Scary Movie (2000) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 2, 2000

I have yet to see any of the Scary Movie films, or any of the genre parody films their box success unleashed into theaters, so I have little to nothing to say about them.

However, I do have some interesting trivia that will be pointed out whenever the appropriate film title gets a posting. So... here goes.

In 1982 writer-director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) made a film called Stab, which starred Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep. Prior to release, the title was changed to the less visceral sounding Still of the Night.

In 1996 directer Wes Craven helmed a film called Scream, which had the working title of Scary Movie. A movie within the movie, as it was a very meta commentary on slasher films, was a fictional film titled... Stab.

In the year 2000 the Wayan brothers used the title Scary Movie for an outright parody of horror films that combined raunch comedy with the ham-fisted self-awareness of the Airplane and Naked Gun franchises.

Oh, and Wes Craven directed Meryl Streep in the inspirational drama Music of the Heart.

Connected, they're all connected...