Shudder Saturday: Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge (2022)

The fact that I have a daily blog is only part of my reason for reviewing movies. The main reason is the fact that I watch so many movies, because I am both compelled to do so, and love doing so, and reviews can remind me of my thoughts on everything I watched. Which is why I try to review everything I watch, whether it is in-depth or in capsule form. So I dived into Scare Package II: Chad's Revenge after reading a review of Scare Package, and reminding myself that I enjoyed, but didn't exactly love, it. 

What we have here is another anthology of horror tales, all of them also overflowing with humour and meta commentary, couched this time in a Saw-like framing narrative, as the mourners attending the funeral of Chad end up forced to watch some short films in between engaging in some deadly games. As well as Chad, there are a couple of other characters returning from the first movie. But who will be left alive by the time the end credits roll? And why does Chad still command so much attention from others, despite the obvious obstacle of him being dead?

Although not everyone comes back to work behind the camera on this, both Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, the main creators of the concept, once again curate a fine selection of tales from a variety of talented people, including themselves (of course),  Alexandra Barreto, Anthony Cousins, Jed Shepherd, John Karsko, Ryan Schaddelee, Rachele Wiggins, and Jed Shepherd. In fact, and there's no need for me to beat about the bush here, everything here is better than what we were given in the first package. The main storyline feels less smug, the jokes and references all land better, and you get a general feeling of the central idea having been given a shot in the arm. It's so good that I'd happily now pick up both Scare Package movies in a nice double-bill set.

I won't go through every one of the segments individually, but highlights include a brilliant parody that blends Stand By Me with Re-Animator (as well as adding a touch of The Fly), the frankly near-flawless "Welcome To The '90s", which uses genre tropes to explore the changes to horror movie final girls over the years, and a reunion for most of the women who were last seen onscreen together in Host. And the main Hellraiser gag in the third act made me laugh harder than any other comedy horror moment I can think of from the past year or two, as ridiculous as it was.

The cast provides a good mix of the familiar, either due to their involvement in the first film (Jeremy King, Zoe Graham, Byron Brown, etc) or their standing in the horror genre (Kelli Maroney, Graham Skipper, Maria Olsen, and one or two others), and everyone feels very well-suited to their roles, whether they are playing a killer, an expert in horror lore, a potential survivor, or a frustrated participant in a deadly game.

I am still not sure if this just caught me in a much better mood than the first movie or whether it really was such a step up. Every gag (comedy and gore) feels like it lands, the energy of each sequence helps it to feel perfectly paced throughout, and I could have easily rewatched it as soon as my first viewing was over, knowing I missed some details and jokes that will reward repeat viewings. I hope this ends up released on some double-bill with the first movie, and I would now be eager to see if they could successfully pull off a third instalment.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Pale Door (2020)

The sophomore directorial feature from director Aaron B. Koontz, who has spent some time honing his craft with numerous shorts, including his segments in the mixed bag horror comedy anthology that is Scare Package, The Pale Door has a number of big names attached to draw horror movie fans to it. From producer Joe R. Lansdale to cast members Pat Healy and Noah Segan, there are plenty of names to prick up your ears. But try to ignore your ears.  This is not a terrible film, far from it, but it's nowhere near as good as it could be.

The plot is simple enough. An outlaw gang (headed up by Duncan) are planning a profitable train robbery. But when one of the gang loses out in a shoot-out, Duncan is reluctantly persuaded to use his younger brother, Jake. The robbery doesn't get too messy, but it turns out that the treasure being transported is a young woman named Pearl. Pearl convinces the gang to take her home, where they will receive a warm welcome and a reward. They'll receive a lot more than that, considering her town houses a multitude of dangerous creatures.

The biggest problem with the first half of The Pale Door is that it feels as if it is retreading material we already saw executed so well in Dead Birds. Unfortunately, the problem with the second half is that it becomes so predictable and dull that you wish it would get back to trying to emulate Dead Birds. The problem seems to lie with the script, co-written by Koontz with Cameron Burns and Keith Lansdale. The cast do what they can, but they're weighed down by the obviousness of the plotting, and also the moments that Koontz decides to drag out for what seems an interminably long time (seriously, the final scenes in this movie feel like they add half an hour to the whole bloody thing).

Knighton is good as Duncan, Devin Druid is your typical reluctant kid acting tough, and does well, and Bill Sage is a central part of the outlaw gang, and someone always willing to do whatever needs to be done to save their own skin. Stan Shaw and Pat Healy do solid work, Noah Segan is underused, as is everyone else playing a gang member. Natasha Bassett does well with her wide-eyed innocent character who we know has some dark secret to her character, and Melora Walters is a highlight as Maria, a matriarchal figure in the town who is very open about her true intentions quite early on in the proceedings.

There are some good little touches throughout (figures scrabbling across walls and ceilings to attack the main characters, a sequence involving people being manipulated while they try to stay sheltered in a small church), but not enough to keep things enjoyably varied. Once things go from relative normality to bullets vs. evil denizens then it all turns a bit dull. The editing could have been sharper, and maybe having so much happen in the space of 5-10 minutes in the middle of the film wasn't the best decision. Drawing things out a bit more, in the right ways, would have helped, while other scenes would benefit from being trimmed, or excised completely.

5/10

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Shudder Saturday: Scare Package (2019)

An anthology film that wants to revel in a sense of fun, and layers of meta self-awareness, Scare Package is, much like so many other anthology movies, inconsistent fun throughout. It's full of over the top gore and gloopiness, but it may pile things on a bit too thick for those who tire of it within the opening scenes.

There are two framing narratives, essentially. One involves characters who are a bit tired of having the same thankless roles in horror movie narratives. The other, and the one that continues to thread more throughout each tale, involves Chad (Jeremy King) talking over the genre rules with the newest employee, Hawn (Hawn Tran) in his videostore. I'm not going to detail every individual story, but most of them revolve around general skewering of very familiar tropes.

Despite the fact that it has a decent coating of technical proficiency, and that includes a talented cast all joining in with the fun, Scare Package is a hard one to really love. First of all, it's difficult to really decide whether or not it's being affectionate and knowledgeable, or whether it's concentrating on trying to be too smart for it's own good. Second, the separate tales feel far too close to one another, in terms of the ground they cover. They're all about the established rules, and focus on highlighting the ridiculousness of elements that we all take for granted, especially in slasher movies (which make up the majority of the runtime here).

On the other hand, considering how many different people are involved here, in both the direction and the writing I ended up counting about a dozen names, it's actually impressive that this manages to feel so silly and entertaining throughout, while also not feeling like any of those anthology movies created by making a patchwork of unrelated shorts. Aaron B. Koontz is responsible for the majority of the content, in terms of the framing device and a final tale, and he does a good job, but I'll also single out the sheer insanity of the segment "One Time In The Woods", written and directed by Chris McInroy, as a real highlight.

The biggest name onscreen is Noah Segan, and he seems out of place until you realise that he also co-wrote and directed his segment, which is a good way to get someone on board with an anthology movie. King and Tran are fun in their roles, but there's nobody here standing out for the wrong reasons. Mind you, fans of Joe Bob Briggs will also be delighted to see him appear in a cameo role.

I think, overall, Scare Package just drags itself down by being so unrelenting in the way it keeps insisting on unsubtly pointing out every single horror movie trope being made fun of. I would have liked some of the tales here to perhaps play out in a more straightforward manner, with the punchline then revealing a fun rug pull (a la The Babysitter Murders), but instead it feels like a bit of an assault on the senses from people shouting "it's META, get it?" for the duration of the whole film.

6/10

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