Gutterballs

GUTTERBALLS is a slasher-splatter-comedy movie set in that hotbed of intrigue and terror, a bowling alley.

Two hideously annoying bowling teams square off while a murdering maniac bumps them off one by one in various gushy ways, including: decapitation, sexual mutilation, and facial disintegration via bowling ball polisher.

If you're not a fan of blood spraying everywhere or silly porn, then this might not be a good fit. However, if you crave insane gore, have a demented sense of humor, and don't mind a barrage of perverse homicides, then this could be your dream come true!

The operative word here is: overkill...

Had no knowledge of what to expect from this film but as reading its plot synopsis, expected something to what the finish product was. This is quite a very hard R rated gory, bloodfest and graphic film revolving around two different groups of people competing in a bowling alley.

At times it comes off as amateurish with its over the top characters, it's subpar dialogue (consisting of constant F-bombs every few seconds due to apparently a lot of improvising). All the characters were quite dislikeable and too over the top. Very one dimensional and provided limited lack of depth.

The special effects are top notch as there were several great looking violent deaths. Including a characters face being completely drained into a bowling alley waxer, an explicit bathroom scene choking death scene, several mutilated body and face deaths, heads stabbed and smashed by bowling pins. It seems that with each passing death went on, it became more violent.

There is a slight intriguing twist in the end to tie everything up. Somewhat predictable but in the end it makes sense and actually provides something clever. The ending did make the overall film better and worth it. With that said, this film is not for the squeamish as many may be offended and disturbed throughout, and at times comes across as trying vaguely too hard for shock value.

Gutterballs (2008)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A woman is brutally gang raped by four men. The next night those men, the woman and his other friends meet up at the same bowling alley and one by one people begin to get brutally murdered.

GUTTERBALLS is a film I had never heard of before joining a few Facebook groups and it seems this title was popping up all over the place. Writer-director Ryan Nicholson wanted to make a throwback to the 80's slasher film and he certainly accomplished that and a whole lot more. I'm really not sure who to recommend this thing to because it's going to either offend most or it's just going to drive them crazy by annoying them. If you "get" the picture then I think you'll have a good time but viewer discretion is certainly advised before attempting to watch this thing.

This is the type of film you really watch as a dare because, like I said, it's pretty brutal from start to finish. It's certainly not graphic like the recent trend of torture porn because the film is so over-the-top that you can't take it too serious. This includes all the characters who are downright stupid and annoying but I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose. The film is notorious for the death scenes and there's no doubt that there's some original and memorable scenes. If you've seen enough horror movies then you know it's hard to see something original but we get at least five original deaths here. Some are so downright crazy that you really have to see them to believe it. Needless to say, even Lucio Fulci would tip his hat.

While this film will always be remembered and talked about for its gore, I think the strongest thing is the technical aspects. There's no doubt that director Nicholson does an extremely good job at telling the story and there's no question that he can handle a film. I'm not sure what the budget was but I'm sure it was low but the film still has a professional look to it. The most amazing thing is that the film really does look like it was filmed during the early 80's. A lot of filmmakers try to capture that "look" but most fail That's not the case here. There are some flaws with the picture including some of the performances, the annoying characters and I think the film runs too long but there's still no question that GUTTERBALLS is quite an original film in many ways and that makes it worth watching if you can stomach it.

For all the gore lovers, the display pic and the name of the movie will sound like a mouth watering gore fest. But ppl, don't be fooled by that.

The movie does have its share of gore but that's poorly done. The movie guys tried hard to make each and every killing scene look very gory but didn't have that class and touch to make it look like one.

Lots of profanities spoken which did seem out of place in some of the scenes.

Overall, not that good a movie that one would like watching. Can be avoided.

Looking past the questionable audio and image quality of this movie, then "Gutterballs" is an enjoyable, albeit corny, campy and simple, slasher movie. It did score points for being unique and different. For a slasher movie, though, the movie was lacking an interesting and stylish killer. Yes, there was a killer, but the design of the costume was just stupid.

The storyline is very, very simple; a group of young people get trapped in a bowling hall with a rampart killer.

While the killer in the movie was very plain and silly, then the movie does have a heap of blood and gore, as well as good ways that some people are killed. And that is what makes the movie watchable.

It should be said that there is an excessive amount of cursing, foul language and the f-word is almost in every single sentence. So if you are offended by such language, then you should perhaps skip on watching "Gutterball".

The characters were generic and lacking characteristics and memorability. As such, you don't really connect with the characters and roles, and they are but mere fodder for the killer. Except for Steve who you just hate right away.

"Gutterballs" is fun enough for a single viewing, just don't expect anything groundbreaking.