Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is a 2000 American direct-to-video parody film directed by John Blanchard. The film stars Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Tom Arnold, Coolio and Shirley Jones.
Several mid and late ’90s teen horror films are parodied, as are the slasher films of the ’70s and ’80s, including the Scream films, Friday the 13th (1980), Halloween (1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), as well as other non horror films and television series. Although there are many different films parodied, the film follows the plot of Scream (1996) closely. It is often compared to Scary Movie, a commercially successful spoof from the same year, which had as a working title “Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween”.
Plot teaser:
While in her house alone dimwitted teenager Harvey “Screw” McAlister (Aimee Graham) is attacked by “The Killer”. While being chased, Screw accidentally runs into a bug zapper and her face gets electrocuted. The killer, feeling disappointed that he was not the cause of her death, lights up a cigarette, leading to the melting of his Jason Voorhees mask into a Scream mask. The next day, new kid Dawson Deery (Harley Cross) signs up at Bulimia Falls High School, meeting up with a new group of friends including Boner (Danny Strong), Slab (Simon Rex), Barbara (Julie Benz) and Martina (Majandra Delfino), to whom Dawson takes a liking, though he is not sure if she is a lesbian. While the group discusses the death of Screw, they remain certain they are safe in school, not noticing the chaos that surrounds them, including a nuclear bomb being built and the killer attempting to murder a student…
“The movie’s most telling scene comes when, after the ‘rules of parody’ lecture, the characters decide to watch Airplane!. It is by far the smartest move made by any character in this movie, and exactly what you should do, as opposed to renting Shriek, if you desire a funny, well-made parody.” Larry Getlen, AMC
“Imagine the lamest joke you’ve ever heard and then stretch it out to around an hour and fifteen minutes, and you’ll have a vague conception of how excruciating it was to sit through this miserable flick.” Reel Film
Reviews
“It spends most of its time referencing non-horror movies like: Wizard of Oz, Something About Mary, Reservoir Dogs, Baywatch or Home Alone. And when it does reference horror movies like Child’s Play, Psycho (what a lame bit!), NOES, IKWYDLS, Friday the 13th or Scream, it just winks at them, never really setting up a full gag … It takes more than throwing movie references into a film to make it funny. It takes endearing characters, comic timing and good jokes. This movie has none of those things.” Arrow in the Head, Joblo.com
Choice dialogue:
“Look, this is lame. Let’s get outta here…”
PERSONAL RATING: 3/5 Stars
