| Scary Movie 4 | |
| Director: | David Zucker |
| Story: | Craig Mazin |
| Cinematography: | Thomas E. Ackerman |
| Music: | James L. Venable |
| Studio: | Dimension Films Miramax Films Brad Grey Pictures[1] |
| Runtime: | 83 minutes[2] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $40 million |
| Gross: | $178.3 million |
Scary Movie 4 is a 2006 American parody film directed by David Zucker, written by Jim Abrahams, Craig Mazin, and Pat Proft, and produced by Mazin and Robert K. Weiss. It is the sequel to Scary Movie 3 and the fourth installment in the Scary Movie film series, as well as the first film in the franchise to be released by The Weinstein Company following the purchase of Dimension Films from Miramax Films (who did still co-produce the film).
The film marks the final franchise appearances of the main stars, Anna Faris and Regina Hall (who portray Cindy and Brenda, respectively), and concludes the original story arc. This was initially intended to be the final film in the Scary Movie film series, until Scary Movie 5 was released in 2013. The film grossed $178 million on a $40 million budget, becoming the third highest-grossing film in the series.
Shaquille O'Neal and Dr. Phil wake up to find themselves chained to pipes in a bathroom. Billy the Puppet appears on a television screen and reveals that the room is slowly filling with nerve gas. In order to escape, Shaquille must shoot a basket to obtain two hacksaws, which Dr. Phil realizes are intended for their feet. However, Dr. Phil saws off the wrong foot and faints, leaving both to die.
Meanwhile, Cindy Campbell visits her brother-in-law, Tom Logan in New York City. Her husband George has died, and her nephew Cody is enrolled in a military academy, leaving her heartbroken and lonely. Tom's attempted suicide results in his ingesting viagra, which greatly swells his penis and causes his death when he falls off the railing.
Afterwards, Cindy takes a job to care for Mrs. Norris, who lives in a haunted house. Next door is Tom Ryan, who runs into George's friends Mahalik and CJ, learning about their homosexual one-night stand. He is greeted at home by the arrival of his estranged children, Robbie and Rachel.
Over the following day, Cindy bonds with Tom, confiding to him about George's death in a fateful boxing match. They both realize their newfound love, but are interrupted by a gigantic tripod which disables electricity and starts vaporizing the town residents.
Cindy converses in mock Japanese with the haunted house's ghost, a silent boy with pale skin, learning that the answer of the invasion is his father's heart. While Tom leaves the city with his children, Cindy reunites with her friend, Brenda Meeks, inexplicably alive after her death. Following the Japanese boy's directions, they head to the countryside and end up in a mysterious, isolated community. They are captured and put to trial headed by Henry Hale. The result allows them to live but never leave the village.
Meanwhile, there is an emergency United Nations meeting, headed by the eccentric U.S. President Baxter Harris, who is reluctant to stop reading "My Pet Duck". It goes awry when a weapon scavenged from the aliens renders everyone stark-naked.
Tom and his children drive and find themselves in the middle of a war between the U.S. military and the aliens. Excited with the conflict, Robbie runs away, while Tom and Rachel are taken by the tripod. Back at the village, Henry is killed by the village loon, Ezekiel, revealing to Cindy that he fathered the Japanese boy, who was killed during Cindy's boxing match.
Cindy and Brenda are soon taken by the triPod and sent to the bathroom seen in the prologue, and get stuck in the Venus flytrap. Cindy manages to get through the puppet's challenge, but is threatened with the safety of Tom and his children, who are put in traps. Looking at a toilet with the "heart" nearby, Cindy realizes that the Puppet, through Henry's wife, is the true biological father of the Japanese boy.
Seeing how far Tom would go to save his children, the Puppet, who realizes his mistakes, apologizes for the invasion and releases them. Robbie and Rachel are successfully returned to their mother, who is revealed to have married a much older man. Brenda also becomes romantically involved with the Puppet's human brother, Zoltar.
An epilogue set one month afterwards, narrated by James Earl Jones who is subsequently hit by a bus, reveals Brenda's giving birth to her child with Zoltar, Mahalik and CJ resuming their relationship, and President Harris being content with his duck. Meanwhile, Tom appears in The Oprah Winfrey Show and wildly confesses his love for Cindy by jumping around, throwing Cindy across the room, then breaking Oprah's wrists and hitting her with a chair afterwards.
The film was released on DVD on August 15, 2006, in theatrical (83 minutes), and unrated (89 minutes) editions with deleted scenes, bloopers, and outtakes. About 1,581,754 units were sold, bringing in $22,308,989 in revenue.[4]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $40.2 million,[5] the third best opening weekend of the Scary Movie franchise. It has the best Easter weekend opening weekend ever, beating Panic Room which made $30.1 million in its opening and also the second best April opening, only $2 million behind Anger Managements record.As of October 18, 2006, the film has grossed a total of $90,710,620 at the United States box office and $178,262,620 worldwide.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 34% of 126 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.60/10. The site's consensus states, "Sure to inspire a few chuckles, but not enough to compensate for the recycled material from its predecessors."[6] On Metacritic, film has an average of 40 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C+" on a scale of A+ to F.[8]
Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post stated that while "Scary Movie 4 never takes you close to death by laughter [...] it's funny enough to turn the hands on your watch much more quickly than you can believe."[9] Nathan Lee of The New York Times described the film as being "organized on the principle of parody, not plot, [...] it's an exercise in lowbrow postmodernism, a movie-movie contraption more nuts than Charlie Kaufman's gnarliest fever dream. It's cleverly stupid."[10]
The film won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress (Carmen Electra, also in Date Movie).