By Geno McGahee
Whoa. I could probably end the review there because I don’t shock easily and this movie literally shocked me and made me turn away a few times…well, at least once. I hate castration scenes…they really bother me, but I guess that they bother most guys that hold their junk dear.
Writer/Director Ryan Nicholson got points with me right away by using the music of Loverboy, a great band if there ever was one. He also pulls absolutely no punches and holds nothing back in this exploitive slasher film…and this is about as exploitive as they come. There are so many moments when you will say “whoa,” beginning with the lengthy and vicious rape scene.
Lisa (Candice Lewald) is an extremely hot chick that is drawing a lot of attention from the fellow bowlers, especially Steve (Alastair Gamble). It might have something to do with the fact that she isn’t wearing any panties and a short skirt, exposing her private parts as she throws the ball down the lane. There is some history here between Steve and Lisa. She just didn’t go for the jerk and he can’t handle it and he has a bunch of cronies to support him and fuel his anger. There is also much animosity between Steve and another bowler on a feuding team, Jamie (Nathan Witte), mostly over Lisa.
In a rape scene to remember, Steve and his group of prick friends: AJ (Nathan Dashwood), Joey (Wade Gibb), and Patrick (Trevor Gemma), corner Lisa in the game room of the bowling alley and rape her on the pinball machine, which obviously is a tribute to THE ACCUSED, where Jodie Foster suffered the same fate. This film takes it several steps farther. This is a hard scene to watch, especially when the bowling pin is involved. This group of bad guys in the film is very easy to hate. You want to see these guys get it and get it good.
After the rape, things go back to normal for Steve’s group. They show up for a night of bowling and so does the victim, Lisa. Patrick, the only one in the group that has any remorse apologizes but he is also the one that used the bowling pin…but he claims peer pressure. Lisa isn’t interested in his apologies and violently grabs Patrick’s bulge just to show him how much she doesn’t forgive him.
The bowling game begins between the two rival teams and a mystery name appears in the competition: BBK. When a masked man goes around killing the bowlers, BBK gets a skull and crossbones as a score. Some of the deaths are…unique to say the least. We have a couple sixty-nining when the killer comes in and chokes the girl on the guy’s junk and then suffocates the guy with the girl’s vagina. Now, if you are offended by male full frontal, this is a scene that you might want to fast forward through. It is small potatoes to the death scene involving Sam (Jimmy Blais).
Something that you do not see enough of in horror films and in films in general are transvestites. We get treated to one here in Sam. Of course, Steve’s group heckles the poor gal and Blais’s portrayal is damn good. His death scene is not damn good…well, I guess it’s too good because it bothered the hell out of me, and I don’t get rattled easily. Maybe this is too much junk carnage for me in such a short period of time. I recently watched HARD CANDY and that got to me, and now this. That’s too much too soon. This film really wanted to make a statement and be as graphic and as disturbing as possible, and it accomplished that, but the castration scene takes the cake…and the balls.
The unknown killer continues to stalk the bowlers, killing them in various inventive ways and for a lower budget flick, the special effects are very good. It is also paced very well and it is compelling. This is a throwback to the 1970’s feel of horror mixed in with the slasher/whodunit that we fell in love with in the 1980s.
I have to recommend GUTTERBALLS, but it’s not for the weak at heart. It is truly a movie that pushes the issue and will offend some, disgust others, and delight many. I think that Nicholson got all three reactions from me, but the third was the one that stuck with me the most. This is a great example of what you can do with a lower budget and some imagination…and balls. It took balls to make a movie like this. The tagline for the film is “Do you have the balls?” Well, it takes some balls to put out a film like this. I take my hat off to the team behind this production for having the guts to not water down their product and make it the way that they saw fit. It is definitely worth a watch.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10. I had the balls until they cut of Sam’s balls.
