Club Dread (2004)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The first thing you need to know about Club Dread is that it is not to be taken seriously. It's basically a comedy, but with horror thrown in. It doesn't so much as lampoon the genre, as adhere to it. Storywise, it's actually your average slasher film. An unknown killer stalks an island full of annoyingly-fit teenagers and knifes them to death. Nothing new there. Nothing new in the whole film really, but that doesn't mean it's not worth watching.It's basically fun. It never tries to be serious and shouldn't be taken as such. If you like slasher films in general, you should like this. The only downside I found (or rather something I felt was a missed opportunity) were the death scenes. The whole film is surprisingly UNgory for a supposed (half) horror film. As the film-makers are also playing to a comedy audience, you'd think they'd be more creative with the (many) death scenes. There's certainly scope for it. However, every death is a simple stabbing or slice - hardly imaginative.But, it's more comedy than horror, so perhaps I'm expecting too much. Basically, as many other reviewers have said, it's basically Froday 13th meets Porkies and I can't really add anything to that.

Club Dread is set on the holiday resort of Pleasure Island just off the Costa Rican Coast where hedonistic teens go to drink, have sex & laze about on the beach all day. Pleasure Island is owned & run by old timer Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton), he also has staff including a tennis instructor, the fun police & a new masseur. However all is not well on Pleasure Island, members of the staff are turning up dead with cryptic clues & warnings carved into their chest's. How could be responsible? A disgruntled customer? Someone with a grudge against Coconut Pete? Or maybe it's one of the staff themselves? No-one know's who to trust as the bodies continue to pile up & with the only boat to the mainland still a couple of days away will anyone still be left alive to get on it & to safety?Co-written & directed by Jay Chandrasekhar who also has a fairly large part in the film & is apparently a member of the Broken Lizard comedy team who also all have major roles I suspect that Club Dread was meant as a comedy horror spoofing the teen slasher film in particular but it's turned out as a bit of a disaster, neither funny nor scary what is Club Dread actually good for? When, during the first hour, the only moment that I can assume was meant to be funny involves a guy introducing himself to an Asain girl named Yu (pronounced You) & saying 'it's nice to meet you Yu' I think a film is in trouble. When a film has it's cast run around in giant novelty foam food costumes (bananas, a slice of pizza, a pear) for comic effect you know the makers were desperate. I honestly can't think of a single gag or joke that worked & to be honest I can barely even remember any attempts at humour (Yu in a slow moving cart trying to escape the killer but they still just walks up to her, Putman serving tennis balls at the killer & a terrible last shot of the killers severed legs trying to swim to shore). The entire plot is poor, it's very predictable & doesn't even play on the aspects of the average teen slasher to any sort of effect, the camp fire tale with a n old legend, lots of people jumping out of nowhere & some fairly bloodless murders means any horror fan will surely be disappointed as will anyone looking for some laughs. The murder mystery side of things is awful, the killers identity feels like a random afterthought & their motives are as shallow as they come.I had the unfortunate luck to see the extended 'Unrated' version of Club Dread which runs some fifteen minutes longer than the theatrical 'R' rated version, fifteen more minutes of lame humour & simplistic slasher film clichés. Oh God. There's not much gore here, there are a few blood splatters, a decapitated head, a few dead bodies & someone is cut in half at the end. There's no suspense, no tension & no scares together with zero laugh & it's like the makers didn't know how far to take either element & in the end fail miserably on both counts. Club Dread just misses the mark by the proverbial mile on both the horror & comedy content. There's a bit of nudity & some mild sex scenes but nothing to write home about.With a supposed budget of about $8,550,000 this had a decent budget, filmed in Mexico the scenery is nice but there are plenty of films where the scenery is nice so that's no recommendation. The acting is awful, really some of the self indulgent performances here are just annoying. Bill Paxton must have been desperate.Club Dread is a horror comedy that fails miserably on both counts, do yourself a favour & give this a wide berth. Maybe the zany idiotic low brow murder mystery & occasional stab at humour will appeal to some but I couldn't stand Club Dread, a big misfire on all fronts as far as I am concerned.

I know a lot of people probably don't agree with giving stupid movies like this an 8, but it is actually funny. I was skeptical to first see it because it looked kind of goofy, but since i loved super troopers i thought i'd give it a try.The film is basically about a vacation island in which all you do is party. But when a killer starts running wild, everybody scrambles to find out who is doing this.I think Steve Lemme (Juan) did the best job as the divemaster, just because of his accent and the funny lines that he had. As said by others, most people will just think of this film as an average comedy/horror spoof, but i think it is better than others. At least give it a try to see the hot Brittany Daniel in a bathing suit almost the entire movie.8/10

Club Dread is a very interesting piece of work, not really too original, exciting, well done, action filled or intelligent... and honestly not even good. Basically it pivots around a bunch of people stuck on an island with a killer, giving it quite the "oh please not another movie like that" feeling. However, they are not just a handful of people on a deserted island, they are the staff of "Pleasure Island" and need to keep their cool while taking care of a load of tourists. The plot is by no means complicated but it stands out just enough and can be quite unpredictable sometimes. Just beware of a very common mistake! Don't give up after the first few minutes, it gets better and better all the way to the end!This movie needs you to fulfill three different criteria before you can truly enjoy its interesting properties to the fullest. I have listed them below, the first being the most important and so on. Number 1; you need to be able to laugh freely and comfortably at silly, odd and stupid things. Number 2; you need to make sure you are not disturbed by "almost well done gore" or attractive women not wearing a whole lot of clothes. Number 3; you need to be observant enough to notice details, and too tired (or possibly drunk) to be upset when these details don't match, instead you need the ability to laugh at it.With these things in mind, my punchline is; This movie is a total piece of crap! Characters, script, effects, dialog, actors and most other stuff too can't be called anything other than crap! However, follow the simple guidelines and force a few friends to watch it with you and you will laugh so hard you will never forget this movie. Hard to tell if the movie was intended to be hilarious or serious, but regardless the intentions behind it... this is a comedy overdose! Total piece of crap but in a Very entertaining way, I give it a 7 out of 10 because months later I still start laughing like a maniac when I think about some of the scenes in the movie.