In theaters

SCARY MOVIE, directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, written by Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. 85 minutes. Rated R.

When it comes to shocking audiences, especially teens, filmmakers are so far up against a wall, it should come as no surprise that it’s finally come down to this — Keenen Ivory Wayans’ “Scary Movie,” a gross-out comedy that offers among its many rare, subtle pleasures the sight of two teen-agers having sex for the first time — only to leave the girl literally stuck to the ceiling and the exhausted boy a shrunken, emaciated shell of his former self.

If nothing else, the film is certainly unique. It’s not merely a parody of teen-slasher flicks — it’s also a spoof of several well-known parodies, especially Wes Craven’s “Scream” series, Jim Gillespie’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” Danny Cannon’s “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” and Jamie Blanks’ “Urban Legend.” It mirrors all four films closely throughout in scenes deliberately lifted, which gets some pretty big laughs in the film’s first 30 minutes.

Other pop culture references abound, which Wayans and his six screenwriters pepper throughout in a film that nevertheless feels as if it’s in a constant race to top the exploits depicted in “Me, Myself & Irene,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb & Dumber” and “American Pie.”

Indeed, “Scary” skates so close to an NC-17 rating, it might actually set a precedent for the MPAA ratings system. If this film can snag an R rating, then mainstream porn can only be a few years away from hitting your local cineplex.

“Scary Movie’s” best moments come at the start with a brilliant spoof on the opening of “Scream” (which, movie buffs will know, was originally titled “Scary Movie”). With Carmen Electra in the role Drew Barrymore made famous, Wayans delivers his biggest laughs in an all-out spectacle that’s as witty as anything he delivered in his former television show, “In Living Color.”

The scene establishes the film’s villain, a man in a death mask (think “Scream I-III”) who wields the same hook found in the “Last Summer” series, before moving on to focus on its “teen-age” cast of characters, a group of actors who are clearly in their 20s and 30s, which the film nicely acknowledges in one of its smartest touches.

Less affecting, however, is the film’s last half, which isn’t nearly as sharp or as funny as the gags that came before it. Here, the script becomes as emaciated as the aforementioned teen-age boy, which is unfortunate considering the film’s clever, riotous start. Grade: B-

On video

MY DOG SKIP, directed by Jay Russell, written by Gail Gilchriest, based on the book by Willie Morris. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated PG.

Jay Russell’s “My Dog Skip” speaks to anyone who has known the special bond that exists between a beloved dog and its owner.

It’s shamelessly sentimental, but in this case, the sentimentality works. Throughout, Russell wisely counters his film’s romantic moments of 1940s Americana with strong, understated performances that give “Skip” a weight it otherwise might have lacked.

Set in a small Mississippi town during the summer of 1942, the film is a nostalgic trip back into a mythologized past. It follows Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz from Fox television’s “Malcolm in the Middle”), an unpopular boy whose present and future happiness revolve around his relationship with Skip, a powerhouse of a Jack Russell terrier who not only gives Willie the companionship others won’t, but who also sparks the lives of everyone he meets.

If the film is about the unconditional love shared between a boy and his dog, it’s also about its human relationships; in this case, Willie’s relationship with his mother, Ellen (Diane Lane), and his strained relationship with his father, Jack (Kevin Bacon), a distant man who lost his leg in the Spanish Civil War, and, as the film tells us, also “a piece of his heart.”

The film loses its way in its subplots — there’s one about moonshining that seems out of place here — but as family entertainment, “My Dog Skip” is an old-fashioned film about values and morals and the way life used to be that works in spite of its melodrama. Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Thursdays in the News, Tuesdays and Thursdays on NEWS CENTER at 5:30 and NEWS CENTER at 11, and Saturdays and Sundays on NEWS CENTER Morning Report.