Full Horror Short-Bits - Scare Package (2020)

Director: Courtney Andujar, Hillary Andujar, Anthony Cousins, Emily Hagins, Aaron B. Koontz, Chris McInroy, Noah Segan, Baron Vaughn
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology

Plot:
Taking on a new employee, the owner of a low-rent video rental store shows him the ropes of the business using tapes from the store as teaching tools.

Review:

This was an overall enjoyable and funny anthology. The opening meta-take on the nature of characters continually stuck doing menial jobs in genre efforts with some utterly hilarious play-throughs of several situations regarding their past efforts, including fixing road signs to put characters on the wrong road, intentionally selling a haunted house to a clueless couple or the slasher film turn-around involving the accidental murders and reaction to everything gets this going on a great note. This type of humor completely throughout here, which is carried over into the story about the couples confronting the melting man and then the serial killer in the woods, the serial killer who won’t die, or the finale involving their escape from the facility using tons of genre tropes which has a lot of action and plenty of laughs.

What makes this one so much fun is the hilarity of the situation being amplified by the stellar effects-work and sense of humor everything has. The lighthearted tone apparent and constant joking keeps the interest here for the most part, while the added effects shown here offer up the perfect counterpoint to these actions. From the grotesquely decaying body of slime and ooze that stays glued to the forest floor has a lot to like much like the second body that melts down has a lot to like as well. The multitude of murders are brutal and bloody as well with heads being punched through, limbs being cut off, stabbings, and a host of unnatural contortions resulting in tons of spraying blood and splatter erupting everywhere which helps to make the jokes that much funnier.

There are several stories that don’t really hold up here. The second proper one about the cowardly guy joining up with the group of emasculated men only for a double series of twists to come forth is over way too quickly to get anything out of it and has nothing explained which would’ve made it make some sense as it’s just too many twists simply for the sake of doing so, while the slumber party where they turn into monsters goes nowhere and has such an underwhelming finale that it really begs the question of its inclusion with the abruptness it finishes. A later segment involving a body-hopping spirit is just lame and has no point in being here being just an unnecessary lengthening of the film’s running time and not being remotely enjoyable anyway, being the only real flaws of this one.

Overview: ***.5/5
With a few underwhelming segments in here with plenty of far more enjoyable elements holding this one up, this emerges as a fun and highly watchable anthology even with these minor strikes. Give it a watch if you’re a fan of these types of anthology films or of the cheesy old-school films this one is poking fun at, while those that don’t care for this style or enjoy this kind of film should heed caution.

This review ran as part of our 2023 Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out the rest of our month-long celebrations including various reviews and interviews: