This week, we wrap up our Back to the Beach month with under discussed Broken Lizards slasher comedy CLUB DREAD
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This month, we went to the beach and partook in everything from goofy comedies to dramatic heartfelt films to off-the-wall slashers. As the one who originally pitched the idea, I was lucky to be able to bookend the month with a piece of nostalgia and one of my favorite horror comedies.
The follow up to their smash hit Super Troopers, for some (like me) this goes in the books as a true gem, but many people were disappointed. In fact, the thoughts below from our team and our guest encapsulate exactly that. While it’s obvious that I side on the pro side – as Club Dread is not only among my favorite horror comedies, but it’s genuinely among my favorite slashers period – I’ll save more of my thoughts for last and let our guests dive into the bloody waters first.
Thanks for spending some time at the beach with us this July (or early August, as it were, due to my tardiness in posting this week’s entry)… and without further ado…
Featured Guests
Brad Milne
In 2004, The boys of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe returned to the big screen, with a horror comedy titled Club Dread. Sadly, comedy and horror are two genres that don’t often work well together, notable exceptions – The Burbs, From Beyond, Society, The Editor – but for my money The Burbs is the best of the bunch. Club Dread doesn’t succeed with the regularity of The Burbs in the horror comedy arena but it isn’t an awful attempt. The film follows the crew of a party island named Paradise Island, with the actual filming taking place in a handful of Mexican locations. The island is owned by a faded rockstar named Coconut Pete, played by the dearly departed Bill Paxton, looking like he is having a ball. The boys of Broken Lizard play make up the members of his hospitable crew of employees played by the broken lizard gang, Juan (Steve Lemme), Sam (Eric Stolhanske) Putman (Jay Chandrasekhar), Dave (Paul Soter) and Lars (Kevin Heffernan). The boys from the comedy troupe are complimented nicely, by Brittany Daniel as Jenny, Lyndsey Price as Yu, Jordan Ladd’s Penelope and M.C. Gainey as Hank.
Club Dread being a blend of horror and comedy, the film wastes no time dispatching three of the crew members of Coconut Pete’s hospitality crew. Rolo, Stacy and Kellie sneak away from the rest of the employees for an intimate party of three, before being dispatched by a machete wielding maniac. From there we are introduce to the rest of the cast, many of whom end up fodder for the killers blade. The kills are gory enough, but mostly involve death by machete. Of course, there are exceptions, including Paxton’s death a particularly brutal hanging, that is discovered by a handful of his employee’s.
As the movie reaches the home stretch, the killer is discovered to be Sam played by Broken Lizard member Eric Stolhanske. His death is probably the most gruesome of the deaths in the movie, and while it succeeds more as a comedy than it does as a horror movie the crew behind the scenes does deserve a round of applause for the gore effects. The film does its best to meld the two genres, and although the horror is mostly played tongue in cheek, the movie isn’t without a slew of jump scares. Well not a perfect comedy horror effort, Club Dread succeeds more than it fails in the attempt. While not on par with some of the greats in the horror comedy genre, the film is still a lot of fun, for anyone willing to give it the time of day.
(@BradMilne79 on X)
Brooke Harlan
As I’m sure Justin alluded to, this is one of our Summer horror staples. It’s ridiculous and over the top… but that’s not a surprise, as it’s a Broken Lizard film. They are obviously poking fun at all the big slasher movie tropes – the damn killer just won’t die, he’s so slow yet no one runs away fast enough, and he’s got some ridiculous backstory that made him this way.
The characters try to get away from the killer in obviously stupid ways – trying to out run him in a golf cart, locking a slatted wooden door and hiding behind it, even hitting him with tennis balls. It’s totally ridiculous in the best ways.
Though, I’d have to say the absolute gem in this movie is Bill Paxton. He is the perfect “Coconut Pete”. The way he gets so mad when people don’t recognize him or his songs is always great for a laugh out loud moment. After getting upset you can hear him rambling “son of a son of a bitch” as he walks off with perfect comedic timing. Or when the new cooks can’t understand that why the secret ingredient in his paella recipe is coconut, he flips out as yells “Eddie Money doesn’t have to put up with this shit!” There’s even a major plot point where he doesn’t even remember his own lyrics due to how many drugs he did while recording that album. He’s genuinely hysterical. And the music and album titles are perfection. Besides, he’s Bill Paxton – how can you not love him? The movie definitely would not be as fun without him.
(@brookiellendesigns on IG)
The Team
Austin Vashaw
I love horror comedies but this one was mostly a miss for me. The horror stuff feels rote (lots and lots of fake-out jump scares) and most of the humor falls flat as well. On some level it does work as a metatext on horror movies, aping slasher tropes and serving up an amusingly prolonged multiple-climax ending – though maybe that might be an overly generous reading of a film that relies on the same tropes. Ultimately, I think I might have landed better if it dug more into being a spoof or parody than sort of a lackluster slasher with some yuks, but I can respect that that wasn’t the direction or intent.
The one thing that does click, though, is Bill Paxton’s role as the club’s owner-operator, Coconut Pete – a washed-up novelty musician who used to be kind of a big deal and parlayed his success into running a tropical getaway. Paxton brings his usual goofy charm into an impishly degenerate character who tasks his employees, “If it isn’t too much to ask, have sex with the guests”.
Adding this viewing to Beerfest (another Two Cents alum), I feel like maybe the Broken Lizard troupe’s brand of lowbrow comedy just isn’t for me. But then again, I haven’t seen either of the Super Troopers which I understand to be their most beloved, so I’d better reserve judgment until I’ve given those a fair shot.
@VforVashaw on Xitter
Frank Calvillo
Like most people, the first time I had heard about Broken Lizard, it was because of their sleeper smash debut, Super Troopers. My best friend coaxed me into watching it and I instantly felt like we were in the presence of a new team of comedy heroes who had tapped in to a level of humor that was so hard to define, yet was undeniably potent. It’s sad that such great comedic instincts for comedy should have wasted their time and energy on such a dreary, groan-a-minute follow-up. Club Dread was, and is, the kind of overly inane and infantile dreck that truly gives respectable, good-natured toilet humor a bad name.
The thing about Club Dread is that it has no excuse not to work. We know this comedy troupe are a genuinely funny group of guys and the murder mystery genre has long since lent itself well to comedy. There are certainly enough characters/suspects around, each one painted more broadly than the last to keep things interesting. Yet every character we meet feels so non-descript and every comedy bit that’s attempted fails… hard. The lone exception to the former is Bill Paxton, who manages a few fun moments early on before becoming the most tiresome of the entire ensemble. At the risk of being one of those critics bemoaning about how things have “aged,” it’s pretty safe to say that most of the jokes in Club Dread felt dated before any of the actors said them aloud. By the time the film ends it’s hard to care about who has died or what has even happened throughout the course of the previous 100+ minutes. Even the movie’s island setting, which should be the one element that’s pretty much a gimmie comes across as somewhere you just don’t want to be.
The Broken Lizard gang would eventually redeem themselves with the (in my humble opinion) hilarious and underrated Beerfest, which built on the irrefutable talent they conjured up with their debut. But when it comes to the misbegotten Club Dread, it’s best to remember it for what it is: a thing that happened.
(@frankfilmgeek on Xitter)
Justin Harlan
You already know I love this film. And, I promise that I’m not exaggerating when I say that its both one of my favorite horror comedies and one of my all-time slashers, too. I find the kills entertaining as hell, the jokes extremely funny, and the cast on point. In fact, as blasphemous as fellow genre nerds may find it, I believe it may be Bill Paxton’s best role of his entire career.
This is a movie that my lovely wife – one of our guests, Brooke (above) – and I quote over and over, rewatch at least once a year, and get great joy from. For me, it’s the Lizards at the height of their powers. Alongside Beerfest and Super Troopers, it highlights the ensemble’s comedic prowess – but, in this case, their ability to weave in legit scares and play so well off of slasher tropes and horror genre tropes at large really feels impressive for me.
Mind you, as you can see by our diverse thoughts on the film, it’s clearly not for everyone. But, as for me and my house, we will honor Club Dread and the mayor of “Piña Coladaburg” for years and years to come, even is it tastes like “Piñata turd” to some.
(@thepaintedman on Xitter)
CINAPSE CELEBRATES THE WOMEN OF THE WEST
Every week in Sugust, we’ll be looking Western films with a feminine edge. Women don’t get to take center stage in tons of Westerns, but they are at the front of some truly great films in the genre. Join us this month by reaching out to any of the team or emailing [email protected]!
