Also posted at http://senorpez.com/archives/2005/02/05/86:
After nearly breaking a string of watching and reviewing bad movies with 50 First Dates, I devoted myself to watching another bad movie. Having previously enjoyed Super Troopers, I settled in for a couple of hours with Club Dread. It's good to see that my selection skills have not improved.
There's a fine line in the horror-film genre. There are the really good horror films, like The Exorcist. But below that line, there are two more sub-genres of horror films: The ones that are bad, and the ones that are so bad that they are funny. There's a long line of cult classics that were so bad that they became humorous. Sam Raimi did it with the Evil Dead movies. However, there are plenty of horror films that are just plain bad.
The main problem with Club Dread is that it can't seem to decide whether or not it wants to be a sex-beer-and-boob-filled comedy film or a horror film. On the comedy side of things, there are only so many boob and drug jokes to go around, and a comedy film truly needs something more than that to succeed. There are few truly funny moments in Club Dread, as the jokes are stretched too thin and delivered with far too little talent to be effective. Instead, the comedic moments seem to be nothing more than ideas that were rejected from a Saturday Night Live sketch.
The horror part of the film is equally bad, and doesn't even reach a point where it could be considered funny by it's ineptitude. There's some sort of a plot to figure out who the killer is, but, quite frankly, it doesn't even matter. Instead, there's occasionally an over-the-top killing, punctuated by your typical screaming victims. But the killer is neither interesting, terrifying, or compelling. You're not going to be going home at night wondering if a machete-wielding killer is hiding in your closet.
Actually, you'll be going home at night wondering why you watched Club Dread in the first place. This movie is terrible. Anyone who enjoyed Super Troopers should still avoid this film like the plague. It doesn't have the compelling characters, the clever setups, or the memorable comedy of that film. Instead, we're left with a half-baked horror film.
After nearly breaking a string of watching and reviewing bad movies with 50 First Dates, I devoted myself to watching another bad movie. Having previously enjoyed Super Troopers, I settled in for a couple of hours with Club Dread. It's good to see that my selection skills have not improved.
There's a fine line in the horror-film genre. There are the really good horror films, like The Exorcist. But below that line, there are two more sub-genres of horror films: The ones that are bad, and the ones that are so bad that they are funny. There's a long line of cult classics that were so bad that they became humorous. Sam Raimi did it with the Evil Dead movies. However, there are plenty of horror films that are just plain bad.
The main problem with Club Dread is that it can't seem to decide whether or not it wants to be a sex-beer-and-boob-filled comedy film or a horror film. On the comedy side of things, there are only so many boob and drug jokes to go around, and a comedy film truly needs something more than that to succeed. There are few truly funny moments in Club Dread, as the jokes are stretched too thin and delivered with far too little talent to be effective. Instead, the comedic moments seem to be nothing more than ideas that were rejected from a Saturday Night Live sketch.
The horror part of the film is equally bad, and doesn't even reach a point where it could be considered funny by it's ineptitude. There's some sort of a plot to figure out who the killer is, but, quite frankly, it doesn't even matter. Instead, there's occasionally an over-the-top killing, punctuated by your typical screaming victims. But the killer is neither interesting, terrifying, or compelling. You're not going to be going home at night wondering if a machete-wielding killer is hiding in your closet.
Actually, you'll be going home at night wondering why you watched Club Dread in the first place. This movie is terrible. Anyone who enjoyed Super Troopers should still avoid this film like the plague. It doesn't have the compelling characters, the clever setups, or the memorable comedy of that film. Instead, we're left with a half-baked horror film.