A Haunted House
Director: Michael Tiddes
Actors: Marlene Forte, Marlon Wayans
Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001
Genre(s): Factual
Running time: USA minutes
Coming so soon after Scary Movie 5, it can be difficult to muster up the energy for yet another horror movie parody. Co-written and starring Marlon Wayans, who had the intelligence/foresight to bail on the Scary Movie franchise after Part 2; there is a chance that he looked at how bad that series became, and learned from its mistakes. To an extent, that is true, as A Haunted House isn't as bad as Scary Movie 5. In that same way that getting hit in the head with a plank of wood isn't as bad as getting hit in the head with a plank of wood with a nail in it.
One thing that this movie does do is focus almost solely on one horror franchise in particular, and not using the scattershot, "This is current and trendy, let’s make jokes about this" mentality that has plagued so many parody movies of late. There are some references to The Devil Inside and TV show Most Haunted, but they are a rare exception, as most of the time Paranormal Activity is the butt of the jokes. And when we say butt, we mean butt; so many fart jokes, poo jokes and anal sex jokes take up the running time, that there's barely any time left over to make jokes about, y'know, the movie it's meant to be making fun of.
Every now and again, you might - MIGHT! - find something funny, but it's unlikely to be any of the actual jokes. More likely that it'll be a funny pronounciation of a word, or a funny face that someone will be making, but the actual jokes themselves are mostly dead on arrival. They are set-up, and then the punch-line comes about ten seconds after the audience has figured out what it's going to be, and then that same joke is flogged like the proverbial dead horse. Over and over and over the joke will be told, beating you into submission, almost as if it’s demanding "Is this funny yet? IS THIS FUNNY YET?", and almost universally, no, it's not funny. At all. Not even close.
