Broken Lizard – the comedy quintet also known as Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske -- has been honing their unique brand of irreverent, character-driven comedy for a decade now. But it was in 2001, with the release of SUPER TROOPERS, that the group grabbed the attention of mainstream filmgoers. With a hip sense of humor and plenty of quotable one-liners, the film – about a hapless troop of Vermont police facing their biggest case ever -- became one of the year’s surprise sleeper hits.
On the heels of SUPER TROOPERS, the members of Broken Lizard were looking for something completely different to sink their comic teeth into. Like many of their generation, they are fans of the horror genre – and it seemed a blood-curdling tale would be a natural match for their fearless style of comedy. Rather than spoof the horror genre though, they decided to incorporate elements of a serial killer thriller right into their trademark comedy style.
Another influence on CLUB DREAD was the group’s dream to go somewhere a bit more sexy than Poughkeepsie, the locale of SUPER TROOPERS. “Sure, Poughkeepsie was lovely,” says Paul Soter, who plays Coconut Pete’s raver nephew Dave in the film, “but we thought, why not take our next movie somewhere with no lack of women in bikinis and tropical drinks?”
Thus, Broken Lizard began to write about a funky little patch of island paradise, designed as a singles resort taken to the ultimate extremes of let-it-all-hang-out indulgence. Says Jay Chandrasekhar: “It’s a fantasy come to life. You’ve got this island where a new boatload of young, fun, horny people comes every week and the drinks are flowing and everybody’s happy. It’s the last place in the world you’d ever want to leave . . . but only until people start getting murdered, and then it becomes the first place you want to get off of. We saw this great contrast – you have the best place in the world to be and yet you want to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible – and we knew a lot of crazy things could happen around it.”
Adds Steve Lemme who plays the seemingly suave Juan Castillo: “I’ve been to some of these resorts before and you realize that they are literally designed to get as many people laid as possible and they disguise the entire day around that. You have all kinds of activities and games at these place but they’re all about one thing. So the fun part of CLUB DREAD is that everybody’s trying to keep this get-laid attitude going while also trying to figure out who’s killing people on the island.”
In coming up with wilder and wilder ideas for their larger-than-life version of a Caribbean super-resort, Broken Lizard also came up with the island’s utterly offbeat (and sometimes off-key) owner: Coconut Pete, a washed-up 70s rock star still living his life in a haze of hedonism. Says Paul Soter: “It struck us as a cool concept that instead of a regular beach, you could go to this guy’s private island, where you get to party and rub elbows with some old rock star maybe that your parents used to listen to. We felt Paradise Island would be a place people would really want to go, and the audience would get a kick out of being there with Coconut Pete and his crew of islanders all looking for a good time.”
Of course, Paradise also has a dark side – or as dark as the buoyant comedy of Broken Lizard gets. Erik Stolhanske, who plays Sam, the self-proclaimed leader of the island’s Fun Police, explains: “On the one hand, the island is all about drinking tequila and making love. But we also wanted to fill it with horror. We were thinking of those fun old movies like ‘Abbot and Costello Meets Frankenstein’ where comedy hooks up with terror and one minute you’re cracking up and the next you’re hiding behind your seat.”
Next the comics set about populating their island of decadent debauchery with a group of recognizable characters, from a hyped-up aerobics instructor and a blissed-out masseur to a Speedo-addicted Dive Master. Adding to the fun, the members of Broken Lizard wanted their characters in CLUB DREAD to be the very opposite of their characters in SUPER TROOPERS, just to keep the audience guessing. Explains Soter: “We thought it was important that the audience not be able to label any of the characters as the ‘nice guy’ or ‘the heavy’ based on our previous films. Each of the characters in CLUB DREAD is equally likely to be the machete maniac or a hysterical innocent.”
As they wrote, each member of Broken Lizard contributed their own individual comic talents. Jay Chandrasekhar explains how the group divides up: “Steve does the gross-out stuff, Kevin is great with framing the story, Paul always comes up with these weird jokes, and Erik is terrific with dialogue. And that’s what makes up a Broken Lizard comedy.”
For producer Richard Perello, watching Broken Lizard write CLUB DREAD was its own thrill. “These guys take the experience of hanging out and cracking jokes with one another and bring that comic energy to the screen,” he observes. “Their writing process is incredibly organic and great to watch, as each member contributes his own unique personality.”
In the end, the story of CLUB DREAD took Broken Lizard on a journey very different from SUPER TROOPERS, albeit with the same underlying sense of humor. Sums up Kevin Heffernan, who plays the unlikely Zen Master Lars: “There’s a little something for everyone in this story: a whodunit, a slasher film, a romance, a lot of partying and topped off with the usual Broken Lizard mayhem.”
