Club Dread
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: February 27, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The Broken Lizard guys don't so much send up a genre as inhabit it, and subvert it from the inside. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
With "Super Troopers" and Club Dread, Broken Lizard has cranked out two genuinely funny movies in a row. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBen Kenigsberg
The group has a distinctive deadpan style; after you get on their wavelength, it's impossible to quit chuckling. Read full review
70
Film ThreatKevin Carr
Broken Lizard manages to poke fun at the genre without falling into the trap of recycling old Scooby-Doo jokes. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There will be better movies playing in the same theater, even if it is a duplex, but on the other hand there is something to be said for goofiness without apology by broken lizards who just wanna have fun. Read full review
63
New York PostMegan Lehmann
This genre-busting hybrid is a scattershot affair - bad jokes land with a thud that seems to echo, but the winning ones prompt hearty laughs. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Pure dumb fun -- horror slapstick that rudely parodies both the arterial violence of slasher films and the topless hedonism of the spring-break ritual. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Works better than one might think, thanks to the group's modus operandi, which combines a fundamental reverence for the target material and a sly irreverence that's key to their skewering technique. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
As bad-taste comedies go, this is more clever than gross. Read full review
60
EmpireDanny Graydon
Club Dread still thrives on the group's enormous charm and the determined, genuinely funny comedic approach of knowing pop-culture winks and a zaniness that marks them as pleasingly Pythonesque. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyScott Brown
A few gags are brilliantly staged, but most have a smug, collegiate take-it-or-leave-it quality that makes full-on belly laughter feel optional. Read full review
50
Washington PostSara Gebhardt
Of course, the film still may be too bloody and crass for some, and it's by no means hilarious, but all things considered, Club Dread lives up to expectations, which were never really that high to begin with. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It is really gory, for the record -– though it's too silly and insufficiently twisted to slake the appetite of the hardcore gorehound, it's not something to take a kid to. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineEthan Alter
The film's biggest flaw is its excessive running time: The jokes start wearing thin after the first hour and, by the time the credits finally roll, it's become the kind of straightforward gorefest it started out ridiculing. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
A splatter of scenes that relocate the funny-bone in the lower anatomical regions -- sometimes hitting the mark, occasionally a glancing blow, often missing completely. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
If you enjoy gross humor -- elevated by an occasional witty line -- and looking at babes, and don't mind a little blood and gore, do I have a date movie for you. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
The Broken Lizard types bring the best out of Paxton, only to abandon him in the second half and focus on themselves. A bit more humility might have served them in better stead. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The new parody from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, takes another swipe at the corpse armed with the same old weapons. This time, rigor mortis has set in. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDave Kehr
Mr. Chandrasekhar's direction is casual to the point of carelessness, but he does give the movie a friendly, convivial atmosphere that contradicts and sometimes overcomes its frequently cruel humor. In short, this is another film that looks as if it was more fun to make than it is to sit through. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
The upside is that they're likable and play well together...The downside is that they're all still communicating roughly the same message, which lies somewhere between a wink and a nudge. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A slasher spoof of sorts, except that unlike the "Scream" pics, scant effort seems to have gone into the spoofing aspect of the story. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The name is a tipoff: Club Dread is dreadful. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A bumptious splatter farce that manages to improve from awful to moderately engaging as its cast is winnowed down to the five guys themselves. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Chandrasekhar is a master forger of images and situations from horror movies past, but unlike Wes Craven did in "Scream," he doesn't build on them in any way, and the result is the opposite of what's intended; the movie is stultifying. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Pretty dreadful. Read full review
30
VarietyJoe Leydon
A stunningly unfunny farce that makes the worst of a stale concept. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
About as funny as malaria. Read full review
25
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Studios can release movies even more insultingly dumb, crudely assembled and cheaply produced than this one, though such an achievement will require some effort. Read full review
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