Aaron B. Koontz’s hit horror anthology franchise is again with Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge. The sequel sees a bunch of individuals in attendance of the funeral for the titular horror video retailer guru who wind up in a collection of lethal traps orchestrated by the late Chad.
Koontz and writing/producing associate Cameron Burns have assembled one other ensemble roster of indie style filmmakers for Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge, together with Host‘s Jed Shepherd, Mayans M.C.‘s Alexandra Barreto and returning director Anthony Cousins. Lampooning every part from the Saw franchise to A Nightmare on Elm Street collection, the horror anthology sequel is a classy, hilarious and bloody love letter to the big selection of the horror style.
In time for its launch, Screen Rant spoke completely with author/director/producer Aaron B. Koontz to debate Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge to debate his shock horror anthology sequel, constructing a brand new roster of indie filmmakers, which horror franchise he would like to correctly get his palms on, and the way forward for the franchise.
Screen Rant: One of the hardest challenges in horror isn’t just to make a very good horror sequel, however to make a very good horror anthology. You by some means pulled each off with the primary film and with Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge. How did the idea actually come about for placing this one collectively?
Aaron B. Koontz: Thank you a lot, first off. And additionally thanks for every part that you’ve got finished for all of our tasks and every part. This was by no means imagined to occur; this was only a film we made with our associates and threw some blood round, and we’re like, “Nobody’s going to like these stupid jokes.” Then, impulsively, persons are doing fan artwork, and there is individuals with tattoos and dressing up for Halloween, I’m like, “What did we just do?” So, we needed to sort of get in there, after which I used to be like, “Well, s–t, we’ve killed people that I love, what do I do now?”
But then I’m like, “Wait a second, we’re talking about horror tropes. There are no bigger horror tropes than the retconning of horror sequels, right? And who does that better than Saw?” I used to be watching the Saw franchise once more in preparation for Spiral, as a result of I went to see that that summer time, and I keep in mind I used to be like, “I cannot figure out the logic of this.” [Chuckles] You get to Saw 6, 7, and so they identical to minimize to a flashback, and so they have been two individuals speaking, after which like, “No, there were four people talking,” after which the following one, there have been six, I’m like, “They just keep throwing people in the background. All these crazy things keep happening.”
Then, Cary Elwes reveals up, and I do not know what Saw’s motivation is anymore, Jigsaw’s motivation, it’s very not making any sense to me. He’s nonetheless there within the films, despite the fact that he is died, like a pair occasions. It’s all so wild, and I used to be like, “Well, this becomes a framework that’s a lot of fun.” Plus, I had loads of frustration with some horror fandom, or simply fandom on the whole, and what that was like, and I believed there may very well be this [idea] the place Jigsaw has his indignation for those who he thinks do not perceive how the world ought to work. The similar factor can occur with, perhaps Sam, and he may misunderstand the individuals who made enjoyable of horror, referred to as it a B-movie, and say elevated horror, and all that stuff.
Then, the place would he take it on this heightened world, and I noticed a parallel to him and Jigsaw that I believed was actually, actually enjoyable. Then, taking that one final step additional, now I get to do Saw-style traps Scare Package-style, and I’m like, “Now this sequel has legs, and it’d be a lot of fun, and making it more meta, so you’re watching it with the actual characters, all those types of things.” It simply actually began to click on round that, and we knew it was off and working, however none of that was intentional. You know what I imply? None of this was deliberate, it was simply Shudder being like, “Hey, by the way, this is a hit. We should do a sequel,” and I’m like, “Oh s–t,” and we’re off and working.
In addition to Saw, we see Re-Animator, and we see Nightmare on Elm Street, I particularly love the Final Girls phase within the opening portion of the movie. How did you go about placing the ideas for the person segments collectively. Did you hear out pitches from particular person filmmakers, or have been these concepts that you simply pitched to those filmmakers?
Aaron B. Koontz: A mixture of the 2, yeah, we wrote “We’re So Dead,” and we discovered a filmmaker for that, as a result of I believed I had directed sufficient. I used to be like, “Oh, my God, what I’m directing is already too much in this, so I don’t want to do another one.” [Laughs] But yeah, so with “Welcome to the ’90s,” that was Alexandra Barreto, she’s finest associates with my producing associate, Ashleigh Sneed, and he or she made a brief referred to as “Lady Hater that was simply so humorous, and it was simply very sarcastic, simply had this vitality to it in the way in which the dialogue was proven.
I used to be like, “She’s great,” after which once I discovered that she was a diehard horror fan, I went to her, and I used to be like, “Look, I want to talk about something in your style of humor. I want something that’s like a feminist, maybe final girl [story].” I at all times thought that there was an fascinating commentary on the change of ultimate women in what was sort of happening, I did not take it as actually as she did, however the additional we talked about that concept, she went off and wrote this brilliance. We talked to loads of filmmakers, we would get pitches, this was the one one, I believe, that the primary pitch we have been like, “Yes, you nailed it, let’s just refine a few things,” and have been off and working, after which we made that collectively.
It was simply an honor to be on set along with her, and watching her work, she’s so gifted, and now I need to make a characteristic along with her, as a result of she’s so nice. Anthony Cousins, he was the one which we introduced again, as a result of he was already working within the sequel world, he made a sequel within the first one is sort of already taking part in up the parody stage of that, so in our sequel about sequels, I must do a sequel to his film that talked about sequels. Plus, I’ve by no means seen a sequel to a phase earlier than, in order that meant I needed to do it. We weren’t saying one was higher than the others from the primary, it was simply this one that actually made sense to proceed its storyline.
Jed Shepard was somebody who we grew to become associates by the pandemic on-line, like Twitter, and we have been in clubhouse conversations collectively, we did a pair panels collectively, and simply sort of grew to become pleasant. I had reached out to him to assist me, I needed to do a J-horror phase, as a result of ’90s, 2000s horror growth was a giant deal with this. The ’80s horror goes to permeate both approach, as a result of it is simply in my DNA, and I can not get out of there, however we needed to speak about some new issues. I used to be speaking to Jed about J-horror, and he had one other director that he knew, so he is introducing me, however then the timing did not work for her, we could not sort of make it break down, after which I’m like, “Oh, man, I don’t have somebody, I really want to do this thing,” and he is like, “You know, I’m right here!” And I’m like, “Oh, sh–t. [Laughs] Let’s look at that.”
Then we began speaking about concepts, and he is like, “We can get the Host girls together,” after which as soon as we settled on the Three Men and a Baby factor, as a result of I actually owned the laserdisc of Three Men and a Baby, and my associates came to visit, and we performed it on the largest display we may, and we might frame-by-frame watch it. That was one thing I did, so I used to be sort of like, “Do that, take that and let that become the kind of coming-through-the-TV stuff, but from the Three Men and a Baby, have that be our J-horror angle,” and he goes and runs with it. So it is all completely different stuff. You know, like, I’ll have just a little thought a morsel of one thing, or they’re going to come again with one thing, and we’ll proceed to tweak it like with Anthony Cousins and John Karsko’s phase.
I like that you simply get to assist launch loads of these filmmakers towards their feature-length debuts. We noticed Noah Segan earlier this yr with Blood Relatives. Is that one thing that you simply notably search for if you’re constructing these Scare Package rosters; those that perhaps have not gotten the time to shine simply but behind the digicam?
Aaron B. Koontz: A mixture of the 2, yeah, we wrote “We’re So Dead,” and we discovered a filmmaker for that, as a result of I believed I had directed sufficient. I used to be like, “Oh, my God, what I’m directing is already too much in this, so I don’t want to do another one.” [Laughs] But yeah, so with “Welcome to the ’90s,” that was Alexandra Barreto, she’s finest associates with my producing associate, Ashleigh Sneed, and he or she made a brief referred to as “Lady Hater that was simply so humorous, and it was simply very sarcastic, simply had this vitality to it in the way in which the dialogue was proven.
I used to be like, “She’s great,” after which once I discovered that she was a diehard horror fan, I went to her, and I used to be like, “Look, I want to talk about something in your style of humor. I want something that’s like a feminist, maybe final girl [story].” I at all times thought that there was an fascinating commentary on the change of ultimate women in what was sort of happening, I did not take it as actually as she did, however the additional we talked about that concept, she went off and wrote this brilliance. We talked to loads of filmmakers, we would get pitches, this was the one one, I believe, that the primary pitch we have been like, “Yes, you nailed it, let’s just refine a few things,” and have been off and working, after which we made that collectively.
It was simply an honor to be on set along with her, and watching her work, she’s so gifted, and now I need to make a characteristic along with her, as a result of she’s so nice. Anthony Cousins, he was the one which we introduced again, as a result of he was already working within the sequel world, he made a sequel within the first one is sort of already taking part in up the parody stage of that, so in our sequel about sequels, I must do a sequel to his film that talked about sequels. Plus, I’ve by no means seen a sequel to a phase earlier than, in order that meant I needed to do it. We weren’t saying one was higher than the others from the primary, it was simply this one that actually made sense to proceed its storyline.
Jed Shepard was somebody who we grew to become associates by the pandemic on-line, like Twitter, and we have been in clubhouse conversations collectively, we did a pair panels collectively, and simply sort of grew to become pleasant. I had reached out to him to assist me, I needed to do a J-horror phase, as a result of ’90s, 2000s horror growth was a giant deal with this. The ’80s horror goes to permeate both approach, as a result of it is simply in my DNA, and I can not get out of there, however we needed to speak about some new issues. I used to be speaking to Jed about J-horror, and he had one other director that he knew, so he is introducing me, however then the timing did not work for her, we could not sort of make it break down, after which I’m like, “Oh, man, I don’t have somebody, I really want to do this thing,” and he is like, “You know, I’m right here!” And I’m like, “Oh, sh–t. [Laughs] Let’s look at that.”
Then we began speaking about concepts, and he is like, “We can get the Host girls together,” after which as soon as we settled on the Three Men and a Baby factor, as a result of I actually owned the laserdisc of Three Men and a Baby, and my associates came to visit, and we performed it on the largest display we may, and we might frame-by-frame watch it. That was one thing I did, so I used to be sort of like, “Do that, take that and let that become the kind of coming-through-the-TV stuff, but from the Three Men and a Baby, have that be our J-horror angle,” and he goes and runs with it. So it is all completely different stuff. You know, like, I’ll have just a little thought a morsel of one thing, or they’re going to come again with one thing, and we’ll proceed to tweak it like with Anthony Cousins and John Karsko’s phase.
With these prolific filmmakers which can be coming to you for this, do you might have any concepts about perhaps doing a separate anthology from the Scare Package collection to perhaps get that group of individuals collectively?
The first one was very sensible results heavy, and there was various blood spilled. But this one actually feels prefer it ups the ante. Was there anyone impact that you simply have been actually excited to get to deliver to life on this one?
I’m glad you figured it out as a result of the second that, on the TV, they are saying, “It’s primetime, b—h,” I used to be like, “I know what’s about to happen!”