Scary Movie, Mars Attacks, Naked Gun: The silliest spoof movies for pure, unthinking joy
The sixth Scary Movie is in cinemas today, and it joins a long line of mocking parodies that come from a place of love and laughs.
If you’ve seen more than five movies in any genre, you would know the tropes pretty well.
Whether it’s an action extravaganza, a rom-com or a horror flick, most studio films tend to follow a formula.
In a rom-com, you’re generally going to get a meet-cute, like in an elevator, or reaching for the same carrot at a farmers market, or their eyes lock across a crowded room at a wedding.
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You know the beats so well, you’ve often wondered whether you could write one yourself, maybe not better, but just as good. Just colour inside the lines.
The predictability of most genres is also what has given birth to another genre altogether, the spoof movie, and no matter how brutal the mockery, it all stems from a place of love.
To be honest, these movies are often bad, the sense of humour too broad or too silly, but if you get the references, they can be a bit of harmless fun.
SCARY MOVIE
The first Scary Movie came out in 2000, at the tail end of a veritable feast of youth-targeted horror movies, starting with Scream. The Wayan brothers are now back after sitting out the past three with the sixth instalment, which will riff on the likes of Heart Eyes, Smile, Sinners, Get Out and Weapons.
Watch: Cinemas
NAKED GUN
Leslie Nielsen is the king of the spoof in part because he has this physicality – tall, upright – that screams serious man, but then he surprises you with his elasticity and expressive face as the comedy kicks in. The 1980s/1990s films were spun-off a TV series, while the 2025 sequel/reboot was more fun than it had the right to be.
Watch: Paramount, Stan
FLYING HIGH!
Known as Airplane! in most of the world outside of Australia, Leslie Nielsen and the Naked Gun team came together first on take on a disaster movie, drawing from the likes of Zero Hour and Airport 1975. A lovelorn taxi driver, a mass food poisoning event, and an inflatable dummy serving as the “autopilot” is only a taste of the shenanigans.
Watch: Digital rental or purchase
SUPER TROOPERS
It’s the season for reviving early 2000s spoof movies with a new Super Troopers on the way. The first two films, created by and starring the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, took on cop shows with a group of state troopers who are certainly, if nothing else, enthusiastic about not doing their jobs.
Watch: Disney+
SUPERHERO MOVIE
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Craig Mazin, the filmmaker behind very serious TV including Chernobyl and The Last of Us, has a comedy background, and Superhero Movie was one of his efforts. Made in 2008, it came off the back of the Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films that dominated the prior years. Imagine what a spoof now could be.
Watch: Stan
FACKHAM HALL
Do yourself a favour, say the title out loud. This is a very specific spoof of British period projects set among the aristocracy in grand country estates, crossed with Agatha Christie-esque murder mysteries. It’s Downton cross Mysterious Affairs at Styles, with long-lost heirs, a reluctant bride and Draco Malfoy being a really bad shot.
Watch: Digital rental or purchase
AUSTIN POWERS
James Bond is an icon, which means he’s a target for an iconoclast. A randy British superfly foiling an evil supervillain trying to pull off a million-dollar plot? It could be any Bond film in the Cold War era. With Mike Myers at the helm, locked and loaded with more double entendres than there are tulips in the Netherlands, the Austin Powers movies became a cultural phenomenon in itself. But feel free the skip the third movie, it’s woeful.
Watch: Stan, SBS On Demand, HBO Max
HOT SHOTS!
The brainchild of Jim Abrahams, who wasn’t content with just Flying High! and The Naked Gun, he decided to take on Top Gun with the help of Charlie Sheen who plays a PTSD-afflicted fighter pilot recruited out of retirement for a special mission, despite his psychiatrist’s warning that he’s not all there.
Watch: Disney+
MARS ATTACKS
A Tim Burton movie that was kind of adapted from a trading card game, Mars Attacks is both brimming with dark comedic humour but also genuinely scary enough to traumatise small kids (ahem, not speaking from personal experience, nope, no, siree). An amazing cast including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Annette Bening and Danny DeVito turned up to have a ball.
Watch: Digital rental or purchase
