Dan Sanders

Dan Sanders is a fictional character in the Scary Movie franchise. He was played by actor Simon Rex.

Bio
Dan Sanders is a primatologist (expert in ape behavior) possibly located in Southern California. Not much is known about his past, but he has a brother named Charlie and two nieces and a nephew. He is married to Jody Morgan, a former dancer turned struggling musician. Although friendly and loving, he often turns out to be short-sighted despite his education, coming off as not bright enough to pay attention to anything weird around while trying to be a good uncle to his brother's kids.

Scary Movie 5
After the disappearance of his brother, Dan heard his nieces and nephew were discovered living in an abandoned cabin in Humboldt County. The county and the medical agency taking care of them allowed him to adopt Lily, Kathy and Aidan. They even granted him one of their homes to live in, and Dan worked very hard to be the loving uncle they needed while totally oblivious to the presence connected to them as well to the accidents he unwittingly caused around them. Even after Jody said she thought the house was haunted, Dan tried capturing the activity on a video surveillance system, going through several injuries trying to set it up. He also fired Maria, his life-long housekeeper after falsely deeming her a threat to the kids.

Meanwhile, at his lab, Dan's boss was putting pressure on him to increase his research on the apes they were experimenting on. Dan had only one success, a chimp named Caesar, who he brought home to protect after an accident released the apes. Made intelligent, Caesar figured out the children were being haunted by Mama and tried to exorcise her, but when she attacked him, Dan thought it was Caesar who was a threat and grudgingly let him go to animal control.

When Mama finally revealed herself to Dan and Jody, she knocks them out and disappears with the kids. Dan and Jody track her down to the woods where the kids were found and find her trying to kill the kids to join her in the afterlife. Imploring their love to the kids, Dan and Jody get the kids to reject her and Mama is destroyed.

Trivia

 * Simon Rex also played George Logan in Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4.