins, who stands up in front of the congregation in a Sinners spoof to announce he is no longer gay. His speech makes it plain that he still is.

Ghostface goes after Sara and Jack at the hospital, but they get away. They visit Doofy, who has gone back to acting mentally disabled. He agrees to help, and they head to Brenda's house. Cindy has a change of heart and shows up too. Brenda figures out what is going on. The killer is running a rebootquel, bringing back legacy characters alongside new ones, which puts every original character in danger.

Ghostface kills Greg, cutting off his penis, and Jess. Reporter Gail Hailstorm reconnects with Doofy and trades a sexual favor for information. Ghostface attacks Tuesday again at the hospital. Sara and Doofy rescue her, but Ghostface kills Doofy, and Cindy and Brenda arrive to save the girls. That night Shorty gets too high, and Ghostface hypnotizes him with a teacup the way Get Out does it. Instead of the Sunken Place, Shorty falls into an animated KPop Demon Hunters world and sings a parody of Golden full of lyrics about drugs and sex.

Ghostface crashes Shorty's livestream, does a Jackass-style stunt with Kai Cenat, and then kills Cenat. He breaks into Gail's clinic, where she is having a procedure to look young again, kills her doctors, and pumps her full of a glowing fluid called The Stuff. Her back splits open. Out spill the unredacted Epstein files, and then her younger self steps up to the mirror, who turns out to be Marlon Wayans as Tiffany from White Chicks. Ghostface kills her. On Halloween, Dei rides a New York subway car full of people in horror masks. Ghostface, disguised as M3GAN, dances down the aisle and stabs Dei, and then a passenger named Karen stabs Dei too over Dei's they/them pronouns. At Brenda's Halloween party, Brad is killed in the garden. Cindy steals a car, breaks into the house and fights her way through a crowd of Ghostfaces like John Wick.

In the finale, set in a copy of the Stu Macher house from Scream, Ghostface unmasks as Elle, with Jack as her accomplice. They want to take the Scary Movie franchise away from the legacy characters. Before they can finish, four more Ghostfaces show up and kill both of them. Two unmask as Anthony Anderson and Shaquille O'Neal, playing themselves. The other two are Shorty and Ray, who planned the whole twist. Shorty and Ray then kill Anderson and O'Neal for making Scary Movie 3 and 4 without the Wayans, even though Anderson swears he did not know the studio had fired the family, and turn on Cindy and Brenda for doing the same. Cindy and Brenda admit they did it for the money. Cindy reminds the men that the original four are finally back together, and they agree to stop.

Sara and Tuesday are thrilled to be the new final girls. They pitch taking over the franchise with the older characters in supporting roles, and then start insulting them. Cindy, Brenda, Shorty and Ray tie the two girls up and leave them to burn in the house, saying nobody is taking Scary Movie from them. The credits include a fake Nosferatu trailer called Brosferatu, with Marlon as Count Brolock, and a Longlegs interrogation spoof with Chris Elliott.

Story notes

• Parodies: Scream, 2022, and Scream 6, 2023. The structure of the series. The town is Woodsville. There are six Ghost Faces by the end. The subway sequence from Scream 6 is restaged.
• Parodies: The 2026 Oscars. The opening. Teyana Taylor plays herself, sulking about losing best supporting actress to Amy Madigan, and beats the killer off with her Golden Globe. His knife bounces off her abs.
• Parodies: The Substance. Gail Hailstorm in the white tiled room. He gives her lip filler and pumps her full of the fluid, her back splits open, and the unredacted Epstein files come out of it.
• Parodies: Get Out. Shorty gets the teacup and falls into the sunken place, with the killer as the psychiatrist.
• Parodies: Terrifier 3. The mall Santa scene, Art the Clown handing out severed limbs to children. Fedor Steer played him, recommended by Terrifier’s own makeup artists Bob Kurtzman and Marcia King. Felissa Rose from Sleepaway Camp and Terrifier producer Michael Leavy both cameo.
• Parodies: Weapons, Sinners, Longlegs, KPop Demon Hunters, Smile, M3GAN, Nosferatu, Candyman, Ma, Halloween 2018, Final Destination, I Know What You Did Last Summer and the 2026 Michael Jackson biopic all get a turn, along with It Follows, John Wick, Wicked, Squid Game and ChatGPT.
• The sixth film dropped the number in America, but most countries that had been numbering them kept going: Todo Mundo em Pânico 6 in Brazil, Straszny film 6 in Poland, Horrorra akadva 6. in Hungary, Mrak film 6 in Croatia, Scary Movie 6 in Germany.
• Spain and Latin America gave it a new subtitle, Scary Movie: Terroríficamente incorrecta"Terrifyingly Incorrect". Japan updated its running joke one more time to 最終絶叫計画 令和！, "Final Scream Plan: Reiwa!", naming the current Japanese era.
• It opened on June 3, 2026 in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Colombia, Greece, Thailand and Mexico, two days ahead of America, then across Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil and eastern Europe on the 4th, and America, the UK, Spain and Ireland on the 5th. Japan got it on June 26 and South Korea on July 1.
• Malaysia banned it outright. The censorship board refused it a screening certificate, which makes selling, distributing, screening or even possessing a copy an offence carrying a fine or a prison term. No official reason was published. Trailers had been approved in modified form beforehand.
• Ratings hardened everywhere else too. Germany went to 16, its first rating above 12 since 2001. Brazil went to 18, up from 16 on all five earlier films. Spain went to 18. Britain held at 15.
• Paramount rebuilt the jokes country by country rather than just subtitling them. An American serial killer reference became a Brazilian one. A Mexican gag was rewritten as an albur, a Mexican Spanish double meaning, with a Yucatán social media reference added. Australia got a Vegemite poster. Latin America got Anna Faris dancing with the nuns from The Conjuring. The head of international distribution said the film "almost became a local comedy because we were referencing things in their culture."
• It worked. The opening weekend took 105.5 million dollars worldwide from 53 markets, 50.5 million of that from abroad, 75 percent above what Scary Movie 3 managed. Mexico was the number one foreign market on 13,801,708 dollars, the first time the UK has not led the series abroad. Then the UK 12,521,413, Brazil 11,200,000, Germany 11,100,000, France 7,500,000, Australia 6,359,821. Foreign business was 53.2 percent of the total.
• With this film the franchise passed 1.1 billion dollars worldwide across six films.

Release facts

• Runtime: 96 minutes (BBFC); Box Office Mojo, The Numbers and AP list 95 minutes; the extended cut is about 13 minutes longer
• Rated: R for crude sexual content, graphic nudity, strong violence, and drug content and language throughout
• Worldwide: $231,886,052 (Box Office Mojo, as of September 2026); The Numbers lists $231,277,762
• Studio: Wayans Bros. Entertainment, in association with Miramax

The film premiered at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles on June 3, 2026. It opened June 3 in France, Belgium, Mexico, Greece, Thailand and Argentina. It reached Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil and most of Europe and Latin America on June 4, and the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain on June 5, in 3,490 US theaters. Japan got it on June 26 as 最終絶叫計画 令和！ (Final Scream Plan: Reiwa!), the series' first theatrical release there in 22 years. South Korea got it on July 1.

Malaysia's Film Censorship Board refused it a screening certificate, as reported on May 29, 2026. That makes it illegal to sell, own, distribute or screen the film there. No reason was given, though trailers had been approved with changes.

Ratings went up in many countries. Germany gave it 16, and schnittberichte.com noted that only the first two films had been 16 there before. Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan and Ukraine gave it 18. The United Kingdom kept it at 15, and Ireland rated it 16.

It made $7.7 million from previews and $24.7 million on its first day, then opened to $54,336,626 (first reported as $55 million). That was the best opening in the series, well above the $45 to $50 million forecasts. It beat Masters of the Universe, which opened to $29.3 million. The worldwide opening was $105.5 million, with $50.5 million from overseas.

By September 2026 it had grossed $108,277,762 in the United States and Canada and $123,608,290 overseas, $231,886,052 in all, second in the series behind the original. Mexico was the top foreign market at $13,937,270, then the United Kingdom at $12,550,388, Germany at $11,554,388, Brazil at $11,335,658, France at $7,678,307 and Australia at $6,484,861. Foreign money was 53.3 percent of the total.

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 23 percent from 135 critics with an average of 4.1 out of 10. The site says it swings at modern horror and misses more than it hits. Metacritic gives it 38 out of 100 from 27 critics. CinemaScore audiences gave it a C+, and 63 percent of PostTrak viewers said they would definitely recommend it.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety wished it had gone after films like Midsommar and The Conjuring. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said the opening was the best part and it went downhill from there. Jesse Hassenger of The Guardian and Kim Newman of Empire each gave it two stars out of five. Newman said the last ten minutes almost start to be funny. Alison Foreman of IndieWire gave it a C+ and praised Faris and Hall. Richard Roeper of RogerEbert.com gave it two stars out of four and liked the twist ending. Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press gave it one and a half stars out of four.

It was nominated for Next Big Thing at the Queerties Awards, held March 10, 2026.

Twenty three percent from the critics and a much warmer sixty four from audiences, which is one of the widest splits the series has had. Pete Hammond at Deadline found it surprisingly devoid of laughs and flat footed. David Rooney at The Hollywood Reporter said the franchise should have been left for dead, though he praised Regina Hall’s timing. Richard Roeper gave it one and a half stars and said there were entire scenes that made him feel like he had taken a vow of silence. The Associated Press was kinder, describing the opening as the Wayans family sense of humor in one scene, cartoonish, topical, gross, profane, absurd and sometimes hysterical, and saying audiences will slog through a lot of misfires for that one great bit. In Rotten Tomatoes terms it is the best reviewed Scary Movie since the original and comfortably the best liked by audiences of any of them.

Scores

Cast

Crew

Production

Background: After Scary Movie 2 in 2001, Marlon, Shawn and Keenen Ivory Wayans pitched a third film while also pitching White Chicks. Marlon says Miramax's first offer only matched their pay on the first film, which would have been a pay cut, and later offers still fell short. The brothers went with White Chicks, and Marlon says their pitch became the basis for Scary Movie 3 without them. Anna Faris later said Keenen told her not to do the third film, but she had a three-picture contract and was afraid of being sued.

Development: Paramount and Miramax announced a new Scary Movie at CinemaCon in April 2024, with Miramax paying for it and Neal H. Moritz attached. In October 2024 Deadline reported that the Wayans brothers would return as writers and producers. Rick Alvarez was hired to co-write and Michael Tiddes to direct. Craig Wayans is also credited as a writer and producer. Tiddes and Alvarez had worked with Marlon before, and Marlon and Alvarez's Ugly Baby Productions produced. Jonathan Glickman, the new head of Miramax, backed it with a $30 million budget.

Why the Wayans came back: Marlon named the fall of Bob and Harvey Weinstein, his father Howell Wayans, and God. Before Howell died in 2023, he asked his sons to do it, and when Marlon hesitated he told him they make magic together. Marlon called the film a mission to honor his dad. He called it a rebootquel and said the brothers were equal opportunity offenders going after cancel culture.

Casting: Faris and Regina Hall both said publicly they wanted back in. Deadline confirmed them in August 2025. Marlon's return as Shorty was confirmed in September 2025. In November 2025 Deadline announced Shawn, returning actors Jon Abrahams, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan and Chris Elliott, and newcomers Damon Wayans Jr., Kim Wayans, Craig Wayans, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Savannah Lee Nassif, Cameron Scott Roberts, Sydney Park, Gregg Wayans, Ruby Snowber and Benny Zielke. Anthony Anderson confirmed his part in February 2026. He said Marlon called him early on.

Who is not in it: Marlon said Shannon Elizabeth, who played Buffy Gilmore in the first film, was left out because there were too many returning characters. He said he would like to have her in a future film. Melissa Barrera said in April 2024, after leaving Scream 7, that she would love to be in it. She does not appear.

Filming: Principal photography ran from October 1 to November 24, 2025, at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. More filming was done in spring 2026 to add jokes about Sinners, Weapons and the Michael Jackson biopic Michael. The Teyana Taylor opening was shot about a week after the March 15, 2026 Academy Awards. Marlon told USA Today they built the scene around her personality and that the Golden Globe in the scene is not her real one.

Post-production: Jonathan Schwartz edited and Haim Mazar wrote the score. The Terrifier 3 mall Santa scene was removed at one point and then put back in shorter form. A Melania Trump joke, in which a drunk Cindy mocks the Be Best campaign, was cut. Faris said she kept pushing for Cindy to be a MAGA rabbit hole type.

The ending: Tiddes told Gizmodo the original ending was a coda that wrapped up each character's story and let the younger generation survive. One version killed Shorty with a runaway roller coaster, which upset some test audiences. They wanted to send people out on a big laugh. Scream 7 came out while they were still shooting, and its Macher house fire gave them the idea for the burning house ending.

Marketing: The trailer came out in March 2026. After strong reaction to Marlon's teaser on Instagram, Paramount moved the release up a week, from June 12 to June 5, which put it against Masters of the Universe. High Times said the campaign was aimed squarely at people who get high. The film's Instagram showed a bong-shaped popcorn bucket in four sizes, PAX sold a limited-edition Scary Movie PAX Four vaporizer, and PAX made Don't Kill, Just Chill, a four-part parody series written by and starring Justine Marino. In London, Paramount UK sent a Ghostface party bus to Arsenal's trophy parade. One poster used the tagline Prepare to hee-hee.

How it happened: Paramount and Miramax announced a new Scary Movie at CinemaCon in April 2024, with Neal H. Moritz producing and Miramax paying for all of it. At that point there was no director, no cast and no Wayans.

How it happened: In October 2024 Marlon, Shawn and Keenen Ivory Wayans came aboard as writers and producers, Michael Tiddes was hired to direct, and Rick Alvarez joined to write. This is the first time the brothers had worked on the series since 2001, and their first collaboration with each other in seventeen years.

How it happened: Marlon gave three reasons for coming back. The Weinstein regime was gone. Their father Howell Stouten Wayans wanted his sons working together again. And he felt God told him it was what he should be doing. He also said the film cancels cancel culture.

How it happened: Keenen directed the first two and here he is behind the camera only, as a writer and producer. Michael Tiddes directs.

Casting: Anna Faris and Regina Hall both said publicly that they wanted back in, and were confirmed in August 2025. Marlon confirmed himself in September 2025. Shawn and the rest came in November 2025, and Anthony Anderson in February 2026.

Casting: Shannon Elizabeth is not in it. Marlon said there were simply too many returning characters to fit her in, and that he would like her in a future one.

The shoot and the reshoots: Principal photography ran from October 1 to November 24, 2025 at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.

The shoot and the reshoots: They went back in spring 2026 specifically to fold in Sinners, Weapons and Michael. The Teyana Taylor opening was shot about a week after the March 15, 2026 Academy Awards so the joke would still be current. Marlon on it: we tailor made the scene to fit her and her personality, and what it would be like for a New York girl to be in this position, and it just worked. On the prop: if it was the real one, I would have stolen it.

The shoot and the reshoots: The Terrifier mall Santa sequence was cut from the film and then put back in, trimmed. Fedor Steer confirmed more went missing than survived, saying the scene where he cuts off the Santa’s arms and head and twirls in the fountain of blood did not make it.

The marketing: The trailer played in cinemas ahead of Scream 7 from February 27, 2026 and went online on March 2. The response to Marlon’s earlier Instagram teaser was strong enough that Paramount moved the release up a week on March 4, off June 12 and onto June 5.

The marketing: The campaign was aimed squarely at stoners. There was a bong shaped popcorn bucket, a limited edition PAX vaporizer, a Times Square hotbox stunt, a Ghostface tube man outside Westfield in London, a Ghostface masked bus ambushing Arsenal’s Premier League victory parade, eleven spoof posters, and Regina Hall running a Letterboxd account in character as Brenda Meeks.

October 1 to November 24, 2025, at Tyler Perry Studios, Atlanta.

Filming locations

• Tyler Perry Studios, Atlanta, Georgia: Principal photography, October 1 to November 24, 2025
• Paramount Theatre, Los Angeles: Premiere on June 3, 2026
• Woodsville (fictional): The in-story town, a play on Scream's Woodsboro

Effects and makeup

Matt Skuta supervised the visual effects. Effects sequences include the Final Destination theme park accidents, Gail's Substance transformation, and an animated sequence in the style of KPop Demon Hunters. Ghostface kills Gail's doctors and then pumps her with a Substance-style fluid, and her back splits open.

Props and costumes

Costume designer Ariyela Wald-Cohain told Collider she kept the Ghostface silhouette but used new fabrics for better movement and sheen. She reshaped the hood to frame the mask during action, distressed the sleeve flanges, and had more than 28 robes made for stunts and effects.

Cindy's look is based on Laurie Strode from the Halloween sequels. It moves from unkempt to focused killer and includes callbacks to earlier films, like a blue turtleneck and a reprised print top.

Brenda's look comes from Ma. Wald-Cohain and Regina Hall decided Brenda shops the clearance racks at discount stores.

Shorty's wedding tracksuit has more than 450 hand-applied cannabis patches on luxury sportswear. Ray's Halloween cowboy outfit has a brown suede fringe vest, western boots, pink bandanas and a hat.

Greg's Polaroid and the I KNOW message from the first film both come back.

The Golden Globe Teyana Taylor swings is a prop, not her real award.

The killers

Deaths

Haim Mazar composed the score. Rob Lowry was music supervisor.

Lakeshore Records released the score album on June 5, 2026: 29 tracks, 46:27. Titles include Scary Movie Main Titles, Shorty's Fifth, Cindy's House, Doofy's House, Special Officer Doofy, Whodunit, Shorty's Confession, Stop Smiling!, Hospital Attack, Shorthand, The Epstein Files, What Are You Waiting For?, Stabway, Welcome to Act 3, Bitches, Cindy to the Rescue, Ghostface Fight, The Big Twist, Finale, Brosferatu, Ray and Brenda (bonus track), Doofy and Gail (alternate version) and Scary Movie Suite.

Songs in the film but not on the album: Hoes by Lizzo featuring Sexyy Red, Kiss or Kill by Stela Cole, Brand New by Aliyah's Interlude, Still Outside by Big Boss Vette, Movin' On Up (The Jeffersons theme) by Jeff Barry and Ja'net Dubois, and Bigger Than Ever (We Back) by Chris Patrick.

Home Media

• Digital, July 21, 2026, from Paramount Home Entertainment. Premium rental and purchase of an extended cut with 13 minutes of new footage and an alternate ending. The theatrical cut is included.
• Paramount+, streaming from September 3, 2026.
• 4K Ultra HD plus digital, United States, September 22, 2026, list price $40.99. Extended and theatrical cuts. Native 4K HEVC with Dolby Vision and HDR10 at 2.39:1, region free, with a digital 4K copy. Extras: alternate ending, Scream Together, Fresh Meat, Wayans World and Scene Dissection.
• Blu-ray plus digital, United States, September 22, 2026, list price $31.99, with the same extras.
• DVD, United States, September 22, 2026, list price $25.99.
• 4K Ultra HD SteelBook, United States, from Paramount, listed for October 20, 2026 at $39.99. A two-disc set (BD-100 and BD-50) with English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a digital 4K copy.
• 4K Ultra HD plus Blu-ray, Spain, September 28, 2026, titled Scary Movie 6.
• 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, France, October 1, 2026, titled Scary Movie 6.

• Limited-edition Scary Movie PAX Four vaporizer in onyx with Scary Movie artwork, PAX, 2026, sold on pax.com.
• Bong-shaped popcorn bucket, shown in four sizes on the film's Instagram. High Times said it was not clear whether it ever went on sale in theaters.

Official Scary Movie 6 masks

Killer Mask

Fun World · SKU 8512K · licensed Scary Movie 6 product

Included

Adult Ghost Face spoof mask with hood and header card

Grinny Mask

Fun World · SKU 8512G · licensed Scary Movie 6 product

Included

Adult Ghost Face spoof mask with hood and header card

Still Stoned Mask

Fun World · SKU 8512SS · licensed Scary Movie 6 product

Included

Adult Ghost Face spoof mask with hood and header card

Where to watch

Trailers and videos

Official Trailer

Paramount Pictures

The trailer, from the studio.

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Final Trailer

Paramount Pictures

The final trailer.

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Michael

Paramount Pictures

An official promotional clip built around one character bit.

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Wayans Family Featurette

Paramount Pictures

The studio featurette on the family coming back.

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The Wayans, behind the scenes

IGN

On set with the brothers.

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The Wayans Family

Rotten Tomatoes Trailers

Another posting of the making of piece.

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Trailer, cut for Faris and Hall

Entertainment Tonight

The trailer with the two returning leads front and center.

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On Set with Anna Faris and Regina Hall

Entertainment Tonight

The two of them talking about the reunion while making it.

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Carmen Electra Looks Back

Entertainment Tonight

Twenty five years on from the first film.

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How They Brought It Back

Heart

Marlon and Shawn on getting the film made.

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The Full Cast Interview

TheMovieReport.com

The whole junket reel in one video.

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Marlon Wayans, Anna Faris and Shawn Wayans

The Bellissimo Files

A joint interview with the three of them.

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Cast Interviews

Behind the Clapperboard

Another round with the cast.

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Anna Faris on the Joke They Cut

MovieWeb

SPOILERS

She describes a gag that did not make the film.

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Anna Faris on Seth Meyers

Late Night with Seth Meyers

A talk show appearance about coming back.

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Final Extended Trailer

Tribute Trailer

A longer cut of the final trailer.

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Press & Promo