Like the filmic equivalent of avian flu, the bargain-basement spoof franchise continues to spread its noxious contagion via a fourth instalment that somehow contrives to be more witless, crass and scatalogical than its three predecessors combined. This time around Saw, The Grudge and War Of The Worlds are the main targets, with Anna Faris reprising her dumb blonde act and Craig Bierko filling in - for The Cruiser. For some reason, though, there are also nods to non-scary movies like Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby and The Village – proof, not that any were needed, of how bereft of ideas this series has become even with Airplane!’s David Zucker at the helm.
If the sight of Leslie Nielsen’s naked buttocks is one you want seared on your memory, you’re exactly the kind of moron they create this dreck for. Sadly, there are enough old man bum fans out there to make Scary Movie 5 a chilling inevitability.