Club Dread

Broken Lizard's Club Dread
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jay Chandrasekhar
Produced by	Richard Perello
Written by	Broken Lizard
Starring	Bill Paxton Kevin Heffernan Brittany Daniel Steve Lemme Jordan Ladd Jay Chandrasekhar Paul Soter Erik Stolhanske Greg Cipes M.C. Gainey
Music by	Nathan Barr
Cinematography	Lawrence Sher
Editing by	Ryan Folsey
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight
Release date(s)	February 16, 2004 (2004-02-16) (Texas) February 27, 2004 (2004-02-27)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8,550,000[1]
Box office	$7,565,807

Club Dread (also known as Broken Lizard's Club Dread) is a 2004 comedy horror film written by the comedy group Broken Lizard, who also created Super Troopers. It is directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, one of the group members.

Though the story is set on an island in Costa Rica, filming took place in Mexico.

The opening overhead shots of the island were actually clips lifted from Danny Boyle's film The Beach.

Plot

On Coconut Pete's (Bill Paxton) private party island, Rolo (Dan Montgomery Jr.), Stacy (Elena Lyons) and Kellie (Tanja Reichert) sneak off to an mausoleum to make out. While there, a masked killer stabs Rolo to death. The two girls run through the jungle and eventually split up, but Kellie is thrown off a cliff and Stacy decapitated before they can reach help.

As Lars (Kevin Heffernan) arrives on 'Pleasure Island', he is introduced to the staff, including Jenny (Brittany Daniel), Juan (Steve Lemme), Putman (Jay Chandrasekhar), Dave (Paul Soter), Sam (Erik Stolhanske) and Yu (Lindsay Price). As the staff and guests, including Penelope (Jordan Ladd), Carlos (Julio Bekhor), Dirk (Samm Levine) and Hank (M.C. Gainey) party, Carlos is lured outside where he is swiftly murdered. Meanwhile, Dave tells other partiers the story of an insane partier who murdered the staff of the island and disappeared years previously. The next day, as the party continues, Cliff (Richard Perello) is violently murdered in a maze. As Jenny and Lars bond, they discover Carlos' body, while Cliff's body is also found.

The staff band together where they find that the killer is targeting the staff, and also all communication and transportation off the island have been destroyed. Hank convinces the staff to continue with their jobs and allow him to catch the killer. As the other workers get on with their jobs and attempt to help find the killer, Yu remains persistent to tell the guests, despite warnings not to do so from the killer. As she gathers people to make the announcement she is attacked and chased by the killer. Hank attempts to save her, but has his throat slit before Yu is also murdered.

The next day, the group find the bodies and believe the killer is murdering people according to one of Pete's songs. As they split up to try and identify the killer, suspicion falls on Penelope who seduces Juan into her room. Jenny, Sam and Dave hide in the closet to save Juan if Penelope attempts to murder him but the pair instead have sex, taking suspicion off Penelope. While Lars and Putman camp on the beach, Putman has a nightmare and runs off into the jungle. Meanwhile Sam and Dave find a shrine to Pete in Lars' room. Due to the shrine and disappearance of Putman, the group believe Lars to be the killer and lock him in a room.

That night Jenny goes swimming where she is interrupted by Dirk. The killer soon turns up and electrocutes Dirk, causing the electricity on the island to fail. Jenny runs away, and bumps into Putman and Sam. They realize Lars is not the killer, but when entering the room he was locked in, find him gone. The trio then go to Pete's house where they find Juan, Lars and Dave. When the group find Pete's body, the are quick to turn on one another, however group together to survive through the night until the boat comes the following day to take them back to the main land. Despite this plan, the group all decide to split up from each other. Dave ventures to a hut where he manages to turn on the electricity. Jenny and Lars hear the music playing and go to the hut, only to find Dave's decapitated head. Jenny and Lars then hide from who they believe to be the killer and handcuff their foot to a bed. However it is revealed it was in fact, Putman. Before long the killer appears and a trapped Putman is killed.

Meanwhile, a party is being held in the club. As Jenny and Lars arrive, the dead bodies of the staff are shown to the guests, causing them all to flee, except Penelope. Juan also arrives, before the group rush off to rescue Sam, whom they see at a nearby window. They arrive and find a presumed dead Sam in a mud bath, however he soon holds Lars hostage, revealing himself as the killer. Sam goes on to explain he began murdering the staff after Pete sold the island to Dave, despite the fact he believed he should have gotten the island. Lars manages to overcome Sam and allow the others to get away. As they run to the club, Penelope is carried away by other partiers, while Jenny and Juan lock themselves in the club. Soon after, the pair find Sam drowning Penelope in a large tank. Juan manages to smash the tank, saving Penelope. As Sam is about to kill the group, Lars arrives and stabs Sam, allowing himself, Jenny, Penelope and Juan to escape. However as they are leaving, they realize Sam is following them.

The group runs through the jungle, and comes to a cliff which they jump off to escape. They realize one of the islands sunk boats, and decide to try and take the propeller off it and attach it to another boat that had lost its propeller. As Jenny, Lars and Penelope swim to the afloat boat, Juan retrieves the propeller off the sunk boat. As Juan arrives with the propeller, Lars begins to attach it. However it is revealed Juan has been stabbed and soon dies, before Sam attacks Jenny and Penelope. Lars comes to their rescue and together the group finally manage to defeat Sam, cutting him in half. As Jenny and Lars start a relationship, Penelope drives the survivors away in the boat.

Soundtrack

On one of the disc's commentary tracks the filmmakers state that they screened the film for Jimmy Buffett, who was so amused that he requested permission to sing some of the film's songs on one of his live tours.

Alternate version

In 2005 an unrated edition was released to DVD. This version of the film contains an additional 15 minutes of footage for a 118-minute running time. It features several extended scenes, and also restores a subplot involving two cops (played by Paco Mauri and Tony Amendola) that was absent in the theatrical edition. Director Jay Chandrasekhar states in one of the disc's commentary tracks that the original R-rated version is still the director's cut.

Critical reception

Club Dread has received mixed reviews, scoring 45% on review aggregator site Metacritic based on 28 critics reviews, and 29% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 96 reviews. According to Rotten Tomatoes the overall consensus was "Comedy is too hit-or-miss in this slasher spoof".

Cast

• Brittany Daniel as Jenny
• Jay Chandrasekhar as Putman
• Kevin Heffernan as Lars
• Steve Lemme as Juan
• Paul Soter as Dave
• Erik Stolhanske as Sam
• Jordan Ladd as Penelope
• Bill Paxton as Coconut Pete
• Greg Cipes as Trevor
• M.C. Gainey as Hank
• Lindsay Price as Yu
• Julio Bekhor as Carlos
• Samm Levine as Dirk
• Dan Montgomery Jr. as Rolo
• Elena Lyons as Stacy
• Tanja Reichert as Kellie
• Richard Perello Cliff

References

1. ^ [1]

External links

• Official site
• Club Dread at the Internet Movie Database
• Broken Lizard's Club Dread at AllRovi
• Club Dread at Metacritic
• Broken Lizard's Club Dread at Rotten Tomatoes