FILM FORMULA
Scary Movies tickle the American teen!

the times, they are a-changing. but the indian face of gen x would appear to be living in the age of innocence going by the filmi flavour served to teens in the us. "in america, 'r' stands for success when one takes of films targeted at teens," explains a film distributor, "american pie and american pie 2, scary movie and scary movie 2, road trip and whipped, while being r-rated films, have proved to be vastly popular with the teen segment of the american audience.in fact, american pie 2 —the sequel to american pie — has proved to be top of the tops in the r-rated comedy category in that it has outpaced the previous record set by miramax/ dimension's horror spoof scary movie, which opened in july 2000 at $ 42.3 million. the box-office performance of american pie 2 also represents the second-best 'r' opener of any kind after mgm's hannibal, which raked in $ 58 million in february this year. "in india, you need dollops of romance to attract the young crowd. in the us, however, raunchy undertones rule the roost when it comes to teen films," elaborates film distributor sanjay mehta. "america represents an open society in which everything is done in the open," offers aditya khanna of chanakya cinema. the fact is that r-rated comedies targeted at teens are full of raunchy jokes and scenes which often put the cast of the film in embarrassing situations. american pie's infamous apple pie scenes, for instance, are now part of teen folklore. "but none of these r-rated teen comedies can make it to indian theatres thanks to the sensibilities of our censor board. while road trip is languishing in the cans, american pie was denied a censor certificate. the sequels to american pie and scary movie are also unlikely to open in india," informs aashish saksena, head of programming, pvr theatres. scary movie attempts a spoof on all the horror/teen films released in recent times. while the original is a take-off on i know what you did last summer, the blair witch report, matrix and sixth sense, the sequel takes on exorcist, mission: impossible, hannibal, what lies beneath, the house on haunted hill and charlie's angels. released in 1999, american pie is the story of four teenage boys who enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. the film has grossed more than $ 100 million in the us. when the post-adolescent group of kids of the original reunite a year later for the summer vacations after completing the first year of college, american pie 2 takes over. but then, like they say, all's well that ends with a sequel.