The real fun of "Broken Lizard's Club Dread" is that it's a horror spoof for people who enjoy horror films, not a mainstreamed mish-mash of pop-culture references and lame, only-funny-once sex jokes that plagued the "Scary Movie" sect. Really, how funny is it to see someone that looks like Michael Jackson possibly molesting kids: "Haha, Michael Jackson, I know who he is." It reminds me of Homer Simpson laughing thoughtfully and saying "Oh, Jokes. I get jokes." The Broken Lizard folk emerged from comedy troupe oblivion a few years back with "Super Troopers," a joke-every-thirty-seconds assault of frat humor and bizarre sight-gags (including "Manhunter" Hannibal Brian Cox peeing on a cop car). The movie was hit-and-miss, but the humor hit enough to make it one of the funniest dumb movies in years. "Club Dread" cuts back a little on the humor, and actually grounds itself solidly in the genre. The jokes don't come as furiously, but they actually develop some amusing characters and ratchet up the gore for some gruesome set pieces.

The story is pleasantly similar to the asinine set-ups of every post "Halloween," "Friday the 13th" knockoff with an improbably omni-present killer stalking a group of dumb hornballs and dropping brain-scrambling clues, either to his identity or the identity of the next victim. The sordid shenanigans take place on Coconut Pete's Pleasure island, a small resort island with no way off for three days, plenty of booze and pre-marital sex to go around. The Broken Lizard boys play various staff members on the island, including director Jay Chandrasekhar as a dread-locked tennis coach with a British accent and Kevin Heffernan (hilarious as the treacherously obese Farva in "Super Troopers") as a 6'1" Swedish Masseur.

Genre vet and all around underrated actor Bill Paxton runs the island as the washed-up Coconut Pete, a beach-bum stoner whose feel-good-and-get-drunk music career never recovered from rival Jimmy Buffet bogarting his almost-hit single "Pina Coladaburg." Paxton is hilarious as the friendly yet deranged Pete, and he's given plenty of time to wax poetic about his glory days, play his special brand of soft rock, and complain that "Eddie Money doesn't have to deal with this." The rest of the island is chock full of the requisite beautiful women, drunken lotharios, and of course a man in a pretzel suit having a quickie with a girl dressed as a slice of watermelon. The killings start before the opening credits, and you'll know immediately whether or not this flick is for you. If you find the fact that a trio of nubile vacationers eschew the cemetery to have their sex and drugs in a mausoleum, or that one girl says "it must be the wind" after the stone door is suddenly closed, then you'll have a great time with the genre-references and in-jokes to follow. This is not hard-core by any stretch of the imagination, and the comedy is at the forefront throughout. However the killings are creative and executed in the manner of our beloved '80s slashers. Plenty of beheadings and slit throats, half-naked girls running through the jungle, and, of course, the disemboweling of a giant pear.

All five members of Broken Lizard are credited with writing the film, and some of the jokes miss their marks. There are also odd stretches of the film that don't really include anything particularly funny or scary. It will not change the way you look at horror or at comedy, however it is certainly the best horror spoof in many, many years ("Repossessed?" Anyone? Maybe this wasn't such a high bar). "Club Dread" contains much of the same frat-boy, "Jackass"-style humor of "Super Troopers," but it is toned down substantially in lieu of the story. Don't get me wrong, this is not "The Pianist," and there is no subtlety or careful storytelling, just a fun little plot and a good time at the movies. If the preview made you laugh, it's worth the 8 bucks. If you like your horror unrelenting and with less fruit viscera, check out "The Passion of the Christ" (Yeah, it's not a horror movie, but man, I haven't cringed so much since Miike's "Audition.") Either way, "Club Dread" is a fun little film while we wait in limbo for the next great horror opus.