Billy Club

Wow I struggled with whether to go with a 5 or a 6 rating on this. Ultimately I decided to be slightly more generous because "Billy Club" was better than I expected a slasher film to be and the production values were quite good for low budget.

I was leaning towards the 5, however, because the characters were a special kind of dumb and it was frighteningly easy to figure out who the killer was. Starting with, like, the title?

Anyway, "Billy Club" is about a guy dressed as an umpire who wields a Swiss Army knife bat as his weapon of choice to kill off the now-grown kids who left him for dead after a punishment gone wrong after he blew a baseball game.

The good: Production values were impressive considering the budget. They made it look every bit as dollar-heavy as Jason or Freddy. The cinematography was excellent, even nighttime and inside scenes were clear and the audio was well maintained without me having to touch my remote once. The acting wasn't Oscar-worthy, but impressive considering I've never heard of anyone except for Mark Metcalf, who was in a brief flashback. The score was effective and appropriate, and the pacing was at a good clip and kept the film from getting too dull.

The bad: The script struggled to keep up with any common sense. Perhaps because they show their hand right off the bat (ba-dum-bum), working around so many plot holes became a minefield. As mentioned before, the dumb moves made by the characters were mind boggling. Of course, you expect stupidity in slasher films, so maybe I'm being too harsh. Then there's the also-expected Worst. Police. Ever. They're there, too. The explanation at the end seemed to take way too long, and the last scene concluded with a thud.

I don't generally care for slasher films, but I gave this one a chance because it had a higher than usual rating and instead of a suspicious overabundance of 10s, the reviews were more reasonable and informative. So if you're the same, maybe give it a shot. It's not a flash of brilliance, but considering the genre, it's not bad.

Fifteen years after a gruesome triple homicide devastated their Little League baseball team, four friends reunite to commemorate their dead coach and fallen teammates. A mystery unfolds as the secrets from their past return to haunt them and a vengeful killer, hidden by an antique umpire's mask, returns to even the score.

I saw this film as part of the Oshkosh Horror Film Festival and was drawn to it by the fact it was filmed in Wisconsin and many of those involved were from Milwaukee. I knew nothing about it beyond that, and had no expectations. For the most part, I was quite pleased.

Being a fan of slashers, I love the whole plot of a past crime being avenged years later by a masked killer. And then you throw in the mystery of the killer himself -- is it the same guy as years ago? An imposter? Why now? This is always good.

Next, you throw in a good group of actors, some excellent direction and camera work, and plenty of humor. This is a winner any way you slice it. Of the two big Wisconsin films this year (the other being "Don't Go To The Reunion", which also featured Nick Sommer who wrote-directed-starred in this film) this was the one that really hit a home run. (I say that with all due respect to "Reunion", which is itself a fine movie with great kills and humor and was made by two wonderful gentlemen.)

My biggest critique would have to be the flashbacks. From a Q&A, I gathered that the "modern day" (1990s) footage was shot first and the flashbacks were spliced in later. I feel like some it slowed the pace down. The kid parts were alright, but the hospital scenes just seemed to drag a bit and did not add the psychological angle the filmmakers were looking for.

You should definitely see this, though. A few snags here and there do not detract from this being a slasher that bats over .500 in a subgenre that rarely hits .333, if you know what I mean. Nick Sommer is a man to watch out for. First "Blood Junkie" (available from Troma), then this... who knows what is next?

Impressively fair slasher.

Can someone tell me if this was inspired by another film with a similar plot?

There was another indie slasher that began with a group of cruel kids on a baseball field who teased another youngster. When the boy attempted to catch a fly ball hit out of the field, he was struck by a car. The movie (that looks similar to this one) is about these same cruel kids who are all grown up years later and are reunited at a bed and breakfast cabin and begin receiving strange threats from a mystery man who stalks them. Very scary and intensifying indie Thriller with a similar plot to "Billy Club".

The problem with this film is that it's scarce. I don't remember if it was part of a Horror Anthology or actual indie movie that possibly inspired Billy Club.

Can anyone remember this scarce film?

Follows a formula and was watchable, but at some parts tries to take itself too seriously.

Most great indie horror films are a testament to hard work, a good script, and great cast in spite of lesser production values and a series of technical flaws. There's potential in them even if they need a fresh coat of paint. Billy Club is, surprisingly, the opposite.

Billy Club looks like a million bucks. There's no doubt the people behind this movie worked hard, long hours to make this movie look as professional and polished as its low budget would allow. Framing and angles are inventive and cinematic and most sound cues are crisp and well-mixed.

Billy Club should be a head above the rest of these low budget slasher flicks, but it's not. Despite the impressive glow up, this owes more to the no-budget absurd straight to video slashers of the early 2000s than any of the golden age classics like My Bloody Valentine or Prom Night.

As a concept, Billy Club seems promising. You see, in the early 80's, a few kids and their baseball coach were found murdered on the field and a crazy kid named Billy was sent away for it. Years later, he's let go from the nuthouse and starts taking out the rest of his surviving teammates because they once pulled a near-deadly prank on him. He's actually starting to make sense and I can understand his reasonings. These people are awful.

Billy Club suffers from that ever-present likability problem most post-2000 slasher flicks have. No one in this movie is worth caring about and, even if they are, they end up doing something incredibly stupid just seconds later. The amount of characters in this film who get out of a car in a secluded area and just start walking into the woods for seemingly no reason is staggering. You can feel the screenwriters realizing they desperately need to find a reason to get these characters alone, but this was the best they could come up with. And who can blame them? With characters as shallow as this, that probably was the thing that made the most sense for them at that point in the story.

What Billy Club does get right, it really gets right. The kill scenes are incredibly grisly and there are a few unforgettable images throughout the film. When the film's heroine comes across a macabre art installation of her friends at a secluded lake, you'll be hard pressed to not gasp in awe. It's a truly unforgettable image and any film is lucky to possess at least one of those, so you can't write Billy Club off completely.

It could have used another draft or two before production, but Billy Club does have its saving graces.