This anthology sequel begins as a group of characters from the first film convenes for the funeral of horror film fan and failed video shop owner Chad Buckley (Jeremy King). Rather than paying respects, the assembled bunch are not particularly fans of the deceased. And this malevolence is reciprocated, as Chad has something sinister up his dead sleeve, as a video message instructs them that they will have to go through a series of tasks.
What follows is four stories and plenty of homages to other horror films and tropes. These are entertaining enough, but the spoof element is a little too on the nose at times. Lifting entire set pieces from popular movies might be fun but does come across a little lazy.
That said, Aaron B. Koontz’s wraparound story is full of gore and Saw-type shenanigans as Chad becomes a Jigsaw-like character, and the film becomes the Airplane! of horror comedies. Of the individual shorts, Alexandra Barreto’s Welcome to the ‘90s lampoons the final girl motif perfectly, and each of the other tales poke fun at the familiar, and often lazy, things the movies try to sell to us. Jed Shepherd’s Special Edition invokes the infamous Three Men and a Baby ‘ghost’ (which was just a cardboard standee of Ted Danson), and is the only segment that doesn’t reference sequels.
It’s as meta as you’d expect, but like the sequels it spoofs, doesn’t live up to the promise of the original film. It’s an entertaining diversion, though, if you want to play ‘spot the reference’.
Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge is available to stream on Shudder.
