By Nikk Nelson

Scare Package is the latest in me being pleasantly surprised by what pops up on Shudder. A horror anthology with an incredible sense of humor, especially about itself, that’s an answer to darker offerings like V/H/S or Trick ‘r Treat. The minds behind this project seem to have their thumb on the spurting pulse of where horror as a genre is today. Meta is dead. But what about meta-meta? Or meta-meta-meta? The strength of Scare Package as a whole is it manages to parody every horror trope under the sun, including meta. “Cold Open” follows Mike, the guy responsible for doing things in horror movies like placing cursed objects in an attic for the protagonists to find or cutting the power to the babysitter’s house. Our run-through segment that also bookends the film in its own segment “Horror Hypothesis” introduces us to Rad Chad and his videostore, Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium, where Chad is training a new employee, Hawn. Each segment is introduced as Hawn navigates his new work responsibilities all while a jilted obsessive customer attempts to foil him at every turn.