Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge is a horror anthology made from love and built for revenge. Following the events of the first movie, Rad Chad Buckley’s friends have gathered at his funeral. Before they can do anything about it, the group realizes the occasion is also filled with traps centered around Chad’s favorite movies. They must solve the traps to escape or die trying.
There have been a number of great spoofs centered around horror – and that is before counting all of the excellent comedy horrors that poke fun at the genre. The difference with Scare Package II is while it mines the many tropes (with a particular emphasis on the 1990s) found in horror, it never seems to be making fun. Aaron B. Koontz had a hand in creating, writing, and directing and clearly loves scary movies. This comes across as each installment is having fun with genre conventions but never mocking them.
Even when ‘Welcome to the 90s’ makes a pointed message about Final Girls, it is not in a way that denigrates earlier horror stories. It is simply making a statement about how things have – and have not – changed. As a whole, the film does not shy away from social commentary. In between all the blood and laughs, there will be a retort here and an allusion there. Scare Package II does not overdo it – as important as the topics are, this is not the movie for a deep dive into them – but it is effective each time.
The segments themselves are gory fun. Fans of 2020’s Host will get a kick out of ‘Special Edition’ while those who love Stephen King will find familiar joy in ‘We’re So Dead’. Scare Package II comes with the references early and often and part of the charm will be trying to find all of them. Some are obvious, but there are other neat ones to be found. The movie has enough to entertain those who do not watch horror, but genre fans will get the most fun out of this.
Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge comes to Shudder December 22
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