Scary Movie 3 (2003) review – Better Than You Remember?

Welcome to Knockout Horror. It’s day 5 of our 31 Days of Halloween 2026 feature and today we are checking out the spoof horror-comedy Scary Movie 3. We took a look at Scary Movie 2 in October of last year and the original Scary Movie the year before so this has become something of an annual spooky month tradition. We also checked out the lacklustre reboot Scary Movie 6 recently.

A Franchise With a Messy History

Scary Movie was an enormous sleeper hit back in 2000. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the horror spoof was directed by In Living Color’s Keenan Ivory Wayans and featured his brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans playing double duty with both writing and starring roles.

“Scary Movie 3 represents a huge pivot for the series”

It lampooned the ultra popular wave of late 90s slasher movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer and made an enormous $270 million plus at the box office on a budget of just $19 million.

Miramax, who were initially reluctant to green light a sequel, saw this massive return on investment and immediately gave the go-ahead for a follow up. The only problem was, they wanted it ready for the next fall season in time for Halloween 2001.

This left the Wayans brothers with mere months to make Scary Movie 2 happen.

Despite a doubled budget, the film released to terrible critical reviews, half the box-office total of its predecessor, and nowhere near the same number of laughs as the first film.

I know, a lot of people are probably going to hate on me saying that, but it is true. I loved Scary Movie 2, but rewatching it is a real chore. It feels as rushed as the tight schedule would suggest and the lack of big horror releases in that one year span left them digging deep for spoof-able reference material.

The Wayans brothers resented the schedule and clashed repeatedly with the production company. Though they had pitched a third movie, the studio was unwilling to pay them what they felt they deserved.

In protest, they gave up their positions on the franchise and refused to have any involvement in the next film.

The first Scary Movie without the Wayans Brothers

The Wayans brothers were out and they wanted star Anna Faris to leave the series, too. The only problem was, Faris had signed a three film contract and feared the financial repercussions of breaking that deal.

Scary Movie 3 represents a huge pivot for the series; it features a new director, a new team of writers, and only two members of the original cast.

Miramax brought on Airplane director David Zucker to helm the project while the writing was assigned to Pat Proft, of Naked Gun and Hot Shots fame, and a then unknown Craig Mazin.

The story follows a returning Cindy, now a budding reporter, as she investigates a mysterious video tape, strange crop circles, and a whole slew of conspiracies. Naturally, her best friend Brenda (Regina Hall) is along for the ride, but we also have a whole new cast of side characters.

Simon Rex plays farmer turned rapper George, Charlie Sheen plays widowed pastor Tom Logan, while Kevin Hart and Anthony Anderson play George’s best friends CJ and Mahalik.

Looking back from 2026, this is an insanely stacked cast. Miramax obviously threw as much money as they could at this project in an attempt to overcome the loss of the Wayans brothers.

They also had a bit more material to work with than the second film. The prior year had some pretty big releases so Scary Movie 3 is a bit more focused than you might think. It primarily lampoons Signs and The Ring but there’s a dash of 8 Mile and The Matrix Reloaded in there, among others.

The big question is, does Scary Movie 3 succeed despite the loss of the Wayans bros?

Well… It’s different

The first thing you will probably notice with Scary Movie 3 is that it feels distinctly different to the two entries that came before it.

“Fans of movies like Naked Gun and Hot Shots will likely feel quite at home, here.”

While both of those films had a lot of visual gags, background silliness, and a high volume of slapstick, Scary Movie 3 is utterly relentless.

It has an immensely hyperactive pace that keeps throwing gags at you, one after another, without giving you a chance to breathe. In fact, there’s barely a 30 second gap between each joke.

Each scene plays out in a very familiar sequence. You’ll see an obvious visual gag, followed by a character doing something stupid, followed by a background gag, followed by a character saying something stupid, followed by another visual gag.

It’s a very old school spoof in that respect. There’s almost this sense that a scene is wasted if it isn’t absolutely crammed with comedy. This feels like a Zucker/Abrahams film and that is something that will probably stand out to people coming from the first two films to this one.

Fans of movies like Naked Gun and Hot Shots will likely feel quite at home, here. Scary Movie 3 is like the spoofs I grew up with and, in that respect, I actually think it is probably my second favourite entry into the series.

Other viewers will likely find this style quite off-putting. So many terrible spoofs like Epic Movie have poorly imitated this style that, nowadays, it is immediately associated with poor quality films. I don’t think that is really the case here, though.

I actually really like this film

I actually find Scary Movie 3 to be quite funny. In fact, I think it has some of the best gags in the entire series.

George and Tom spinning around each other near the start is so silly it never fails to make me chuckle. The sheriff’s ever expanding hat is far too ridiculous to be as funny as it is, and the “you just knelt in dog shit” line gets me every time.

The 8 Mile sequence works far better than it has any right to, Simon Rex has fantastic comedy timing, Anna Faris is on perfect form, and the references work really well, for the most part.

Fans of Signs and The Ring will likely enjoy the heavy focus on those particular titles.

The setup behind how the curse videotape got into circulation is so stupid it ends up being hilarious and some of the visual stuff is so deliberately low effort that it can’t help but make you laugh.

Acting is a really strong point throughout, as well. Faris is utterly fantastic, Regina Hall is a high point, Kevin Hart is great, and Anthony Anderson has some of the best delivery in the series. As far as spoofs go, it is reference heavy, laugh heavy, and unrelenting in pace.

There are some serious issues, though

With all of the above having been said, this is a movie that does have some fairly significant issues.

“Scary Movie 3 has a much more infantile sense of humour than the previous films. This will probably divide viewers.”

As far as the story goes, what starts off fairly strong and focused soon explodes into absolute farce. It seems as though the writers were so keen to keep the gag count high that they just fired a 12 gauge spoof gun at the page without a single regard to structure.

It really falls apart in the second half and starts feeling completely messy. By the time a cavalcade of rapper cameos appear, the film has long gone completely off the hinges. The laughs evaporate about two thirds of the way through and the constant visual gags start to become a chore.

It’s the law of diminished returns, really, as that hyperactive style only works for so long. I always find myself checking out at about the midway point.

Scary Movie 3 has a much more infantile sense of humour than the previous films. This will probably divide viewers. There are far fewer smutty and risque jokes but that comes at the cost of silliness and slapstick.

All in all, fans of the original films are likely to find enough here to enjoy but, also, probably enough to put them off. It’s so different that expecting something similar to what the Wayans brothers produced would be a huge mistake.

I really enjoy Scary Movie 3 but you need to temper your expectations because it is so different.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.