Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: scary movie 6

Scary Movie 6 Costume Designer on Wayans, Parody References & More

Costume designer Ariyela Wald-Cohain spoke to us about the Paramount horror spoof Scary Movie 6, the Wayans, Michael Tiddes & more.

Costume Designer Ariyela Wald-Cohain has always thought on her feet, especially given the wealth of experience she's gained over 25 years of experience in the industry, from more traditional projects to parodies. Among her earlier works are the parodies TV: The Movie (2006) and The 41-Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It (2010). It was during that time that she developed a long working relationship with the likes of Marlon Wayans and frequent collaborator, director Michael Tiddes, both of whom would go on to work on Scary Movie 6 or Scary Movie (2026), not to be confused with the 2000 original Keenan Ivory Wayans film of the same name, harkens back to the 2022 Scream, that was the fifth film of the franchise, but dropped the numbering.

With ownership of the franchise reverting back to the Wayans family, the sixth film features the return of original stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans (who co-wrote the film with Keenan Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans, and Rick Alvarez), Anna Faris and Regina Hall reprising their respective roles as Shorty, Ray, Cindy, and Brenda, respectively, finds them terrorized again by Ghostface with other familiar faces from the franchise returning. Wald-Cohain spoke with Bleeding Cool about her connection with Wayans and Tiddes, and bringing authenticity to the predominantly horror pop culture references made from Sinners (2025) to Ma (2019).

Scary Movie 6 Costume Designer on Creative Flexibility of Marlon Wayans, Michael Tiddes, and Bringing Authenticity to Parody

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Scary Movie 6' and how did you get involved?

Wald-Cohain: I've worked with Marlon, Mike, and Rick Alvarez quite a few times already. I didn't do their previous two movies, but I was in touch with them, and I heard that they're going to do 'Scary Movie 6,' and I've done some spoofs and horror before, so I thought, what an amazing opportunity to take part in something like this. I contacted them, and we got things going.

Did you work with Marlon in between the time on his sitcom and 'Scary Movie 6,' or was this the first time you reunited with him?

Yeah, we did 'Naked' (2017), and then NBC's 'Marlon,' and then his previous two movies I didn't do, but then I did the ones before. 'A Haunted House (1 and 2)', and 'Fifty Shades of Black.'

What's it like working with the Wayans and Mike as creatives?

It's pretty amazing. It's kind of a rollercoaster, because it's comedy; there's a lot of last-minute ideas and things thrown at me. It's really an amazing process as well because I've worked with Mike Tiddes before. We have kind of short hands, so once I get the references and I get going, the communication is pretty easy and straightforward. The changes and last-minute ideas keep happening, so I'm just trying to roll with the punches.

Since you must tackle such a gamut of a range of different franchises, how much of a challenge was this for you? Did your three decades in show business serve you then?

It's challenging because it's not like a normal movie where you get a script and you just design that movie with the script and the characters. You have nostalgic characters from 20 years ago, and then you have all the references from all the different movies that we're spoofing. You also need to try to make it all make sense, because every time you're jumping into a different universe, but the characters still need to feel authentic to who they were, and the audience hasn't really seen these characters in 20 years. There's a gap in time when you want the audience to believe that these people are still the same iconic characters that they love, yet they've evolved or haven't evolved. It's kind of a puzzle, taking all these pieces together and then creating something new, which is not really new, but it's got a thread of reality to sell the whole concept.

Were you privy to the original creators' [of the characters] notes when you had to create those characters in costume, or was it something that you reverse-engineered?

A little bit of both. In the script, some things were scripted ahead of time, and also, because the references of the movies were so specific. If we're referencing 'Sinners' (2025) and you take the scene in the church, there's 'Sinners' in a church, but then Ray (Shawn Wayans) comes in, and we're spoofing a different video from YouTube. So, there are a lot of visual references, but there's also the nuance in between the jokes and how much do I get to think of new jokes for the costumes and new ideas, bring them to the table, and see if they work. Sometimes, there's an idea, we try it out, and in the fitting, we see it's not going to work if an actor doesn't really like it or if it's not working.
I go back to Mike and Rick, and I say, "Maybe the actor is not comfortable wearing this," or "He doesn't want to be shirtless here," so we revisit and regroup. Something else comes out of it, and usually it's something better, because there's a lot of thought being done. It started with the script and then goes from there, trying to match everything and keep it cohesive.

Was there a particular character that was difficult to recreate that took a little longer than others?

I think the Ray character and Brenda character were a little more challenging. Cindy's character was scripted as starting off kind of crazy. She's focused just on surviving, and she's going to kill Ghostface. Ray's character, his storyline, was really all about these different vignettes that he was in, spoofing, so it was challenging to keep the authentic DNA of Ray as we all love and know him, by putting him into these little vignettes, but making it believable that it is still Ray and this could be part of the story.

With Brenda as well, we were trying to – she obviously had the 'Ma' reference from the beginning and realized that Brenda was such a cool, stylistic, fun character back then. Now, she's Ma, that's a big gap and jump, so we embraced the idea, and Regina [Hall] and I in the fitting room were joking that her taste is just not so great, and maybe she shops at, like 'Karens Racks' and she thinks something's really cool and young, and tries to be hip, but it doesn't really work. We leaned into that kind of aesthetic of trying really hard, but it's a little cheesy, and that came really from the 'Ma' reference. She was dressed in a very specific way, so we had to keep that DNA and then blend it into Brenda's DNA. In terms of story arc, that was one that we spent more time dissecting and getting there.

Paramount's Scary Movie 6 is available on digital.

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