SCARE PACKAGE arrives on the horror streaming service SHUDDER this week, Thursday, June 18th and it is actually one horror movie that you need to put on your watch list. This is a movie made by horror fans, very specifically for horror fans and lovers of the genre. This is a movie that is made for the generation that grew up at the local video store drooling schlocky horror movies that could never live up to the art on the packaging. Except this one does. In what is easily one of the most entertaining anthology horror movies in years, SCARE PACKAGE takes us on a blood-soaked tour through seven different horror stories that exploit and celebrate every flaw, each glaring lack of logic, and every single drop of blood that endears fans to the genre.
Our wraparound story is set at the local video store Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium where Chad (Jeremy King) fends off the attempts by loyal super-customer Sam (Byron Brown) to become an employee while training new hire Hawn (Hawn Tran). With copious titles lining the shelves, and the mandate that a movie must be playing on the televisions in the store, and characters in need of outdoing one another’s love of horror, we have the stage set for copious cutaways and diversions into several sanguine stories. There are highs and lows, but what is consistent is a sincere love for the escape that horror offers its ravenous fans.

One of the standouts includes the story One Time in the Woods. Here things go from bad to worse exponentially as a set of bumbling campers cross paths with one horrific scene after another. What starts as a pretty basic camping trip ends with a two-headed pile of sentient goo and innards bickering about who’s slime is whose. Yes, we hit some pretty absurd heights but that is the point. Horror has the propensity to exaggerate. This makes hyperbole look subtle as a way of celebrating the best and worst of movies made to terrify and repulse. In fact, the movie shrewdly uses the wraparound device of the video store to close on what is arguably it’s funniest, goriest, and most meta of them all. With kind nods to Cabin in the Woods and a cameo that will speak directly to the heart of any horror fanatic, we get a grand finale the closes things on a high note.

SCARE PACKAGE is easily worth the rental price. At times the meta-references and gore become a sort of numbing riot of elbow jabs but it is still one of the most satisfying horror movies of the year so far. Made with an army of talented horror fans, this is a love letter to schlock that is funny, clever, and a nightmare for any true fan of horror. Be sure to call up Chad’s horror emporium and ask if SCARE PACKAGE is in stock.  And don’t forget to rewind.

8 out of 10 stars

Scare Package
RATING: UR
SCARE PACKAGE - A Horror/Comedy Anthology - Official Trailer
Runtime: 1 hr 25Mins.
Directed By: Emily Hagins, Chris McInroy, Hilary & Courtney Andujar, Noah Segan, Baron Vaughn, Anthony Cousins & Aaron B. Koontz

About the Author

Norman Gidney is a nearly lifelong horror fan. Beginning his love for the scare at the age of 5 by watching John Carpenter's Halloween, he set out on a quest to share his passion for all things spooky with the rest of the world.