Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge Review

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge review.

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge picks up where its predecessor left off, providing fun and gore in equal measure. The rare anthology film that sees the framing story outdo the segments it contains.

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Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge

Directed by Aaron B. Koontz, Alexandra Barreto, Anthony Cousins, Jed Sheperd and Rachele Wiggins

Written by Alexandra Barreto, Aaron B. Koonts, Cameron Burns, John Karsko and Jed Sheperd

Starring Jeremy King, Zoe Graham, Rich Sommer, Kelli Maroney, Shakira Ja’nai Paye, Graham Skipper and Maria Olsen

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge

We’ve covered enough horror anthology films at this point for an obvious patten to emerge.  Framing stories are mostly terrible.  By and large they are oddly paced and boring until that final twist…which you usually don’t care about.  Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge succeeds where so many other anthologies fail.  It offers a framing story that is not only essential…but stands above the segments contained within.  This is no small feat given the short stories inside the narrative provide an ample amount of fun on their own

Having died in the first movie, Chad (Jeremy King) is being laid to rest.  All hell breaks loose at his funeral when his friends and family are kidnapped and thrown into a Saw style escape room scenario.  Someone is using Chad’s love of horror movies to punish the friends and family who never cared about them.  They’re shown short horror films and must use the knowledge gained from them to continue to survive.

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge has a flat-out brilliant premise.  The goal of the movie is to celebrate the shared love of horror between the filmmakers and the viewer.  The internal setup of the story allows the movie to have fun with every aspect they could think of.  There are so many references and parodies for horror lovers to smile at.  It’s also very funny and very gory.  Basically, it’s everything you could want in a movie subtitles Rad Chad’s Revenge.

We always approach anthology horror by ranking the segments inside the movie.  While we will continue that model here…we’re going to break tradition and include the framing story in our rankings.  Unlike the afterthought it often feels like in other movies, the most impactful and entertaining aspect of Scare Package II is…well…the package it’s wrapped in.

Let’s start the countdown.  From worst to first as we always do.

5. Special Edition (segment 3)

There’s nothing wrong with Special Edition.  It’s a perfectly find anthology segment that turns its focus to the cursed horror craze of the late 90s.  It’s a funny segment with memorable pop culture talk about the alleged ghost on the set of Three Men and a Baby.  Riffs on Ted Danson and Cheers are worth a grin.  The only thing keeping it from ranking higher is that it doesn’t feel like the rest of the movie.  It’s also placed in a tough spot as anthology films tend to start dragging a bit by the third go round of segment breaks.

4. The Night He Came Back Again! Part VI: The Night She Came Back (segment 2)

This is a sequel to a segment in the original Scare Package.  That movie gave us Part IV of the faux slasher series.  Elements of Halloween and Friday the 13^th movies are parodied to decent effect.  It targets the trope of the unstoppable killer and the lazy convenience of some killer/final girl relationships.  There’s some fun kills and funny twists along the way.  The idea of doing recurring fake sequels inside of the actual Scare Package sequels is a great one.

3. Welcome to the 90s (segment 1)

Welcome to the 90s chooses a clever target.  It takes the archetype of the final girl in the 1970s and 1980s and contrasts them with the post-modern version that we’ve had since Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Buffy took the concept of the cute little girl being hunted and flipped it upside down.  This segment is set on New Year’s Eve 1989…just to drive home the difference between what was and what’s to come.  It makes a couple of odd choices (such as having an Ellen Ripley stand in for the old-style final girl.  Ripley is anything but that.  Especially when we get to Aliens) but it has a lot of fun with the overall concept.

2. We’re So Dead (segment 4)

We’re So Dead closes out the short stories within Scare Package II by delivering the film’s best segment.  Purposely aping several classic 80s movies to funny effect.  Why it chooses the movies to parody that it does pays off inside the framing narrative of the movie…but it’s a delight to call them out while you’re watching the segment itself.  The pacing of this one is perfect.  It builds to more and more delightful madness.  An 80s kid will be hard pressed to find themselves not smiling ear to ear.

1. Rad Chad’s Revenge (framing story)

The sons of bitches actually did it.  They made the packaging the highlight of Scare Package II.  Rad Chad’s Revenge is so much fun that you’d be forgiven for not recognizing how perfect it is as a reason to contain the short features listed above.  Very funny and very gory.  Unexpected demises combine with the expected twists and turns to create one of the best framing stories horror anthologies have to offer.  It’s very Saw on the outside…but the inside contains countless other references to fan favorites.  Packed with ample joy and good humor to offset the bloody violence.  It’s everything a fan of the original could have hoped for…and more than you almost ever get in an anthology.

Bring on Scare Package III!

Scare Value

If you’re a fan of horror movies, Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge is here to share that enjoyment with you. A clear labor of love and a lighthearted mission statement about the value of horror films. Even though that’s kind of our whole thing…Scare Package II does a fun job devouring tropes and cliches while throwing in more references and homages than you can count.

3.5/5

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge Link

Streaming on Shudder

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge Trailer

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