SCARE PACKAGE II: RAD CHAD'S REVENGE (2022)

Studio:     Shudder
Director:    Various
Writer:     Various
Producer:  Alex Euting, Ashleigh Snead, Shawn Talley, Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns
Stars:     Jeremy King, Zoe Graham, Byron Brown, Rich Sommer, Kelli Maroney, Shakira Ja’nai Paye, Graham Skipper, Maria Olsen, Dustin Rhodes, Joe Bob Briggs

Review Score:

Summary:

“Rad Chad” Buckley’s funeral unexpectedly becomes a death trap for mourners whenever various tales of humorous horror play for them via videotape.

Synopsis:     

Review:

From a format devised by creators Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, 2019’s “Scare Package” (review here) was an anthology of tongue-in-cheek terror tales told by an assortment of indie fright filmmakers playing with, and poking fun at, classic horror tropes.  With a wraparound where animated wisecracker “Rad Chad” Buckley ran a boutique video store before being imprisoned with other stereotypes trying to escape a macabre lab, those seven stories lampooned cursed campsites, masked maniacs, and countless other clichés with guerrilla gusto and plenty of pop culture winks.

2022’s “Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge” calls that ante rather than really trying to up it, resulting in a “more of the same” mood of mirth, which is welcome news if you enjoyed the first film, but disappointing news if you didn’t.  This sequel becomes even more niche because the movie adds spoofing itself to the list of subjects to be speared.  In fact, since the eponymous bookending bits add up to about 54 minutes of a 94-minute (sans credits) runtime, there’s a case to be made that the other four stories merely make up the difference to get the primary “Rad Chad’s Revenge” portion up to feature length.  Again, this might be good news for the budding franchise’s fans, though it’s not so hot for those who don’t really remember “Scare Package’s” core story all that clearly to begin with.

Even though I enjoyed the original anthology, awarding it a favorable three out of four stars, it apparently didn’t leave too deep of a lasting mark.  I needed the synopsis I wrote three years earlier to jog my mind regarding who the returning characters even were and what happened to them the last time around.  I suspect the same will be true of many others who only casually caught “Scare Package” and whose brains have long since recorded over those minimal memories.

Although most of the material nods at notable names including “Hellraiser,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” and “Saw,” the “Rad Chad’s Revenge” segments include in-jokes that rely on recollections of the original which, again, most viewers probably no longer have.  Unless they’re watching both films back to back, an average audience is highly unlikely to recognize an obscure “Scare Package” performer returning to parody himself as a vain actor with a bodyguard, even with his accompanying flashback clips.  I’m sure the movie’s makers find such gags amusing, except these would-be laughs simply sail over everyone else’s disinterested heads.

Something similar goes for “Scare Package II’s” second standalone short.  “The Night He Came Back Again Part VI: The Night She Came Back” serves as a pseudo-sequel to the previous film’s “The Night He Came Back Again Part IV: The Final Kill.”  Although “Part VI’s” choice of tropes to target is broad enough to not need knowledge of “Part IV” to “get” the humor, getting it on a more meta level involves investment in the recurring lore, something I don’t think anyone has aside from the people who made the movie.

Backing up a bit, “Welcome to the 90s” actually starts off the standalone segments.  A flighty satire about the “Final Girl” archetype, comedy chiefly comes from cheesy cheats such as whip pans with whoosh SFX, snarky text superimposed over sudden freeze frames, and other obvious in-your-face bits like giving the Final Girls the names Nancy, Sally, Ginny, and Laurie.  Despite ending on a message of empowerment, the setups and scripting swipe at too many low-hanging fruits for me to find it funny.  Hopefully others will find cause to smile somewhere in the simplistic sentiments.

Fans of Jed Shepherd’s pandemic-period hit “Host” (review here) should be delighted to see that he reunited five of that film’s women for “Special Edition,” a strange story where one of those women unknowingly ends up controlling a supernatural swordsman via VCR remote.  Even stranger is, ignoring a running gag regarding the urban legend of “Three Men and a Baby’s” rumored ghost, “Special Edition” is the only segment in “Scare Package II” played for spooks more than goofs.  As such, it feels out of place among this eclectic mix, yet it still emerges as a somewhat solid, if slight, piece of paranormal plotting.

Like many anthologies, “Scare Package II” saves what’s arguably its strongest segment for last.  “We’re So Dead” combines Stephen King and Stuart Gordon for a comedic coming-of-age creeper where four friends find a dead body, then find a way to bring it back to life with a familiar glowing serum.  Callbacks to “Re-Animator,” “Stand by Me,” “Sleepwalkers,” “The Fly,” and more make for an entertaining mix of childhood nostalgia, goodhearted gross-outs, and throwback thrills topped off with fun practical FX.

With “Rad Chad’s Revenge” taking up more than half of the movie’s minutes ten ticks at a time, how well the other four pieces fit or don’t fit becomes far less important to how well “Scare Package II” lands as a whole.  The antics of Rad Chad and company are really what matters as far as any individual response goes to the overall film.  As one might expect since anthologies are often dubbed “mixed bags,” this makes “Scare Package II” a “hit or miss” affair.  Normally, the hit or the miss would be based on the resonance of the humor as well as the horror.  In this case, what matters more is revisiting the Rad Chad mythology, and I’m not sure how much that truly matters to viewers who only briefly pass by a “Scare Package” once every three years.

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene and a post-credits stinger.

Review Score: 50