The Package

I watched The Package on a Tuesday night while my laundry was spinning in the dryer, and I was wearing a pair of mismatched socks—one with ducks, one with stripes—and spent five minutes wondering where the other duck sock went before the movie really kicked in. It’s exactly the kind of movie designed for that specific headspace: the "I have ninety minutes to kill and I don't want to think about my taxes" vibe.

Released in 2018, this was Netflix firmly planting its flag in the "R-rated teen gross-out" territory. It’s a genre that felt like it was dying out in theaters, but the streaming giant realized there was still a massive appetite for movies that revolve around bodily fluids and questionable life choices. Looking back at it now, it feels like a fascinating relic of that mid-2010s "content" boom where high-concept premises were greenlit faster than you could say "algorithm."

The Gimmick That Keeps On Giving

The plot is elegantly stupid. A group of friends goes camping: the sensitive Sean (Daniel Doheny), the "cool girl" Becky (Geraldine Viswanathan), the intense Sarah (Sadie Calvano), the stoner-energy brother Jeremy (Eduardo Franco), and the unfortunate Donnie (Luke Spencer Roberts). After a series of mishaps involving a butterfly knife and some ill-advised bravado, Donnie accidentally severs his own "package." The rest of the film is a literal race against time to get the organ, currently chilling in a cooler, to the hospital before it's too late.

It’s a "road movie" where the cargo is a penis. That’s the movie. It’s essentially a 90-minute dick joke that somehow manages to have more heart than the last three Transformers movies. Director Jake Szymanski, who gave us the brilliant tennis mockumentary 7 Days in Hell (starring Andy Samberg), knows how to handle absurdity. He treats the severed limb with the same gravitas a thriller director would treat a ticking nuclear bomb. This commitment to the bit is what saves the film from being just another forgotten entry in the "bad teen comedy" bargain bin.

Casting the Chaos

What I didn't expect was how much I’d actually like these kids. Geraldine Viswanathan is the clear standout here. She has this grounded, effortlessly funny presence that she’d later bring to Blockers (2018) and Hala (2019). She’s way better than the material requires her to be, which actually makes the material work better. Then there’s Eduardo Franco, who most people now recognize as Argyle from Stranger Things. He plays Jeremy with a frantic, wide-eyed panic that provides the perfect engine for the film’s mid-section.

The chemistry feels genuine, which is a rare feat for a movie that relies so heavily on prosthetic genitals for laughs. They talk like actual teenagers—or at least, the way we wish we talked when we were that age—full of rapid-fire insults and weirdly specific insecurities. Even Alexander Calvert, playing the "hot guy" Chad who shows up to complicate things, leans into the ridiculousness of his character’s bravado.

Why Did This Slip Through the Cracks?

In the current era of streaming saturation, The Package is a textbook case of a movie that "vanished" because of how we consume media now. It didn't have a theatrical run to build word-of-mouth. It dropped on a Friday, trended for 48 hours, and was then buried under the next wave of Netflix Originals. It’s a shame, because the craft involved is surprisingly solid. The cinematography by Hillary Spera, who worked on The Craft: Legacy (2020), makes the woods look lush and atmospheric, providing a sharp contrast to the increasingly grotesque practical effects.

Speaking of which, the practical effects for the "package" are disturbingly high-quality for a movie destined to be watched on a phone screen. There’s a scene involving a hawk that is both horrifying and technically impressive. It’s that blend of "indie film" aesthetics and "bottom-of-the-barrel" humor that gives the film its unique flavor. It doesn't quite reach the heights of a contemporary classic like Superbad (2007), mostly because it lacks that film's deep, soulful core, but it’s a much more competent piece of filmmaking than its title suggests.

Stuff You Didn't Notice

One of the more interesting behind-the-scenes bits is that the film was produced by Ben Stiller through his Red Hour banner. You can feel his influence in the way the cringe-comedy is balanced with the physical slapstick—it has that Dodgeball (2004) or Tropic Thunder (2008) DNA where the stakes feel life-or-death for the characters involved, no matter how stupid the situation is.

Turns out, the cast actually spent a significant amount of time together in the British Columbia woods during production, which probably explains why their group dynamic feels so lived-in. There’s a frantic energy to the later scenes that feels less like acting and more like a group of people who have been staring at the same trees for twelve hours a day and are starting to lose their minds.

At the end of the day, The Package is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a vulgar, fast-paced, occasionally sweet comedy that knows exactly how ridiculous its premise is and refuses to apologize for it. It won’t change your life, and it might make you look at butterfly knives with a newfound sense of terror, but as a "5-minute test" winner, it passes with flying colors. If you missed it during the initial Netflix dump of 2018, it’s a fun little discovery for a night when you just want to laugh at something undeniably dumb.

Just make sure you have both your socks on before you start. It’s a wild ride.