Gutterballs

Plot synopsis:
On January 1, 2008 at the Xcalibur Bowling Centre, a disco-themed bowling alley in Surrey, British Columbia, Egerton, the janitor, has allowed two groups of teenagers to bowl against one another after hours. The "prep", Steve, is still bitter after his best friend Jamie, the "jock", had sex with Lisa, a girl with whom Steve was smitten and even took to their senior prom. After Steve and his friends Joey, Patrick, and A.J. harass the "tranny", Sam, they are chastised by Jamie. This leads to a brawl between Steve's team and Jamie's. Lisa breaks up the fight by dropping a bowling ball on Steve's foot just as Steve is about to kick Jamie again. Egerton, brandishing a shotgun, tells the teenagers to leave and they can continue their tournament the following night.
Lisa, having forgot her purse in the arcade, returns to find Steve and his friends waiting for her. Steve proceeds to violently rape Lisa while the others watch. Egerton is oblivious to Lisa's cries for help, as he is downstairs cleaning up the mess the teenagers made. After he is finished raping Lisa, Steve leaves the room. While Steve is gone, A.J. anally rapes Lisa on the pool table; then it's Joey who abuses her. Patrick, who believed the three were only going to "scare" Lisa, refuses to participate in the rape. Steve returns with a bowling pin and prepares to insert it into Lisa before Patrick intervenes. Steve retorts by giving Patrick the pin and ordering him to do it himself. Patrick refuses to do so at first but complies when Steve threatens to do the same to him. In the end Patrick penetrates Lisa with the bowling pin as she screams in pain. The four leave Lisa on the pool table, naked and barely conscious.
The following night, the two groups arrive at the bowling alley to continue their tournament. Steve is joined by his "girlfriends", Julia and Hannah. Jamie arrives late with Lisa, who barely speaks. As the teams begin their first game of the night, Lisa suddenly gets on an elevator. She is confronted by Patrick, who says he's only at the bowling alley to apologize. Lisa doesn't believe him, and insists that he is only there to make sure that she hasn't contacted the police. During the game, the players notice a mystery player on the scoreboard, BBK, but believe it is just a glitch. Dave, one of Jamie's friends, meets Julia in the bar and pays for two beers she ordered. When he discovers that one of them belongs to Steve, he asks if he can urinate in it. Julia tells him that she doesn't care and that she dislikes Steve too but hangs out with him anyway because he's dating her friend Hannah. Julia follows Dave into the bathroom and the two begin to make out. A mysterious person wearing bowling attire exits one of the stalls while Dave and Julia are in the 69 position and forces Julia's head further onto Dave's penis while forcing Dave's head further between Julia's legs, suffocating them both. After they are dead, two strikes appear next to BBK on the scoreboard in the form of a skull and crossbones.
The game continues and Sam goes to the bathroom so she can "freshen up". The person who murdered Dave and Julia is hiding in one of the stalls when Sam enters the girls' restroom and Sam, frightened by the noise coming from the stall, approaches it and is pulled inside. She tries to bargain with the killer, but the killer murders her by forcing a bowling pin down her throat. The killer lifts Sam's skirt up and, using the switchblade Sam tried to defend herself with, castrates Sam lengthwise. Later, Ben and Cindy leave to have sex in a storage room upstairs, but Ben leaves Cindy alone to buy a condom from the vending machine in the bathroom. He dies when the killer hits him over the head with a bowling pin and gouges his eyes out with a sharpened one. The killer finds Cindy upstairs and strangles her to death with a pair of bowling sneakers. Downstairs, Hannah searches for Julia but dies when the killer crushes her head with two bowling balls. Joey goes back behind the pin setters to fix his team's after noticing they were broken. A.J. notices the strikes appearing next to BBK on the scoreboard and questions Egerton about it, who assures him that it is still a glitch. Egerton sends A.J. to an area currently being remodeled with an "out of order" sign to put on an automatic ball polisher that Joey broke earlier. A.J. turns the ball polisher on and finds it already fixed but gets killed when the killer uses it to wax his face off.
Steve, noticing that something is amiss, leaves to find Joey behind the pin setters. Joey lies dead on the ground, headless. Steve is frightened by the killer, who bludgeons him with a bowling pin before sodomizing him with another sharpened pin. As Steve tries to crawl away, the killer smashes his head in with the bowling pin. Meanwhile, Sarah and Jamie continue their game. Jamie reaches into the ball return slot to find his bowling ball, instead discovering Joey's severed head. The two try desperately to escape the bowling alley before coming face to face with the killer. They run and hide in the basement, where they find their friends' bodies. The killer appears with a shotgun and removes the bowling bag to reveal Egerton's face. Sarah discovers that Jamie knew about the murders of Steve, Joey, and A.J. but not the others. Lisa appears, dressed up as well, revealing that she murdered Steve. Jamie explains that Lisa told her father, who turns out to be Egerton, about the rape and Egerton let Jamie in on the plan. When asked why he killed their friends too, Egerton explains that they didn't intervene when Lisa reentered the bowling alley and are therefore just as guilty. Another person dressed like the killer, as Egerton goes on to explain, Another killer (possibly the real "BBK") enters the basement and removes the bowling bag to reveal Patrick's face. Patrick explains that he confessed his involvement to Egerton and wanted to contact the police, but Egerton let him in on the plan instead and he was the person who murdered Joey and A.J., supposedly to make it up to her. Lisa is furious that her father allowed him to live so Egerton betrays Patrick and slits his throat with the switchblade he got from Sam. Jamie, realizing he's out of control, wrestles Egerton to the ground and, after a scuffle, blows his head clean off with the shotgun. Lisa cradles her father's body before grabbing the switchblade and trying to attack Jamie. Sarah grabs the shotgun and kills Lisa.
With the three "BBK"'s dead, Sarah shoots the locks off of the emergency doors and the two survivors escape the bowling alley. Traumatized and, above all, upset that Jamie did nothing to prevent the murders, Sarah turns the gun on him, pumps it saying: "'cuz we're both fucked". The screen cuts to black as a gunshot is heard, indicating that Sarah murdered Jamie and is on the run.

Tags: revenge, violence, flashback

Review:
I also took little guilty pleasure in the rape-revenge aspect because three times as many innocent people were killed than the attackers, and many of the death scenes reserved for the uninvolved parties were far more sadistic and torturous than what was dished out to the actual rapists.
By allowing his cast to behave like obnoxious, shrieking cretins and giving them so much lousy, horribly-written dialogue (or allowing them to improvise too much), the director/writer single handedly killed off his intentions for a fun bowling-themed slasher flick.
***This review is of the 'balls-out' uncut edition of Gutterballs***Ryan Nicholson, the man responsible for the excellent, ultra-sick rape/revenge short Torched, returns to that same genre for Gutterballs, this time delivering a full-length feature that draws inspiration from the gory slasher flicks of the 80s.
It's not the first film in recent years to look to the rich past of exploitation movies for ideasGrindhouse, Hatchet, and Doomsday have all sought to emulate 'classics' from the less respected side of cinemabut, although it is not without its drawbacks (more about that later), it is Nicholson's offering that comes the closest to capturing that authentic vintage vibe.Set in a bowling alley after closing hours, Gutterballs sees a psycho named BBK (short for Bowling Bag Killer) hacking and slashing his way through the members of two rival bowling teams who are taking part in a midnight grudge match.
The gang-rape scene is the first evidence that this film is going for broke in the nastiness stakes: it's a truly sickening and relentless attack that is genuinely hard to stomach, but it sure makes you want to see the perpetrators get what they deserve (which, of course, they do).And if the gang-rape isn't enough to convince you that Nicholson means business, then the first few killings should make matters crystal clear: a couple are killed whilst performing a graphic '69', and a transvestite is choked on a bowling pin and given a messy make-shift sex change (all in sickeningly bloody close-up!).
Also, much of the humour is rather juvenile, with a goofy, talking, ball-waxing machine being particularly grating (at least until it removes one character's face!).Improvements could have also been made to the end of the film, where we finally find out the true identity of BBK: it's a rather over-complicated denouement that quickly becomes confusing.Still, even with these negative points, Gutterballs is a unique and entertaining piece of indie sleaze destined to become a cult favourite amongst those film fans that like their horror extremely depraved with a warped sense of fun.Since I gave Torched 8/10, and slightly preferred that film's more nihilistic approach, I will rate Gutterballs a still-very-decent 7.5/10 (which I am happy to round up to 8 for IMDb anyway, 'cos the film has a cool rock soundtrackApril Wine fans, raise your fists!)..
"Gutterballs" opens with tasteless and suitably disturbing gang-rape scene that will surely offend some viewers.It takes place in a bowling alley called the Xcalibur Bowling Centre.Its janitor lets two groups of teenagers for the big bowling match against each other.Soon the members of each group are being gorily dispatched by the frenzied killer BBK,who wears a bowling bag mask..."Gutterballs" is a sleazy blast obviously inspired by Italian giallo flicks and excessively violent slashers from early 80's.The death scenes are seriously sick and gory as hell and the graphic nudity is frequent in the unrated XXX version.The characters are obnoxious,vulgar and outlandish.None of them is likable.Several scenes of bloodshed put the smile of my face including the death of transvestite,who gets his penis sheared off.The double asphyxiation by fellatio and cunnilingus is also worth mentioning as is the stabbing with sharpened pin.To sum up,"Gutterballs" is not for the squeamish,so if you are a fan of tasteless and morbid horror grab the unrated version..
BUT if you are looking for hot chicks, lots of sex, and original and inventive death scenes, then this movie is for you.I must warn that there is a pretty graphic and overly long rape scene if you are sensitive to such things.
Completely unnecessary Sex Scenes, and doubly unnecessary gore in a Movie Plot which over-over-stretched (the whole bowling setup does not give much room for the story).I really could not understand how anyone can actually write, produce, direct,act, edit and release such a movie?
The movie lacks originality, credible acting, bad background music (that completely fails to create and hold the fear factor), third rate makeup, poor camera works (watch "them" if you want to know what a camera angle can do in a horror movie)and last but not the least completely nonsensical reason for the killing.
Well, I just finished watching Gutterballs.To set up this mini-review I'll start by saying that Ryans previous movie, Live Feed was enjoyable.
We get an extended multiple rape scene, male and female nudity (which becomes very graphic at certain points), some very inventive and nasty deaths (with some great FX) and mutilations that may leave you squirming.Gutterballs succeeds in its mission.
It brings back the memories of old school exploitation but is a lot of fun at the same time.Recommended to horror fans who like a bit of rough from time to time....and who like a laugh.8/10PS If their were an award for "Most creative costume for a Killer", I'd vote for Gutterballs....its freakin' awesome :-).
I approached Gutterballs with caution; as while the premise sounded interesting enough, I was not a fan of director Ryan Nicholson's first feature film 'Live Feed'.
Gutterballs seems to take inspiration from slasher flicks such as Intruder and Stage Fright, in that we have a group of people locked inside a small location with a maniacal killer, and mixes this with a gleeful eighties style and a bucket of blood and gore.
The result is a film that is not for everyone; but a dream come true for fans of exploitative horror, as Gutterballs is completely unflinching in the way that it portrays violence, and it's actually very refreshing to see someone still making films like this with all the watered down horror coming out of most modern day studios.
Cut to the next night and their game is intruded by an unknown bowler calling himself 'BBK', and the bowlers start being picked off one by one.Gutterballs is a film that really doesn't hold back at all; the gang rape scene within the first twenty minutes is liable to get more than a few backs up pretty quickly, but it actually turns out to be just a taster for what is to come as we are treated to a barrage of murder scenes and various body parts are mutilated.
Ryan Nicholson ensures that the film is entertaining throughout and Gutterballs never really slows down or becomes boring for a minute, which makes for a very fun viewing.
Overall, I don't expect Gutterballs to receive universal praise, but I would think that it will get respect from genre fans (who also have fun spotting various tributes) and I would certainly rate it as one of the better horror flicks of this decade.
Gutterballs is a cross between a Friday the 13th film and a Troma movie, set in a bowling alley under attack from a killer wearing a bowling ball bag as a mask.Using various bowling-themed implements of doom, the psychopath makes very short work of two competing teams - determined to make a name for themselves in the strange underground late night bowling circuit their town apparently hosts.
Director Ryan Nicholson has dropped every ounce of sleaze into this feature, but primarily keeps things fun.Where the film falters is in going too overboard on a few choice scenes.
I love nudity and gore as much as the next slasher fan, but as the 80's taught us, these films work best when you're having fun - not when you're squirming in your seat.
A nearly four minute rape scene highlights the overly-excessive moments that feel out of place in this fun film, but Gutterballs' totally unavoidable MPAA cuts may actually benefit some of these moments by streamlining their content.But aside from that one piece of constructive criticism, the film is an undeniable blast.
The main characters are vulgar, over-the-top, and prime cannon fodder for the masked "BBK" (Bowling Bag Killer); the effects are wonderfully gruesome; and the 80s hits throughout the film will leave you scratching your head as to how director Nicholson scored the rights to so many classic tunes.
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.
It's a brilliant kickback to all those 80's horror flicks such as INTRUDER, MANIAC, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, and definitely I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVEI got to be honest though this is a brutal film, and is definitely not going to be for everyone, it has a rape scene which rivals the one in IRREVERSIBLE.
But as a true horror fan I absolutely loved it, great death scenes, gore by the bucket load, nudity and sex (almost a porno in parts)All in all a great effort from Ryan Nicholson, all I can hope for is he makes more films, and that he sticks to the roots he used in this film, although I'm not sure the UK will see this film...not in this version at least, so make sure you go for the US UNRATED version, when it comes out..
Gutterballs provides us with a beaver shot so candid that you in all likeliness will tilt your head and go; Hmm. This is the kind of film that goes that extra mile, something that undoubtedly will offend any regular and possibly the more hardened viewer.A woman is raped in a bowling alley and the following evening people start dying at that very same bowling alley.
And that leads to some very entertaining kills, slasher movie style, and some very excellent gore, leading to not quite the ending I expected but which I found quite satisfying.I saw the uncut version and I loved this film.
I've seen many horror movies, good, bad, sick, twisted, over the top...but GUTTERBALLS takes the doughnut!
It could pass for a slasher film from that era, which is either a good thing or bad thing depending on your feelings regarding the slasher sub-genre.Gutterballs follows two groups of friends, both rivals with each other, who decide to settle their differences in a bowling match.
The following night, as the rivals face off against each other at the bowling alley, a person with a bowling bag over their head secretly kills the players off one by one.When it comes to gore and nudity, two staples of the slasher genre, Gutterballs definitely delivers.
Many viewers will be turned off, but Gutterballs is a hell of a lot of fun for people who enjoy violence and sex (which includes me), and definitely goes where no Hollywood film ever will.Not only does Nicholson's film deliver in gore and sex, it also has its fair amount of humor.
With some rape, some great nudity, some kickass gore and more than a handful of good laughs, Gutterballs is easily one of the best Bowling flicks of all time, and one of the best horror/comedies of the year.
"Gutterballs" looks and feels like an 80's slasher movie and that works BIG time in it's favor.
As a throwback to the 80's sleazy slashers, Gutterballs succeeds on every level.For me, this is easily Nicholson's best to date.I must admit, it started a little slowly, but after it clocked over 50 minutes or so, it just goes bang, and its almost one death scene to the next.
The nudity was plentiful, the gore the same, and a nice constant level of brutality and sleaze for those interested.So many memorable death scenes, I couldn't pick any out as a favorite, and I wont to save spoilers.The janitor's character was a classic, and probably the best performance of the cast.
But this movie just continues to evolve throughout its runtime to encompass 70s giallos (with appropriately great music scores), 80s slasher flicks (atmospheric and cliché), late 90s and early 2000s Troma films (extreme gore and silly concepts), and raw brutality of modern horror, and THEN some!The premise involves a completely unlikable group of rapists bowling against their latest rape victim's team, which sounds kind of outlandish, but they pull it off well.
It actually has a good musical score.It's a movie that is about torture and men who act and portrays teen films from the 70's and 80's where men called each other names, had sex and committed crimes for the sake of revenge.It's rude, disgusting and entertainingly fun.
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.
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.
then once that is found can then set about bringing that unconscious terror alive through the careful planning of a good story, a gritty script,believable actors,empathetic characters and of course the frights themselves.....this film however had none of the above and was overall the most boring,painful and intelligence insulting movie experience that i have suffered since i watched the first twilight movie!the acting was terrible,the script sounded like it was spewed by a foul mouthed illiterate on a bad day, the characters where both unbelievable and completely unlikeable and the gore was dull and predictable(but slightly gratifying due to the infuriating nature of the characters).
Fun, no.GUTTERBALLS is a movie that tries to emulate those bad 80's straight-to-video slasher films, and does so with some success, but ultimately fails.
Again, I'm left with the frustrating feeling that this could have been worked out with a little more writing....it's like the movie needed just one more re-write.So in the end, I cannot recommend Gutterballs to anyone, except the most die-hard horror fan....and even then with a little trepidation..
I liked the brutality and non-pc aspects, but wasn't impressed by some of the other elements: 1) The over dubbing was off--often mouths were moving but there was no sound.2) The over use of the f-word started to grate on me.3)None of the characters with the exception of the black guy were people you could cheer for--in fact everyone except him was annoying.However, some of the kills were pretty cool (the tranny penis cutting was very well executed) and nudity is always goodeven if some of those girls maybe should have kept their clothes on.After a 8 1/2 minute set up, we get to meet the black gloved masked killer making weapons that will soon be used to dispatch his/her unknowing victims in due time.
Too bad three goofs happened during this scene: 1) The actress was supposed to be going commando (a term I don't believe was invented in the 80's) but she was clearly wearing underwear.2) One of the characters was instructed on which end of the bowling pin to rape her with, but still messed up--but was told he was doing it correctly.3) I kept hearing weird digital sounds that were obviously a glitch with the disk or production.After the rape, the movie really gets going and BBK wastes no time in killing off the characters one by one in interesting fashion.The average movie goer may not enjoy this movie, but fans of non-pc, low budget and older slasher flicks should get some enjoyment from Gutterballs.
Now when you think you're in for a brainless fun movie the director gives you a 10minute gang rape scene ending in the penetration with a bowling pin.
But the mixture just doesn't seem right after the movie ended.After all "Gutterball" is an entertaining slasher with some pretty over the top killings.
From my first statement you've probably realized that i've seen more than one rape scene in my day but this one was one of few that i had a hard time with gives i spit on your grave a run for it's money just outright bloody disgusting and slightly offensive !!!END OF SPOILER!!!also on the DVD version that i watched audio sucked so bad except for the commentary which was crystal clear the characters even the good guys weren't really human they seemed to have few emotions or interesting traits the saddest thing about this whole affair though was the great title sequence which really just set the film up for failure and there were a few okay kills with some rather good gore a bowling ball polishing machine gag is brought to mind i don't know Torched was way better see that insteadonly watch if hardcore otherwise complete waste of time 5/10.
Love It or Hate It. Ryan Nicholson obviously had no intentions for "Gutterballs" to be a serious horror film and it is interesting that some people cannot see that.
The next night, the teams return to have a bowling competition when a mysterious killer begins killing them in sadistic and gory ways.First, there is the rape scene, which, as mentioned in almost every review is extremely graphic and extremely long.
Also, the vast majority of the gore happens towards the end of the movie.The Sound Design: "Gutterballs" actually has a pretty good '80s soundtrack.
The bowling alley is the setting for this sadistic slasher rape revenge offering from director Ryan Nicholson.
Nicholson's Gutterballs is an obvious homage to 70's rape revenge thrillers and 80's slashers, except his film is far more explicit and detailed in sexuality and graphic violence.