GUTTERBALLS (2008 dir Ryan Nicholson)

Plotdigger Films DVD

Ryan Nicholson, the lead makeup effects guy behind Flesh & Fantasy, Inc. and director of TORCHED (2004) and LIVE FEED (2006) brings us this fun throwback to '80s slasher movies that's every bit as entertaining as HATCHET (2006).

After some kids at a roller disco bowl-o-rama bowling alley get into a scuffle one night with some foul-mouthed misogynistic punks, the owner of the joint throws them out and doesn't allow them to come back and bowl till the next night. A young girl leaving with her friends forgets her purse and goes back into the bowling alley to find it. Thinking she'll be okay on her own, her friends go on without her. But when she goes back to get her belongings, the four punks who were causing trouble earlier somehow snuck back in and decide to get back at her by gang raping her. One of the guys thinks they're going a little too far. His friends call him a "pussy" and force him to take a bowling pin and shove it between the poor girl's legs. All the kids come back the next night to finish their game of bowling from the previous night. The initials "BBK" mysteriously show up on the computerized scoreboard once the game begins, leaving the kids puzzled. "Who is BBK?" everyone asks. Soon the kids are running off to get beer while others are sneaking off to have sex. A mysterious assailant in a bowling suit with a bowling bag over his head with eyeholes cut out and armed with bowling bins begins doing away with members of the bowling teams in extremely sick and gory ways. As the characters die off, "BBK" scores points and a skull and crossbones symbol marks the points on the scoreboard. It's evident that someone, or some people, doesn't want anybody leaving the bowl-o-rama alive. The hero and heroine of the story fighting to survive soon unmask the killer in a creative twist ending. I'll leave it at that and let you see for yourself.

GUTTERBALLS is a thoroughly enjoyable, humorous, gory, and outrageous slasher that pulls no punches with being offensive and sickening. The bowling bag mask and bowling suit the killer wears is one of the best costumes anybody could come up with for a slasher. The script is loaded with incredibly vulgar language, there's lots of sleazy characters on hand, plenty of sex and nudity, the kills are very inventive, and one of the best things the movie has going for it is the bowling ball waxing machine that talks and swears at people. That being said, the movie definitely isn't for everybody. It's one of those films you need a strong stomach and high level of tolerance for. I say that mainly because the rape scene near the beginning is very brutal and it's easy to see how some viewers may take offense to it. Gorehounds who aren't bothered by that will definitely enjoy the movie for what it is and will get a kick out of the mega-gory and innovative deaths the movie has to offer including the "death by 69ing" scene which is very offensive but is also very funny at the same time, the split penis, eyes gouged with a sharpened bowling pin, garroting with bowling shoe laces, the head ground up in a ball waxer, and the ultra splattery finale with one of the bloodiest throat slashings I've ever seen and a cool as hell shotgun head decapitation. The movie has a great soundtrack too including Chilliwack, Loverboy, Trooper, and Bachman Turner Overdrive. It was also nice to see that Ryan Nicholson and Plotdigger thanked so many great publications, filmmakers, actors, and websites in the end credits including Fangoria, Rue Morgue, Ultra Violent, Film Threat, Brian Clement and Frontline Films, Bloodtype Online, Fred Vogel and Toe Tag Pictures, Brian Paulin and Morbid Vision Films, Wicked Pixel Cinema, Chris Mayo and Severed Cinema, Cinema Eulogies, JoBlo and Arrow in the Head, The Tomb of Anubis, Killjoy and Necrophagia, Adam Green, The Cavalcade of Schlock, Marcus Koch, Joe Davison, Ted Geoghegan, Debbie Rochon, Dee Snider, etc.

The Plotdigger "Balls-Out Uncut Edition" DVD of GUTTERBALLS presents the movie in 16x9 widescreen with the audio options of 5.1 Surround and Dolby Stereo. The extras include a director's commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette entitled "Behind-the-Balls: The Making of Gutterballs" which contains interviews with Nicholson and members of the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes footage, makeup effects footage, and more, and the movie's trailer.

Gore-craving slasher nuts looking for a good second helping of low budget splatter craze after HATCHET will find much to enjoy with GUTTERBALLS. The film is loaded with over-the-top gore, brutality, T&A, and toilet humor and the DVD has some cool extras. Order the DVD at www.plotdigger.com.