Club Dread - Uncut

At an exclusive island resort owned by hippy folk singer Coconut Pete (Paxton) a series of violent murders among the staff interrupt the sex and fun. It’s up to the staff to discover who the killer is without causing hysteria among the oblivious young vacationers.

I can see right through both his ears.

Club Dread is the second major film by the production company known as Broken Lizard, their first feature being the hilariously funny Super Troopers in 2001. Super Troopers recouped double the initial budget of three million dollars in the opening weekend and grossed nearly 20 million in theatrical releases alone, cementing the Broken Lizard guys a definite ‘overnight success’.

Suffering from the second movie blues, Club Dread was another story, with triple the budget yet it grossed less than a quarter of the previous hit and didn’t even pay back the production costs.

In a world where Super Troopers 2 would have been a runaway success, you have to respect the Broken Lizard guys for taking a chance by going for a genre change and producing something with far more subtle humour.

It’s hard to tell if Club Dread is supposed to be a parody of slasher films, a horror comedy or just a horror with some comedy and it was probably this ambiguity that contributed to the relative failure at the box office

Hey, watch where you point that thing.

Club Dread is definitely not the laugh-fest that Super Troopers was but it does have some moments. The live action Pac Man game is a fine example, as is the tantrum that Coconut Pete throws when someone requests Margaritaville at a campfire sing-along, “Son of a son of a bitch�, classic. However, these moments are all too few and far between for Club Dread to survive as a comedy, and the horror is similarly sparse so it can’t be a horror movie, leaving only parody.

Ultimately on first viewing Club Dread just doesn’t work (which explains the box office failure) but after sitting through the movie three times to listen to the commentaries (see below) I actually ‘got’ a lot more of the subtleties of the comedy so Super Troopers fans who didn’t give Club Dread a second chance should definitely do so, otherwise you’re missing out.

"Where's my penis?"

The uncut version of Club Dread on this DVD is presented in the original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 and is enhanced for widescreen displays. The menu system is 16:9 enhanced and is clean and colourful with some animation and scenes from the movie playing back in a loop.

Song over man, Song over.

Despite being a horror themed movie the majority of the scenes in Club Dread takes places during the day in well lit and bright conditions. The video content in the bright scenes are rich in colour and flesh tones, of which there are a lot (it is set on a tropical island after all), are clean and realistic. Black detail during the night scenes is excellent, particularly in camp fire and pool scenes.

The audio tracks are available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 only with English subtitles for the main audio track and the two commentaries, which is an unusual addition.

dinner and dessert.

The 5.1 track is acceptable but is let down by the centre channel often dropping below audible levels and requiring a visit to the volume knob. Bass use is minimal but appropriate mainly for the soundtrack and other “horror� sounds (the usual high pitched ‘Ree Ree’ sound effect). The surround channels are used mainly for environmental sounds and music and are never obvious or overbearing.

Being the “uncut� version, this DVD has quite a few extra scenes, mainly involving some nudity and blood (not necessarily in that order). Featured on this DVD are 22 deleted scenes accompanied by an optional commentary) some of which are actually incorporated into the uncut version already and others which are alternate takes or complete missing scenes.

Also included are two other full length commentaries, one by Jay Chandrasekhar and Erik Stolhanske where they discuss the scenes added to the uncut version, the inspiration for the character Coconut Pete (who is a parody/tribute to Jimmy Buffet), actors, friends and the usual blow by blow explanation of events in the movie.

Prototypes for car dashboards.

The second commentary features Kevin Heffernan (Farva!), Steve Lemme and Peter Soter and is more of the same but with more discussion of nipples and inside jokes. Quite a few of the stories told by Jay and Erik are repeated but this commentary is still worth listening too for some inside information about the making of the film.

Club Dread had big shoes to fill living in the shadow of Super Troopers and in the opinion of some it has failed miserably. Of course, the inevitable comparison between Club Dread and Super Troopers will leave the tropical island slasher lacking, but on its own Club Dread stands up as a parody-slasher-horror-comedy-something.

If you saw it once and hated it, the release of the uncut DVD is your chance to give it a second chance, it deserves it.