Club Dread may be, in fact, dreaded

“Club Dread”

Starring: Bill Paxton, Elena Lyons, Kevin Heffernan, Jay…

“Club Dread”

Starring: Bill Paxton, Elena Lyons, Kevin Heffernan, Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Eric Stolhanske

Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar

The comedy troupe Broken Lizard pushed the boundaries of comedy with its 2001, low-budget, breakout hit “Super Troopers,” a wonderfully crude and silly movie about the antics of highway patrolmen in Vermont. This year, the troupe is continuing its satisfying brand of comedy with a new movie, the slasher film parody “Club Dread.”

“Dread” starts out on the secluded singles’ resort Pleasure Island, where a machete-wielding killer begins picking off the party-loving staff members. When the disappearance of their only mode of transportation leaves them stranded, the resort’s owner, strung-out, Jimmy Buffett wannabe Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton), tries to keep the festivities going. Fear grips the remaining employees as they try to keep the guests oblivious to the rampage and figure out the killer’s next move before it’s too late.

Much like in “Super Troopers,” all five Broken Lizards — Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Eric Stolhanske — have both writing and starring credits in the movie. Chandrasekhar, who also directs “Dread,” plays a foppish tennis coach, complete with a comically bad British accent and untamable head of dreadlocks. Heffernan, as the lead male character, plays a sensitive masseur named Lars who tries to woo the resort’s promiscuous aerobics instructor (played by the bony, over-tanned Elena Lyons). Lemme, Soter and Stolhanske round out the weird cast of characters, with Lemme as the womanizing Juan, Soter as Coconut Pete’s drug-addled, turntable-spinning nephew, and Stolhanske as an annoying member of the resort’s “Fun Police.”

The cast members successfully play off each other throughout the movie, creating moments of comedy that seem both spontaneous and thoroughly rehearsed. Paxton’s portrayal of the pony-tailed Coconut Pete is inspired, especially when he plays the character’s idiotic music — all obvious rip-offs of Buffett tunes. At one point, after a drunken fan requests “Margaritaville,” Pete exclaims, “You mean ‘Pina Colada Burg’?” Moments like these are characteristic of the arbitrary humor and goofy characters that made “Super Troopers” work.

The length of the movie, however, begins to wear some of the comedy thin. Although the ending is rewarding, there are times in the second half of the film where it seems to run out of steam. When this happens, “Club Dread” unfortunately relies on sexually charged jokes and nudity to fill the void. This includes a bit where, after his work papers reveal his stint in a mental hospital, Juan admits to having intercourse with a goat. Bestiality humor is out of Rob Schneider’s bag of tricks. It’s sad to see such a promising comedy sink to that level.