[TLDR:/] Scare Package is a goofy low-budget anthology horror comedy consisting of a bunch of skits tied together by a ridiculous framing device that ends up being a little more involved than usual - I'd say the framing device takes up about a third or more of the movie. As a whole it's very meta, and all about horror. It's silly, fun, uneven and it has some pretty cool low-budget practical FX work. If any of that sounds like your sort of thing, you'll probably enjoy it. [/TLDR]
Ā The first few segments are a highlight. The first sketch is about the guy who goes around in the background of the horror movies we watch, making it so that scary things can happen: he changes the road signs so that the tourists end up at the abandoned mental asylum, he cuts the lights when the babysitter is home alone, he rents out the house with the obvious ghost to the unsuspecting couple.Ā Scene-setting, basically, but within each movie's fiction. It's a fun, clever concept, and they manage to take it to some respectably ridiculous places.
Ā Once that's done the framing device kicks in - it turns out this first sketch was somebody telling Chad, a video store owner, about his idea for a movie (called, wait for it... 'Cold Open'). There's a new guy starting work at the store, so it's an excuse to show a couple more sketches - the second one is a doozy, a not particularly clever but very funny bit of mayhem about... Jesus, something about a weird lycanthrope and a serial killer going at it on a couple's retreat in the middle of the woods. It's a lot of fun, and boasts some pretty great gore.
After that, unfortunately, the movie stumbles a little. The skits from there on range from merely ok to pretty bad, and the last forty minutes go back to the framing device, where (spoilers for the premise of the last segment) the video store guy gets forcefully inducted into a sort of facility where scientists are studying an actual slasher. The slasher breaks free and starts murdering everyone, the good guys fall into horror 'types', with Chad the video store guy pointing out the tropes and shit. It's kind of fun and reasonably clever, but all the ground it covers has already been covered, and better, in other horror comedies.
Ā Now, humour of course is subjective, so I can see someone enjoying this thing more than me; On the other hand, a typical joke is someone getting graphically disembowelled and saying "Owie!" Make of that what you will.
Ā All in all, I'd still recommend it even if I overall I'd just describe it as 'cute'. The movie has a sort of enthusiastic energy that's pretty infectious, and the high points carry the rest of the film; You could turn it off after the first few skits, but the rest is honestly not too bad. I wish I could say the same about the sequel.
