Club Dread

A bunch of hotties along with some goofy guys stay at an island resort belonging to a guy named Coconut Pete. It isn’t long before bodies start piling up and the resort staff realize that a murderer is out to get them, with no way off the island. Humor and scary moments are supposed to ensue, but not enough of either really does.

Simply put: disappointing. I was hoping that this film would be the first major break-out comedy of the year, having enjoyed most of Broken Lizard’s antics in SUPER TROOPERS (although that film is also overrated at this point), but what I got instead was a pretty uninspired horror movie with a few giggles and T&A, but very little in energy, big laughs or all-out entertainment. This is the kind of movie that I could see myself watching for about half an hour on late night TV, than switching to another channel without giving a shit about how it ends. It’s not necessarily boring to watch, but once everything is said and done, you can put a gun to my head and I wouldn’t be able to recall much that was either memorable or exciting. The film’s trailer was the same way, but I thought they had left the best parts for the film itself…I was wrong. The strange part is that the five lead guys from Broken Lizard are actually quite funny in real life, but despite portraying some semi-interesting characters in this film, none were really all that funny or engaging. Only Jay Chandrasekhar’s tennis pro character was fun, but even he had one of the worst movie-wigs of the year. Steve Lemme’s Juan also had a cute accent, but that didn’t do much for me after the first half hour. Bill Paxton’s character was also pretty lame, and the same can be said about his songs.

One thing I will give this movie is that its final twenty minutes are actually its most interesting, with confrontations and mysteries unraveled. The film’s final play on the “typical horror movie ending” is also quite humorous and perfectly over-done. We also get the very sexy Brittany Daniel strutting around in a bikini in almost every scene in which she finds herself, while the unrecognizable Jordan Ladd (at least to me) also has fun in her role and shows off her strangely exotic rack. Nice! What sucks is that despite the film being a “horror comedy”, neither the horror or comedy really stood out, while the story, which was quite generic, at least kept me wondering about who the killer might be. The killer’s revelation speech was also a little original, but again, nothing spectacular. Just like SUPER TROOPERS, the film also goes on for too long-guys, you’re making “comedies”, not epic dramas…a buck and a half is more than enough of a runtime! Seriously folks, other than a funky human Pac-Man maze-game and a few tits and asses tossed around for kicks, there’s no real reason to see this movie in theaters, so rent it on video one day, smoke some shit and enjoy some of the amusing bits bordering around its mediocre whole. Disappointing, especially since I dig these guys and was hoping for so much more.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian