Horror anthologies are difficult, but Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge makes it all look so easy. The sequel to the awesome Scare Package is another loving homage to Horror that is festooned with references to other horror classics. Think Scary Movie, but with love. Scare Package II opens at a funeral for video store owner Chad and the mourners at his oddball service. It soon becomes clear that Chad developed post-mortem hijinks for those who chose to attend his twisted wake. The framing device of this anthology, Rad Chad’s Revenge, follows the Saw 2 model with the victims being challenged to watch various horror movies while being faced with absurd challenges.

“Welcome to the 90s” is the first film we see. It’s New Year’s Eve and the typical slasher tropes are battling it out. In one sorority house, the Final Girls fend off the typical slasher while a neighbor, a cheerleader, attempts to help them fend off the threat. Totally meta, with a full read of the slasher genre in general, Welcome to the 90s is a great opener.

We return to Rad Chad’s story as his victims are picked off with increasingly absurd set pieces. Popping back into story mode we are treated to a sequel to a story for the first film in “The Night He Came Back Again! Part VI: The Night She Came Back”. Mercilessly lampooning the holiday-based horror film, we watch as a final girl continues her fight against a murderer that arrives every 4th of July.

“Special Edition” is the weakest of the bunch. A loving parody of the slow-burn horror movies like The Ring 2 and this story follows a group that travels to a lighthouse while being pursued by the ghost of a child. Had writer-director Jed Shepherd really stuck to the pretentious conventions of this particular subgenre it might have succeded. Instead, about halfway through he gives in to slasher silliness and that is something were already getting. Still fun, Special Edition is filler.

The film anthology ends with the utterly hysterical “We’re So Dead”. Here a group of child outcasts discover a body and attempt to reanimate it. Trapped in a basement with a repeatedly animated corpse, the scrappy group of tweeners plays with life, death, and worst of all, DNA. This is easily our favorite story with both obvious and deep-cut references to everything from Reanimator to The Fly.

Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge is a rare creation. It is totally watchable to anyone, whether or not you have seen the first film. What’s more, it is a sharp, affectionate parody of horror sequels. Even the most learned horror nerds will be challenged by the number of callbacks, references, and inside jokes.

Suffice it to say Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge is one of the best horror sequels in years in that it stays true to its vision. This is a horror comedy for true horror lovers. The jokes don’t just land, they resonate.

8 out of 10