By
Nehir Orhon
A haunted house, an innocent girl possessed by the devil, or a group of teenagers that make foolish decisions to try and survive a masked killer… These cliché horror tropes can be found in famous horror films, such as The Exorcist (1973) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Such storylines, figures and settings are elements that are commonly associated with the genre’s identity.
However, as Chris Yogerst argues, “repetition of genre tropes breeds familiarity, robbing once-shocking images and plot twists of the impact they originally had” (Yogerst 207). When these key tropes and patterns get overused in horror films, they become repetitive and lead to criticism, self-reflection, and parody. In the book Film Parody, Dan Harries defines parody as “the process of recontextualizing a target or source text through the transformation of its textual (and contextual) elements, thus creating a new text” (Harries 6). In this instance, through twisting the lexicon, style or syntax, parody spoofs the familiar patterns, stereotypical and normative representation of marginalised groups, and cultural taboos displayed in horror films.
Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000), the first film of the contemporary horror parody franchise, takes Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) as reference. Whilst spoofing these movies, Scary Movie not only makes fun of the familiar horror tropes but also exposes how the “film technology and genre fictions” (Bailey 1229) are shaped by the hegemony of the white male gaze and “white ideological frames” (Yancy and Ryser 732). This essay explores the relation between horror, humour and social critique, and how parody functions within the Scary Movie films through analysing the used “methods of parodic coding” (Harries 39).
Check out the official trailer for Scary Movie:
What is Parody?
Dan Harries argues that parody puts the similarities and the differences between the target and the newly created text in conversation; an inevitable irony, absurdity and a satirical tone is created (Harries 6). One of the ways in which parody creates these similarities and differences is through replicating either the syntax—narrative or the plot—or the lexicon—setting, costumes, characters—of the target text while distorting the other dimension. Therefore, as Harries suggests, “the newly generated parodic text absorbs the performed texts and then ‘re-presents’ them within its own discourse, leaving some elements intact and reformulating others” (Harries 24). Scary Movie begins exactly like Scream as Carmen Electra mimics Drew Barrymore’s character, thus following the basic syntax of the original text. However, when Ghostface talks to Shorty on the phone towards the middle of the film, his mask changes dramatically and shows different facial expressions. The scary mask that the audience is familiar with now looks nothing like the original version. While following Scream’s basic syntax, Scary Movie alters the lexicon to create a satirical tone. Further examples of this can be observed throughout the movie as the setting, costumes, performances and even character names are changed or exaggerated to parody the original text. This highlights the intertextual quality of parody as it necessarily requires an original text, a sense of familiarity and the prior knowledge of the audience to exist.
Dan Harries’ Methods of Parodic Coding
I explore how the Scary Movie films parody familiar horror tropes and expose how certain marginalised groups are represented in the horror genre through exploring the used ‘methods of parodic coding’. According to Harries, these methods are reiteration, inversion, misdirection, literalization, extraneous inclusion and exaggeration. Shawn Wayans, co-writer of the first two films, said that “we just found these (slasher) movies to be kind of ridiculous, and I thought it would be funny to do a parody” (Entertainment Weekly), intentionally including overused horror tropes to create a sense of familiarity.
After establishing the similarities, the Wayans twist the syntax or the lexicon by adding absurd elements, thus creating comedic relief. The Wayans notably draw on the methods of reiteration; the direct quotation or evocation of certain elements used in the original text. As an example, the flashback scene that depicts how Cindy, Ray, Greg, Buffy, Bobby and Brenda killed a man in Scary Movie replicates a scene from I Know What You Did Last Summer. In both texts, the group is in a car, drinking. Buffy, like Julie in I Know What You Did Last Summer, finds a boot after they crash the car. However, instead of instantly realising that they hit a person, she screams “Oh my God, we hit a boot!” As the group panics about what to do with the dead body, they do not realise he is alive. Whilst trying to fit him into the back of the car, they accidentally hit the man in the head multiple times and actually kill him. As Harries argues, “once a familiarity with the scene is registered, the units are rearranged in order to create an incongruous effect based on how the scenes initially were played out” (Harries 47). Once the Scary Movie films make sure that the scene resembles the one in the original film, they add elements of absurdity to break the pattern.
Scary Movie 2 (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2001) directly comments on the repetitive usage of the haunted house motif. As Yogerst argues, “once demythologized, common genre conventions become impossible for audiences to view (and filmmakers to present) as seriously as they had done before” (Miller and Bowdoin 208). Therefore, the repetitive usage of this trope after its predecessors takes the seriousness and originality away and makes room for parody. Whilst not directly spoofing the plot of a specific film, Scary Movie 2 includes elements inspired by The Shining, Poltergeist (1982) and The Exorcist. The colours used inside the house remind the viewer of the Overlook Hotel. Moreover, the clown puppet is a direct replica of the one used in Poltergeist. Whilst creating these lexical similarities, the syntaxes of the original films are altered. Scary Movie 2 uses the methods of literalization and extraneous inclusion. In one scene, the group hears a whispery voice coming from upstairs saying “come play”, which echoes as a basketball rolls down the stairs. Looking scared in the first glance, Shorty grabs the basketball and literally starts playing with it (an example of literalisation). Through taking this famous quote from The Shining literally, Scary Movie 2 pokes fun cliché actions performed in horror films. Secondly, Harries defines extraneous inclusion as “the inclusion of extraneous or absurd icons” (Harries 79). The addition of the sexual imageries throughout the movie are an example: a doorknob with big testicles is an example that creates differences from the original text and to produce comedic effect, while Theo’s sex with a ghost exposes the overuse of sexuality in the horror genre.
Representation of Blackness in the Scary Movie films
I believe that the films distinctively criticize the representation and treatment of Black people in the horror genre. In a journal article, George Yancy and Tracey Ann Ryer explore how “the West came to understand nonwhites as inferior Others” (Yancy and Ryser 732). Early 20th century gothic, horror and sci-fi literature in particular associated the Other—the grotesque creatures such as Shoggoths in Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness—with slavery and Black people. Associating Blackness with the unknown and darkness caused Black people to be represented as racialised Others in literary works. However, as horror and gothic were a part of everyday life for Black people, horror films started to be used as mediums that explored Blackness towards the late 20th century.
The Scary Movie films use parody and humour as a tool to comment on the stereotypical representation and treatment of Black people in horror films. For example, towards the middle of the first film, Cindy writes “White woman in trouble!” on the 911 emergency line while trying to run away from Ghostface; the scene immediately cuts to the police cars approaching to Cindy’s house. Interestingly, the reference films for Scary Movie consist of primarily white casts, while the parodies have a more inclusive cast as well as Black creators. This not only highlights how the original texts cannot be considered as universal teen horrors but also illustrates how this creative choice was made specifically to comment on the white-dominated structure of horror films. Moreover, through having racist motives and elements embedded in early examples of the genre, “the Black characters [being] depicted as expendable” (KCRW) can also be considered as a familiar trope of horror. As an example, in Scary Movie, when all the news reporters show up outside the high school after Drew Decker’s death, the broadcaster from Black TV says, “white folks are dead and we’re getting the fuck out of here!” By making the Black broadcaster report from inside the van and making him rush to get away from the scene, the Wayans brothers knowingly expose how Black characters are ‘depicted as expendable’ in horror films.
Considering this, I argue that the Black characters in Scary Movie films—especially Brenda—are characterised to criticize this trope. Brenda appears as Cindy’s best friend in the first four films. She dies in humorous ways in Scary Movie and 3; however, she comes back for the second and the fourth films despite being ‘dead’. In Scary Movie, she gets stabbed in the movie theatre. The scene in the first film parodies the opening scene of Scream 2 (1997) which shows Jada Pinkett’s character getting murdered by Ghostface. In Scary Movie, Brenda is one of the few Black people in the room, and she performs stereotypical actions associated with Black people in the movie theatre. According to DW, “to this day, black women are often portrayed as loudmouthed and sassy.” Brenda loudly talks to her friend on the phone and expresses her thoughts about the film. When people try to silence her, she claps back at them aggressively. As a result, she gets stabbed multiple times not by Ghostface but the group of people around her, most of whom are white (humour emerges from Ghostface’s confused reaction to the murderous moviegoers). Therefore, the stereotypical way she is portrayed in this scene not only highlights the ‘expendability’ of Black characters but also exposes the associated racialised media portrayals; Brenda, one of the few Black people in the movie theatre, gets killed due to portraying stereotypical actions associated with Black femininity. Through coming back after each time she gets killed, and being killed in ways that expose how Blackness was portrayed in early horror, gothic and sci-fi literature, Brenda’s character serves to critique the stereotypical representation of Blackness in films.
Conclusion
In conclusion, horror and humour may seem like opposite concepts at first glance. However, they both use similar devices to expose or criticize aesthetic and social norms. According to KCRW, “horror films are ripe with tropes.” When these tropes get associated with the genre’s identity and become motifs that are used repeatedly, it makes room for criticism, self-awareness and parody. Even though there only a few studies on the usage of parody in horror films, I tried to read as many scholarly books and journal articles as possible on this topic. As an example, Dan Harries’ book Film Parody explores the methods of parodic coding and focuses on how they are used within parody movies. When watching the Scary Movie films, it is possible to find almost all these methods being used. Each time I rewatched the film or went back to rewatch a scene that I was focusing on, I noticed new details, demonstrating how rich these films are.
Even though they seem like pure comedy materials at first glance, moreover, I believe that the Scary Movie films also use parody as a tool for social critique – this is especially true of the first two films, directed by the Wayans brothers, which criticize and expose the representation and treatment of Black people in horror. Also known for their other works that comment on the representation of the Black body, the Wayans brothers use horror parody as a medium to comment on stereotypical tropes. Thus, whilst making fun of the cliché horror tropes, the films also use humour to expose how certain marginalised groups are represented in the horror genre. Through using the ‘methods of parodic coding,’ the Scary Movie films shift narrative expectations, surprise and amuse the audience, and become significant examples of contemporary horror parody.
Bibliography
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Nehir Orhon is an English Literature student at the University of Warwick. Her research interests include American horror, gothic literature and music.
