The Reel Rejects - A HAUNTED HOUSE REVIEW – MARLON WAYANS LOST HIS DAMN MIND WITH THIS ONE LOL

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY CIRCA THE WAYANS BROS!! A Haunted House Full Length Watch Along & Early Access:   / thereelrejects   Gift Someone (Or Yourself) An RR Tee! https://shorturl.at/hekk2 Jon Maturan, John Humphrey & Aaron Alexander take on one of the most outrageous horror parodies of the 2010s, bringing you their A Haunted House reaction, recap, commentary, breakdown, analysis, and full movie spoiler review!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered why songs on the radio are popular? Why does certain movies get made, even though the premise seems completely random? Why are concert tickets costing you $3,000, but nobody makes any money touring? Well, on my podcast, breaking down the biz, we answer all those questions and more. I'm Seth Schackner. I have over two decades of experience in the entertainment and the music industry, and every week I talk to insiders that lend insight and expertise on the media you know and love, past, present, and future. Subscribe now on your favorite podcasting platform or watch us on YouTube so you never miss a beat.

Let's make sense of this industry together. Okay, you guys, without further ado, enough with the joy and the celebration. It's time to get spooky. Yeah, enough of a haunted house. Let's go. Oh, man, we did it. All righty then, you guys, we survived a haunted house. Did we?

Did we? I think we did. I think I don't know if Marlon did, but yeah. Marlon will be all right. I think he'll be fine. I think it'll be just fine. If you listen to the Sonopolis, Spotify, make sure you can only give us five freaking stars.

Also, if you're watching this on the YouTube, make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and ring that freaking bell. So you can get notified when new videos are coming out. Also, you want to check out our merch sites. Merch like this, merch like this, merch like this over at rejignation shop.com. But also, if you are on our Patreon, you get full-length watch-alongs where we're going to John do exclusive.

You can't get over here on the YouTube and you get to answer questions or I'm rather asked questions that we can answer and call you out. And it's a cool little synergetic thing we are going on. Yeah. It's a cool time over there. Not to mention if you do the Reject Nation shop, get stuff from over there and your patron, you get 15% off. Nice. Deals and steals, you can't reach them. Not you can't reach them.

You can't beat him, rather. But anyway, that's the, that's the stuff you should do. And without further ado, before we get into our fan questions, let's check in with how we're feeling. Now that we survived a haunted house, John Romo, how you doing, man? I, uh, yeah, I, oh, there's more stuff. There's more footage. He knew this is coming, Pete.

I call him for the soup, man. Nice. Pah driver, boy, take that. He har. He har. Yeah. Yeah, my show is going to be huge. I'll get my house back.

I want to get a girlfriend. I'm really successful. Did you just hope and game out loud? Here's the thing. A lot of people think these are scary. They're not unless it has a gun. Unless it has a gun. Oh, my God.

What? That's a fact. That's a fact. Don't ever, ever let a man put his hands on. Unless he's paying the bills. Oh, my God. This is a bad bitch, right? This is a.

fine right here boy this is you know what I do with this geez that's my girlfriend Kisha that's a crazy bitch name all day you can Google it top five crazy bitch names Kisha Alicia you say that out loud and you already scared right

let's go let's go save the bitch Wow okay All right John All right John Back to you boy No yeah this was fun and entertaining I was actually genuinely surprised how

sexual it is. Were you surprised by that? I kind of was. No, it's seriously. Like, there was a, I mean, yeah, there's a lot. I mean, scary movies, all the parodies, I think there's like a sex scene or two.

That's funny. This had a lot of it. So, I mean, this was, yeah, like scary movie two levels of, scary movie two, I feel like is mostly sex jokes. Right, right, right, right. And commercial parodies and stuff.

No, that's true. otherwise yeah I it was it was cool like I think I liked scary movie

one and two better in my opinion but like I don't know yeah it was just like an arrangement

of jokes at all at you so fun I wasn't expecting like thespian acting or like

amazing writing or anything it's just you know all the all the side players are pretty cool too

Nick Swartson kind of stole the show for me um Otherwise, yeah, it was, I enjoyed myself. I laughed. But I also got jumps.

Like a lot of jump scares did get me. I have like a couple. Yeah, I did have a little goose one by the end of it all. But otherwise, how about you guys? How did you guys like it? Johnny Boy, is someone who has watched scary movies, the entire scary movie franchise up to this point. Yes.

And is now entering into the haunted house franchise. How are you feeling after this movie? I, you know, I, feel all right. I generally, I wasn't kidding at the top. I do enjoy Marlon Wayans. I think he's fun and funny. This exemplifies stuff. When we were watching the scary movies, I would hear more about the behind the scenes and stuff like that. And I saw some, you know, around the time they were announcing the new movie and everything. Marlon Wayne was doing some interviews. I think him was out or whatever. So they were talking about the process, right? And so he often will tell these stories.

about the scary movie films where, you know, he'll say like, oh, yeah, Keenan would come up to me. He's like, okay, Marlon, what is Shorty going to do today? Like, as he's always doing this impression of Keen and everybody, but basically, it sounded as though, oftentimes, for Shorty, he was, like, coming up with stuff and just like cooking stuff up on the day. And, uh, and, and, and that spirit permeates this movie. Being that he is the author or one of the authors, more so than, like, the scary. movie. Oh, sure. Scary movie one and two are Keene and Ivory Wayne's movies with the rest of the Wayanses who were involved kind of all collaborating and authoring their own characters to a degree.

So, yeah, this being a Marlon Wayne's vehicle and a Marlon Wayne's partially authored effort, it does feel sort of like they came up with a loose outline of a script and then got in the room and just sort of started cooking stuff up. And so like, there's a lot of very low hanging fruit and there's a lot of very obvious humor. I won't pretend like I didn't have fun. Like, it was silly. And a lot of the jokes were pretty obvious, but still, like, the commitment

and the sort of just charisma of the people on screen made it kind of feel like going to a fun improv show that your friends are putting on that has a theme or something like that. Good point. Like, this could be better. This could be way more inspired comedically. I do root for movies like these to throw down on the ingenuity side

and there are a couple of things that they did that kind of approached that. I did like in the scene where they're in the kitchen and the ghost is like trying to fuck with them and they're ignoring it. Yeah, yeah. I actually found that to be one of like the more kind of impressive moments

because you're like, oh, you know, you still had to do some on-camera trickery that you can't necessarily as easily see the jump cut in or something like that. Like the, you know, part of what makes paranormal activities so you know, interesting is the fact that they did so much was so little money

and they did these like crazy stunts and stuff with so little money. So if it was me making a haunted house, I would increase the ingenuity of the stunts. If you want to have the humor be like this. Or I would go the opposite direction

and really do a second draft. pass on some of these jokes because a lot of it is like the most obvious thing you could do we're going to do and because they're so committed to it you know you wind up laughing but I wouldn't say that this is the most inspired parody I've ever seen. True. Is this what you wanted for your birthday? You know, man, this is this is exactly it. And was this what you wanted on? We're shooting this on 420 actually. This is true. Actually. So this is what you wanted for 420s. Which is it a better movie for oh god

your first day of 420 i don't know it was a correct answer to that uh but i feel like i think you love this the most out of us i could tell what we'll get that away there was uh there was a 420 little magazine on the table so that was yeah yeah 20 times they got a thank you yeah i feel like listen i i really enjoy scary movie one and two

and i've enjoyed marlin Wayne's growing up watching the the Wayne Brothers show, you know. We're brother. We're singing and we're color. Getting a high five. There you go. Yeah. I can't give you that one.

You give you a back high five. There it is. Wow. Yeah. Okay. I'll give you a high five with both of our backs. Like instead of doing that thing where you like chest bump. You do it?

how you get a back jump into each other and not yeah not each other over but yes you were speaking on your love i was speaking on my uh my immense love of this movie uh you know i did laugh i can't even lie and act like i didn't laugh at certain points okay but some of the jokes good amount of the jokes felt kind of grading after a while sure i can see and yeah i kind of wish and it's not that well this came like 2015 or something so it's not like you know oh this

era of comedy was just not for me because there's comedies that are way older than this that I've died laughing at like we're watching friends from the 90s we watch a Booge brothers and that's hilarious and I've watched more recent things that are that are even extremely funny as well like crying laughing so

I just think something about maybe this particular version of this this was not working very well for me. Yeah, some of the jokes felt a little obvious. Because the movie wasn't longer. Yeah.

Because there wasn't more movie for you. Yeah, man, because it's weird. Some movies, you know, it'll be three hours long and just like locked the freak in and it was like, you know, immersed in this. And then the other ones, I'm just like, this is a long hour and a half, bro.

You can feel that significantly longer than an hour and what, 25 minutes? Yes. It did. It did. Like, can we hurry up? At a certain point, I remember before I, we were like, oh, this is a shorty. This is a good breeze by.

And in a certain point, I caught myself going, how long is this movie? Because it's just like, it's just a series of bits or other than a plot happening. Yes, that's true. And I wish it was more of a melding of the bits and a plot progressing. Right. Things just kind of happened until they stopped happening at the end of the movie. Yes. It wasn't really a resolution per se.

There was a finale, but it wasn't really a resolution. And it was such a weird experience for me because watching, you know, I feel like there's not, as far as like ratios go, there are black voices in Hollywood, but not a plethora of black voices in Hollywood. And for a movie like this to be made, I'm just like, who is the audience for? Who is this made for? Marlon Wayans is the audience for this. You know, we got a lot of sex jokes. We got a lot of like, you know, dubious consent jokes. We got a lot of just like of the same, are you gay jokes, you know?

That's true. That's true. What are we doing here? What is happening right now? Right, right. It's a very starter pack jokes. Starter pack jokes. Yes.

Low, low-hanging fruit. And I'm just a lot. This is for your local high schooler. Yeah. I guess so. This is for your local high schooler in 2007. Yeah.

But, you know, it was nice seeing some faces that I am familiar with and enjoy watching on screen like, you know, Marlon Wayne's and other things. Like I love, I love, I love, I love. I love Marlon Wayne's serious work as well, in addition to his early comedy stuff. He can really act. Definitely. And commit. Seeing someone like such as an entertainer is always very nostalgic for me.

Nice. But yeah. Also, just all the white characters, either being like racist in an admirable way or not admirable way, but like, oh. In a more benevolent way. In a benevolent way or like a fetishation kind of way. It was like, not a day, yeah.

What are we doing? Right, why are we doing? The neighbors who always want to have sex with them. Yeah. And then ended up, you know, having the Mendingo thing with all the cousins.

That was crazy. Yeah. So, you know, maybe there is an audience for this. And that's great. I'm happy for you guys. That was just,

it was just not my thing. But that said, I did laugh at certain points. Yeah. Certain jokes that were funny. And kind of how you, you were talking about, like,

the bits of, them trying to be more mundane but yeah this isn't just not my particular brand of comedy and that's okay you know different strokes for different folks it is weird no shade to anybody who this is one of their favorite comedies

you know more power to you I'm happy that you can this is a great hour and a half for you and that's one of your favorite comedies I want you to comment below for real there's another one there is a second one which I'm sure will be better than this one

I don't know. I hope. That's the thing. That is the true thing about this movie is part of me goes, I really do. The more I'm sitting here, I'm like, man, paranormal activity proved that on a shoe string, you can do some pretty impressive stuff. And I bet, this doesn't seem like the kind of shoot you want to come on to, to, like, really do some difficult shit.

But at the same time, I'm like, if you made the paranormal activity stuff a little bit more, difficult looking and impressive. I think you could weirdly ride this a little further. Yeah, increase the entertainment and that value. Yeah, because the whole point is like they probably had more money to make this than paranormal activity to make itself.

You know, and granted how you calculate that is all over the place. If you have a higher degree of a mixture of plausibility in this couple's relationship mixed with the comedy coming from this couple's relationship within this scenario. sure i feel like it would have worked better for me but it just it reaches points of you know i know

and maybe i'm sure that is obviously the point of like oh that these couple are dealing with ridiculous things but you know they're still just trying to survive all the things that are happening here and i don't know i think i'm just like a little bit more humanity in the in the comedy which again different shows or different folks or just uniqueness like it's the thing where the ghost lungs fill up i'm like that's a clever idea yeah yeah yeah visually you had to come up with. Yes. Right. Yeah. And I couldn't see that coming necessarily. I didn't know exactly how that was going to shake out. Whereas like much of what they do here, you're like, you can see the jokes coming a mile away. Like when she's on the camera and it's fast forwarding, you're like,

she's going to dance, right? And then it's a dance number. And in my mind, I'm like, so let's do, let's go one step further and do anything else because the joke, the joke trademark is she will start to right. Dance. And I only kind of got a little bit. it only rose a little above that when she started to do the ballet thing because I'm like of course it's going to be like some kind of pop and lock thing because that's the joke trademark. So I'm like Marlin, Marlin, I know you're, I know you've got it in you like yeah write some shit and then rewrite it a time or two and then film it.

Yeah. And I think that because I know it's the same creative team both directing wise and I think Marlin and the same co-writer are the same. people behind the new scary movie makes me a little bit more nervous. That's my big curiosity. Because, yeah, it was a different consortium of Wayanses plus the additional writers we can all bicker about. And it was Keenan Ivory Wayans, at least for the first two movies, which is a specific vibe.

I think he's involved, but he's, yeah, he's not directing it at least. And he's not, I don't think he's like one of the main credited writers, I could be wrong. So it's like, the new scary movie is exciting for various reasons. I'm also like not fully unconcerned. Yes. Of course. Because yeah, like this is not my hope for scary movie.

Right, right, right, definitely. Would you say between, obviously you watched all of them for the channel up to this point? This or the last scary movie.

Oh, boy. Which one would be better? Oh, boy. This is a, oh, this is a maybe

slightly smoother experience. Oh, wow. Okay. They're both pretty, like, obvious, and Scary Movie 5 is a significant... I guess Scary Movie 5 is only worse because there's, like, baggage. It's like it's a significant step down

from the previous one in a lot of previous four in a lot of ways. And I like three and four, actually. Like, two is... I know people love two. Two, I don't love that much because it's just kind of gross. It feels like a long, gross episode.

episode of a Fox sitcom, whereas, like, the first movie they made it, and it looks like they made a horror movie, but it's silly. And, like, that's what's up. Like, there's, there's filmmaking in the sauce, and there's silly comedy in the sauce. Fair. So, like, which this was. Yeah. And this, I think is because, because they're also doing kind of the same thing in Scary Movie 5, because it's their paranormal activity movie. So, like, I would really have to go back, I would have to go back and look at which obvious stupid jokes are better than which other obvious stupid jokes. Pick your movie. Five starts to be missing is the fact that, like,

even three and four have some of the creative team from airplane. So you switch the Wayne's comedy for, like, those silly word gags and silly, like, there's an airplane style of humor to scary movie three and four that I actually think is pretty funny. And there's still a broad smorgas board of, like, oh, this movie and that movie. Right. Oh, that's a neck and neck, man. That's really hard.

That's really hard. I don't know. Scary Movie 5 or a haunted house is actually a fucking humdinger. Comment below if you made it. Comment below. I'm going to have to stew on this. And then if we get the privilege of watching a haunted house too. I believe we will.

It is on the schedule. Yeah, I'll let you know. We're watching in a couple days. I'll let you know. So it seems like, it seems like. Scary Movie 5 also made Simon Rex, who's funny in 3 and 4, into a totally different guy who acts like a totally different actor, and it's fucking weird. Wow. Interesting.

Yeah. So it seems like maybe you're the most positive on it. Sure. I feel like maybe you're kind. Like, I'm not grumpy about it. If you're out here and you're like, I think a haunted house is fun and all the critics are grouchy, I'm like, I can. I can hang out and have fun and we could put it on and I would still have some laughs. Or like I remember vividly when like the double toasted review of this came out and I totally

see that side too where I'm like, yes, this is not very inspired and it's not like very clever and it's like a kind of movie that almost anybody could make really. Right. I agree. At the same time, yeah, there's stuff I appreciate. I like Marlon Wayans. You know, yeah, I'm I'm mixed in various directions, certainly. I am the midpoint on this on this scale for sure

It just feels like a very prolonged skit Yeah Yeah more or less It's all sketches on the same theme Yeah, all right, well And you loved it You know, definitely 100% You know who else may love it or may not love it

The fans who have sent us questions in Oh that's right, yes So let's find out how people are feeling And what they have to ask us Let's do that Starting with one awesome Joe Mover reviews. Love it.

Even though this movie was made by the Wains from Scary Movie, does the comedy seem to be just entertaining as there other movies? I found it quite funny, but not as funny as like scary movie. Not as funny as much funny as scary movie. Thoughts? Well, it's one of the Wayanses from Scary movie. I mean, yes, I would say that scary movie, scary movie. movie one is just a better movie. Yes, I agree.

100%. And I mean, again, I love Shorty. I think Marlins' contributions there are funny. But the first one especially is this is doing the film style thing, which I like and I appreciate. And they do get some mileage out of that. I think the first scary movie is doing a slightly more interesting set of filmmaking plays that resemble the movies they're parodying in a way that most other parodies don't. and better comedy. I would say that yes,

this is, there are laughs here, but definitely not scary movie. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's not quite as funny for sure. Like you guys brilliantly said it.

It's really low-hanging fruit jokes. Simple. And like, yeah, it's extremely sophomoric, even though it is mature in content. it's funny that was the most unbelievable it's funny I've ever heard in my entire

that is the pool quote is it's funny question mark dot dot question mark yeah put that on the box yeah yeah it's funny with the thinking

emoji it's funny oh how for you man um It's not. It's not funny. But it's funny how not funny you find it. It's funny part of the time.

And that's how I feel, Joe. Thank you for the question. Appreciate you, man. Love you. All right, Jaden Rhodes. This movie is funny as a 13-year-old, but now just lazy mess of a movie. That tries to recapture the success of the scary movie franchise. But it fails in every single way.

I am curious, if y'all agree. Or if you'll disagree, what's your favorite parody movie? Ah, good question. I agree with the sentiment. It is like the jokes are, again, it's simple, right? Favorite parody movie? That's a good question. I would have to say right off the top of my, like off the dome, would have to be,

oh my gosh. I want to see, don't be a menace. That's the one I got to see. I immediately go to Austin Powers. Sure. However, I know this may be a strange take. I am a big fan of not another teen movie. Very fun.

We watched that. We did watch that. That was more fun than I expected. And the reason why is because my first teenage crush was Kyler Lee. Shout out to Kyler Lee. she plays lead and then you get young Chris Evans otherwise yeah that's my answer dang

how about you guys so she's she's her yes that's Kylie Lee yeah that's crazy dude well she did great job yeah definitely um let's see there's a few I really spinal tap was great spinal tap um I loved Sean of the Dead that was awesome

that's actually a very good movie yeah Sean of the Dead and Airplane are probably my two okay Sean of the Dead is a great example of how to have a movie with heart and characters while still being hilarious. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yes.

Well, and you're riding the borderline now out of, you know, it's like you're not in a medley parody. So it's like bordering on like a different kind of actual movie. Not the parodies aren't actual movies, but I feel like there's a like a less sketchy quality to Sean of the Dead. Good point. Whereas like a lot of parody movies are like oscillating between a bunch of stuff. But no, I would 100% agree like Sean of the Dead as both a love letter to and a parody of That and Hot Fuzz both, like, as love letters, too, and parodies of genre are great. Kung Fu Hustle, I thought was pretty fun.

Absolutely. That's an amazing movie, yeah. If that count. I feel like this Google search is also kind of playing fast and loose here. Like, in terms of, yeah, like an actual spoof parody movie. I mean, yeah, Spinal Tap, I think, is a great one. Tropic Thunder, I think, is really great. If you want to count that.

If you want to count that, then, yeah, damn. What the heck? Yeah, I was going to say. there's one that that came to my mind that I'm blanking on oh I'm gonna get you Sucker is a movie I grew up with

that's another Keenan Ivory Wayne's parody movie of like 70s black exploitation action movies and stuff Walk hard Oh freaking walk hard Walk hard is amazing Of all time

Yeah I love that Walk hard Black Dynamites one of my favorite Oh no I gotta see black dynamite I got to see black dynamite for sure I watch the show Shouts out to the OG naked gun movies

I haven't seen the new one in fact I got to see the new naked new naked gun. New naked gun is really good. Yeah, I heard that. I was very happy for them. And I guess if you want to call Galaxy Quest, you could kind of argue the Galaxy Quest is a spoof. Sure.

Of sorts. I had his heart to it, but yeah, you can make an argument for it. Oh my God, that's right. He made 50 shades of black. And they made that that shriek, if you know what I did last Friday at the 13th, which was like a scary movie competitor.

Can you have that other one real quick? Which one? What is Taintlight? taint light. It's only an hour long. And it's on YouTube. It's a horror comedy. Oh, God. On YouTube and it's got a 29 cent of right.

Oh, my gosh. Well, that's the best parody movie. Oh, my. We'll have to watch that next. Oh, God. Yeah. And I mean, shouts out to the OG scary movie.

And I loved three and four as a kid. There you go. I still think those are pretty funny. But yeah, leave us your favorite parody movies down there. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And our final question.

the blog. Jay rushed in to ask a question. It's 420, guys. A question. This movie is more funny on weed. Is there a funny movie you recommend while baked there? Well, yeah, this would definitely be funnier that way. I don't even know about that.

Damn. Maybe, who knows? Depends on who you are. A movie, an underrated movie that I think is pretty good if you're eating vegetables. is specifically the SpongeBob 2 sponge out of water. Interesting. Okay. Spongebob 1 is probably also great, but SpongeBob 2, Sponged out of water, yes.

Okay. And also, if you're nasty, take an edible and watch Bo's Afraid. Oh, okay. But only you have to be a very specific type of humor to enjoy that movie. That's fair. Yes. It's not for everybody. it's a comedy about it's a dark comedy about anxiety

uh fair let's go let's go what do you got john i don't partake so i don't know you're not but what movie do you think if you did would be a funny if you were like john you even though you're staying sober are planning the movie for a 420 party

and you better do a good job what movie are you picking i feel the pressure uh and why is it street Fighter the movie. Oh, that's actually a cool movie. It is a cool movie. I'd replay the Giles speech over and over again. There you go.

Yeah, that's my answer. Thank you for giving me that answer. Oh, no. Or Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Oh, okay. Hell yeah. I like that. I would say, you know what?

1-420, somebody put on smiley face, and that was a delight with Anaferris. It's like an indie comedy. And it's like a really good 420-ish movie. but also it's got a little bit more than that, and that's nice. Good to know. Let's say, yeah, go watch Smiley Fas. All they're fun ones to watch.

Well, I mean, these ones are fun to watch baked or sober. The Spider-Verse movies. Oh, cool. Hell yeah. That would be way too much. You think so? There's way too much stimulus. It's way too much to me.

I was like, give me something psychedelic, but not something that's coming out of me so fast. There's so many things. There's so many details. What about everything everywhere all at once? Two motifs. Oh, my God. These are mushroom movies.

That's fair. That's fair. These are mushroom movies. These are movies where I'm like, yes, take my brain and break it into many fractals and let me disappear into all the granular details. Whereas if it's for 20-day, I'm, yeah, I'm trying to, like, ride a wave. Not like half a billion neon things blasted into my face plate. Not trying to catch up with it. You're just trying to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Chase the movie. Jeez, Louise. Great movies, though. Great movies, though. Oh, yeah. You know Jay Russian and all guys who stayed to the end.

Let us know your favorite 420 movies. Okay, you guys. I think that's all the questions. Does anybody have any final thoughts before we get out of here? I got a detailed breakdown in this movie I would actually like to go into now. Oh, yes. Please. Yes, give us your, your freaking, all particular thoughts, yes.

Dissertation. It's okay. It's funny. It's funny. They only parodied a couple movies. Yeah. This is very unified. At least they kept on topic.

One of the things about those other pair, the Freberg, Seltsor parodies especially, is people are like, you parody like some movies that are in the genre of your title, but then the rest of the time it's just like, look, it's this random celebrity. It's a commercial. We're paring five comedies now.

It's like always stuff like that. That's so true. This was on topic, and that's interesting. That's good. That's true. Well, you guys, that'll be it for us today. Until next time, go find a haunted house, get spooked. Yeah.

Whatever the hell you're not. It's spooky. We'll catch you guys in the next one. Deuceus. Found footage. On the camera. It's shaky. This is live.