NFF Review: ‘Scare Package’ Is Must-See for Retro Horror Fans

Scare Package | Paper Street Pictures

Every year, the Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio aims to bring horror fans some of the most interesting new films the genre has to offer. Certainly, the horror-comedy anthology film Scare Package fits that bill. Although it spoofs the horror genre, the film also serves as a love letter to many classic horror movies from the ’80s, and big fans of retro horror and horror-comedies should especially enjoy it.

Scare Package is essentially seven separate horror stories, each told with different directors at the helm. The tales included in the anthology film are Girls’ Night Out of Body by Courtney and Hillary Andujar, The Night He Came Back Again! Part IV: The Final Kill by Anthony Cousins, Cold Open by Emily Hagins, One Time In The Woods by Chris McInroy, M.I.S.T.E.R. by Noah Segan, So Much To Do by Baron Vaughn and Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium / Horror Hypothesis by Aaron B. Koontz.

Related: Check Out All of Our Nightmares Film Festival 2019 Coverage!

Each of the different horror-comedy shorts tackle different sub-genres of horror, and together they spoof virtually trope we remember from all of our favorite horror movies. This is why, according to Koontz in a Q&A after the screening, the film was originally going to be called Tropes until it was decided to go with a name reminiscent of punny horror titles like Silent Night, Deadly Night and Chopping Mall. The film successfully manages to pay tribute to the horror genre while poking fun at it simultaneously, and I found myself laughing out loud along with the rest of the NFF audience nearly non-stop.

Linking all of the different tales together is a central story set in a video rental store called Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium. Much to the detriment of mama’s boy and store loiterer Sam (Byron Brown), the owner Chad (Jeremy King) hires a young man named Hawn (Hawn Tran) as his assistant to help with the videos. Much of the stories of Scare Package are then depicted as if they’re VHS tapes played in the store by the characters. I found it to be a very interesting way of bridging together all of the different stories.

Each of the many stories in Scare Package have something different to offer and are entertaining in their own ways. My most favorite of moment all is something I can’t get into here so as to avoid spoilers, but what I will say is that it was a very nice surprise for big horror fans, and you’ll know it when you see it. As for the stories themselves, as a big fan of slasher films, I think I was particularly partial to The Night He Came Back Again! Part IV: The Final Kill, which nailed the trope of how slasher movie killers JUST WON’T DIE.

Scare Package is definitely a movie made by horror fans for horror fans. It’s also worth noting that Scare Package is just as bloody as it is hilarious, if not more so. There’s no shortage of blood and organs spilled on the floor in the film, and the over-the-top gore  The film has a pretty high body count, and yet there isn’t a single death which isn’t highly amusing. Just know that it’s very, very bloody.

You can find out more about Scare Package at the official website!

Scare Package | Paper Street Picutres

Related Article: NFF Review: ‘Girl on the Third Floor’ with CM Punk

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