The predictability of “”Scary Movie 4″” almost makes you wish for the return of the Wayans brothers’ film direction, in the latest from the gross-out line of humor.

“”Scary Movie 4,”” in accordance with its prequels, spoofs box office hits including “”Saw II,”” “”The Grudge,”” “”The Village”” and “”War of the Worlds.””

The first part of the movie focuses on parodying “”The Grudge.”” Anna Faris reprises her role as Cindy and takes a job caring for a catatonic old woman. She is oblivious to the evil little boy who haunts the house, though his presence is obvious to everyone who enters.

The old lady’s next-door neighbor is Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko), an embittered construction worker who acts out Tom Cruise’s role from “”War of the Worlds.”” His wife left the kids with him for the weekend, but he’s more interested in shacking up with Cindy than actually taking care of his daughter or son. The two fall in love, but an invasion of killer triPods (yeah that’s right, iPods have a playlist for destroying humanity) breaks the two apart.

Apparently the little boy who was haunting the house where Cindy was working knows the secret of how to defeat the aliens. He sends Cindy on a mission to hunt down his father, who can help her and hopefully allow the little boy to rest peacefully. Cindy then runs off to “”The Village”” to find the secret of how to beat the alien triPods and save the world.

Coming into “”Scary Movie 4,”” the audience should already be expecting the line of movies’ patented gross-out humor. However, this latest “”Scary Movie”” takes it too far, way past the point of being funny. Instead of using actual punch lines, the writers seem to just insert random poop jokes. Just about every actor and actress had to have diarrhea in this movie. The over-the-top comedy takes away from what humor might have existed in certain scenes. Sending in Carmen Electra to pop a squat in the midst of Cindy and her sidekick trying to fit into the old-fashioned village life kills the hilarity of the gag.

Problems with the storyline also become apparent. The writers just try to jam in too many different movies to make fun of. Have no fear, writers, you’re probably going to make a fifth one anyway – you don’t have to cram it all into this one.

There’s not even real originality in the spoofs. The writers pretty much steal the storylines completely. They add very little to make the movies new and funny. “”Scary Movie 4″” has also expanded to include not only scary movies, but other pop culture references. It’s an even sadder commentary on scary movies in general when including Tom Cruise on the couch is scarier than any of the horror movies out there.

What may be the scariest part of this movie is that Dr. Phil and Shaq are the best actors. They’re at ease with making fun of themselves and only appear for a minute part of the film. The saying that less is more stands true here, where viewers might hope for fewer “”Scary Movie”” sequels.