Club Dread Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)February 21st, 2004
BROKEN LIZARD'S CLUB DREAD
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B-
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar
Written by: Broken Lizard
Cast: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Hefferman, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Brittany Daniel, Samm Levine, Bill Paxton
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 2/18/04
It must drive parents crazy when they spend $27,000 a year tuition for their each of their darlings--and don't even begin to calculate room, board and entertainment--and then instead of coming home for the holidays to enjoy a ham with a baked circle of pineapple and to listen to Uncle Charlie's advice ("one word--Cingular"), they head south of the border with nary an email or phone call to the folks in Dayton. Spring Break is time to cut loose from the grind of all those fraternity beer parties and head off with your co-evals to where the rum is flowing and the babes need no cajoling. But as students of Philosophy 101 can tell you when they're sober, there is wisdom in moderation. You could lose you head--or worse--while chasing the opposite sex and letting down your guard with the rest of your wardrobe.
"Club Dread," which could be entitled "The Real Cancun 2--The Machete" if it were filmed in that bustling resort instead of north of Mexico's Manzanillo (standing in for Pleasure Island in Costa Rica), is a mixture of slasher movie and comedy, but in neither genre does it toe the conventional Hollywood line. Produced by the same folks who gave us "Super Troopers" with mixed success, about a bumbling group of Vermont state troopers who try to save their jobs from a takeover from the local police when they amble into a drug ring, "Club Dread" has laughs but generally of the offbeat, dry-humor kind, sending up horror pics but with more sophistication and college-campus clowning than the "Scream" series. Given a plot that barely congeals, "Club Dread" is, paradoxically, stand-up comedy in the sit-com mode. Your reaction to the mayhem on the screen depends on your willingness to suspend any demand you have that the gleeful caricatures make sense or even have motivations. Then again, if you've ever been to Cancun or, in the old days, to Cuba during Spring Break, you realize that you too have enjoyed a plotless week without rational motivations except for the desire to drink and conjugate with other than verbs.
The Broken Lizard group collectively responsible for the writing, directed by lead performer Jay Chandrasekhar, have reinvented themselves as staff members of the titled club. The place is owned by Coconut Pete (the always likable Bill Paxton), a washed-up composer of rock music still imaging he's in the 1970's when his one hit song made it to the top. The most prominent members of the staff includes Sam (Erik Stolhankse), leader of the fun police; Jenny (Britanny Daniel), the cute, sex-hungry fitness instructor; Lars (Kevin Hefferman), a massage maven incorrectly feminized as a "masseuse" in the press notes; Putnam Livingston (Jay Chandrasekhar), a tennis instructor who seems to have no more customers than his namesake in Todd Graff's comedy about Broadway wannabees, "Camp"; Juan Castillo (Steve Lemme), a dive master with a suggestive Spanish accent; Dave (Paul Soter), the DJ who at one point spins the disc backward to find a secret message; and Hank (M.C. Gainey), a security expert confident of locating a serial killer.
The 20-year-olds at Camp Pleasure soon have their fun literally cut short while at the same time gaining the thrills and chills that would be comical to them only if they were sitting safely in a movie theater, when one staff member after another gets murdered. Some are cut across the stomach as though by Zatoichi, another is hanged. The head of one becomes an icon for the DJ's turntable. As the number of staff survivors decreases, each is naturally suspicious of the others, knowing that--as an Agatha Christie novel would say--one of you in this camp is the killer. As the crew keep the violent deaths secret from the guests, they are stuck on their island as the perp has done away with the boat, the only transportation that could get them out.
Could they call the police on their cell phones? Of course. Can they request a helicopter? Why not? But this is anything but a serious story, which means nobody needs a motivation, the bane of scripters and theater writers. Much of the humor comes from the particular quirk that each, well-defined character has. Especially amusing is director Chandrasekhar, who speaks with a precise British cum Indian accept whether chased by machete man or elaborating his theories with his colleagues. Bill Paxton is particularly amusing, looking twenty years longer with his long hair extension singing his favorite song as though a member of the cast in "A Mighty Wind." There's one brief clue to the killer's identity in an opening scene. Look for the guy who seems to have a grudge.
In short this is the kind of pic to kick back with when you're feelin' groovy. That it's not a sitcom with a slick assortment of well-timed jokes is to its credit.
Rated R. 103 minutes. Copyright by Harvey Karten,
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