Movies
‘Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge’ Review – A Fun and Bloody Love Letter to the Horror Genre
Created by writer/director Aaron B. Koontz and writer Cameron Burns, the horror-comedy Scare Package was released on AMC Networks’ horror streaming platform Shudder in the summer of 2020. Scare Package is an anthology film that tells a series of blood-splattered, satirical horror stories from various directors, which are being recounted by Chad Buckley (Jeremy King), the owner of a video rental store called Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium. This year, Koontz and Burns have assembled a new team of directors for a sequel to Scare Package, the horror-comedy anthology Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge, which features the return of Chad Buckley, a character who feels like a combination of Joe Bob Briggs and Randy Meeks.
In addition to the impressively over the top practical effects, part of what makes Scare Package and Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge so much fun are the ways in which the anthologies parody common horror tropes, as well as sequels, and both films showcase a great deal of love and appreciation for the horror genre, something that would make Rad Chad proud.
Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge begins with friends and family, including Jessie Kapowski (Zoe Graham), who Chad predicted would be the final girl in Scare Package, as well as Jessie’s mother (Kelli Maroney), mourning the death of Chad Buckley. At the funeral, which serves as the wraparound story for the anthology, mourners are shown a series of videos inviting them to participate in what Chad calls “a fully immersive experience” and play an increasingly sinister succession of games, an obvious but amusing lampoon of Jigsaw.
With each new challenge comes a story from a different director, including Alexandra Barreto (Welcome to the 90s), Anthony Cousins (The Night He Came Back Again! Part VI: The Night She Came Back), Jed Shepherd (Special Edition), and Rachele Wiggins (We’re So Dead). The stories not only poke fun at horror tropes, but they also playfully pay homage to various horror movies like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, and Reanimator, as well as parodying some of those films’ bigger doesn’t always equal better sequels.
As is to be expected with anthologies, some of the segments in Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge are stronger than others, but the most effective and funniest part of the film is the wraparound saga from Koontz and Burns. The reactions of the characters who are trapped at Chad’s funeral and forced to play survival games while having their knowledge of horror movies tested are hysterical to watch. The top-notch cast includes Jeremy King as Chad, Zoe Graham as Jessie, Rich Sommer as Rick, Shakira Ja’nai Paye as Kimmie, Maria Olsen as Moira, and Byron Brown as Sam, but Graham Skipper and Kelli Maroney give standout, flustered performances as Dwight and Ms. Kapowski. Skipper’s clever comedic timing makes a sequence of Dwight reenacting the “I am in hell, help me” scene from Hellraiser laugh-out-loud funny. Also noteworthy are the mischievously macabre segments Welcome to the 90s, a satire on slashers that finds a masked killer terrorizing the Final Girls and Sure to Die Girls sororities, and We’re So Dead, a mash-up parody of Stand by Me and Re-Animator.
Without a doubt, the stars of Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge are the film’s remarkable practical effects. Koontz, Burns, and the directors they’ve enlisted for the anthology expertly utilize buckets of blood, chainsaws, decapitated heads, acid, and even bees to produce scenarios that are terrifying but still manage to be humorous. The attacks carried out by slashers and reanimated masked killers who desperately aspire to be Jason Voorhees, but sometimes comically fail, are wildly creative.
Despite the fact he cosplays as Jigsaw to torment his friends and family, Chad Buckley has a serious message in life and in death that all horror fans can relate to—horror deserves more respect. This is the underlying message of Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge, which also features killer practical effects, memorable comedic performances, and impishly pokes fun at horror tropes, making it feel like a lighthearted love letter to the genre.
Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge will premiere on Shudder on December 22 from Paper Street Pictures.
Ghostface is back on the big screen this weekend… well, sort of… with the release of Scary Movie, which marks the Wayans brothers’ return to the horror spoof franchise for the first time since Scary Movie 2 back in the day. It’s likely to be the talk of the horror community for the weekend, but don’t overlook the other six genre movies that were freshly unleashed today.
Here’s all the new horror that released on Friday, June 5, 2026.
The horror spoof franchise is back with Scary Movie now playing in theaters!
Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite for the new Scary Movie, with the cast also including Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Jon Abrahams, Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, and Felissa Rose.
Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe…
Scary Movie will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t. A whole lot has changed in the horror genre since the Wayans Brothers were in charge of the franchise; their involvement ended with Scary Movie 2 back in 2001!
Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directs Scary Movie 6 from a script written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House).
From IFC, shark attack movie Chum is now available on Digital.
Alice Eve (Haunting of Queen Mary) stars in shark attack movie alongside Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond, Lisa Yaro, Johnny Gaffney, and Sarah Siadat.
This one sounds very similar to last year’s Dangerous Animals…
Here’s the plot: “A newlywed couple joins friends on a Mediterranean yacht excursion, only to find themselves caught between a predatory shark and a psychopathic killer in their midst-transforming a sun-drenched escape into a fight for survival.”
Jonathan Zuck directs Chum, from a script by Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone.
Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) and Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling) come together in Carolina Caroline, a sexy crime thriller now playing in theaters.
It’s not a horror movie, mind you, but it’s worth a mention here all the same.
Kyra Sedgwick (Family Movie) and Jon Gries also star in the romantic crime thriller.
Director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s film stars Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.
Adam Rehmeier previously directed the films Dinner in America and Snack Shack.
Tom Dean wrote the screenplay for Carolina Caroline.
Similar to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming big screen blockbuster Disclosure Day, Signal One explores humankind’s enduring question: what if we aren’t alone in the universe?
The sci-fi thriller is now available on Digital.
Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy’s), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), Raoul Bhaneja (Possessor), Emma Ho (“The Expanse”), and Dennis Quaid (The Substance) star in Signal One from director Jonathan Sobol (The Art of the Steal).
When tech billionaire Sam Houston (Quaid) hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika (Fuhrman), she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence.
Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us.
When the goal of the endeavor shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.
A schoolyard dare becomes an urban legend in the creepypasta-inspired horror anthology The Summoning. The indie film is now available on Digital from Brainstorm Media.
“A babysitting gig becomes a nightmare of urban legend when three teens summon Baby Blue. Survival depends on uncovering the past to escape a mother’s wrath from beyond the grave.”
Felipe Vargas (Rosario, Hive), Sergio Gonzalez, Brandon Piskorik, Corey Benson Powers, and Brian Sepanzyk direct the segments. Valeria San Martín, Justina Ceballos, Daniela Flombaum, Nannu Spannauss, Agustín Olcese, and Giovanni Onetti star.
The Summoning is written by Camilo Zaffora.
Happy Death Day actress Jessica Rothe stars as a mom struggling to keep her grip on her sanity and memory in the mind-bending Affection, now available on Digital at home.
In Affection, “Afflicted by a mysterious condition that resets her memory, Ellie becomes trapped in a cyclical nightmare with a man who claims to be her husband. She soon must uncover the horrifying truth of her existence—before she forgets it all again.“
Joseph Cross (“Big Little Lies”) and Julianna Layne (“Chicago P.D.”) also star in the sci-fi horror thriller. Affection marks the feature debut by writer/director BT Meza.
Daniel Kurland wrote in his review out of the film’s premiere, “Affection is steeped in existential questions and fears that plague modern society, while it embraces the ethos of the ’80s through bold body horror. Add to that Rothe’s revelatory performance, and Affection is a hidden gem that will connect with your mind, body, and soul.”
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s latest dark fairy tale, The Ice Tower, loosely reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Snow Queen,” and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
In the ’70s set film, “Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot of a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star Cristina (Marion Cotillard), an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.“
Clara Pacini stars as Jeanne. August Diehl and Marine Gesbert also star in The Ice Tower, and look for a cameo from director Gaspar Noé (Climax, Irréversible).
“For me, The Ice Tower solidified Lucile Hadžihalilović’s place amongst the most fascinating creators of fairy tales today,” said distributor Yellow Veil Pictures co-founder Joe Yanick.
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