Arts and Culture

The Made-in-Vancouver Movie Bracket: Scary Movie vs. The Edge of Seventeen

By Nathan Caddell /

As part of our March-April film issue, we’re setting out to determine the best ever made-in-Vancouver film. Follow along on Twitter or Instagram.

Scary Movie (2000) vs. The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

After deciding the first round of the comedy portion of the bracket, we move to the high school section.

Here we have two very different movies that both stand as era-defining, in a way.

As a film that spoofed an entire genre, the Wayans brothers’ Scary Movie was something of an innovator. It would be replicated many times throughout the next decade, though few, if any, of those efforts (including Scary Movie’s numerous sequels) are worth mentioning.

The Edge of Seventeen, starring the always-great Hailee Steinfeld as Nadine, is the sort of coming-of-age tale that has developed a big following on Netflix in recent years. Take a likeable cast (Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson here), add a somewhat rote plot (Nadine’s best friend starts dating her dense brother), throw in a few curveballs (we don’t want to ruin anything, but the family dynamic is a nice swerve) and voilà.

Here’s how the high school section of the bracket sets up:

Rotten Tomatoes rating

Scary Movie: 53 percent

The Edge of Seventeen: 94 percent

In Scary Movie’s defence, 53 is a pretty good rating for a movie like this. (Again, just check out the sequels.)

And you could also probably make the argument that RT’s rating system really helps inherently likeable films, like The Edge of Seventeen.

Having said that… Yeah, Scary Movie does not hold up well.

Worldwide box office (USD)

Scary Movie: $278 million

The Edge of Seventeen: $19.3 million

We knew this category was going to be slanted, but wow. No wonder Scary Movie spawned a whole genre of its own.

Vancouver-ness

Scary Movie: 6/10

The Edge of Seventeen: 4/10

There are the high schools, obviously, with Vancouver Technical School doubling for BA Corpse High School Scary Movie and Surrey’s Guildford Park Secondary starring in Edge.

Steveston Harbour in Richmond figures prominently in Scary Movie, too, while Guildford Town Centre gets some love in Edge. The latter was also filmed in Anaheim.

Verdict

Looking back, even accounting for its originality and inventiveness, Scary Movie is just…not very good. This goes to The Edge of Seventeen in a bit of a walk.