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It all starts with a fight between the bowling teams of Steve (Alastair
Gamble) and Jamie (Nathan Witte) one nicht at the bowling alley, a fight
that is ended when Jamie's girlfriend Lisa (Candice Lewald) drops a
bowling ball on Steve's foot ... ouch. Later that night, Steve and gang
corner and brutally rape Lisa, with only Steve's friend Patrick (Trevor
Gemma) trying to stop them or at least to back out ... but ultimately
Steve forces him to rape Lisa with a bowling pin ... double-ouch.
Thing is, Steve's and Jamie's teams still have to play a league game,
so they meet at the bowling alley the very next night after hours as if
nothing has happened - apart from Steve's leg of course being in a cast -,
and Lisa, while acting weird and frequently disappearing to
god-knows-where, doesn't lose a word about the rape.
Thing is, there is obviously a mad killer in the building, and he shuts
the kids along with the janitor (Dan Ellis) in and kills off each and
everyone of the teens who decides to wander off on his own or couples who
decide to retreat and have sex and the like ... and those left behind at
the bowling lanes seem to not even notice what's going on with their
friends - until there are only two of them left, Jamie and Sarah (Mihola
Terzic), who finally get freaked out, finally realize they are locked in,
and finally stumble upon the dead bodies of their friends.
To her horror, Sarah must now learn that Jamie is in league with the
killer, whom he wanted to help avenge Lisa ... but who's the killer. Lisa?
The janitor who now turns out to be her father? Or Patrick, who was left
traumatized by having been forced to rape Lisa?
Fact is, all three of them to a degree, with Lisa's father turning out
to be a madman, but Patrick having been left to do all the dirty work -
who in the end gets his throat slit as a thank you for his efforts.
In the finale, Jamie and Sarah manage to defeat and kill Sarah and her
father and make it out of the bowling alley alive ... but wasn't Jamie in
league with the killers, and doesn't Sarah have a shotgun ...
My synopsis makes Gutterballs sound just like another (old
school) slasher movie, and on a certain level, the film is of course just
that - and intentionally so. But there is much more to this film than just
its story: In design, fashion and music, Gutterballs is so
consciously reminiscent of the 1980's (when there were slasher films
a-dime-a-dozen) you almost cannot believe it was made in 2008, the murders
in the film might be incredibly gruesome and very explicit - and director
Ryan Nicholson has a background in special effects -, but they are also so
over-the-top they are actually laugh-inducing (provided you have a twisted
sense of humour) - my favourite is two characters being smothered to death
in position 69 -, and there are an incredible number of details (like the
silly mask of the killer made out of a bowling bag) that easily identify Gutterballs
not as a mindless formula movie but a loving hommage to the slasher genre
before it got the big budget Hollywood treatment.
Slasher and 80's fans will love this film, but it will also appeal to
people with a twisted, macabre sense of humour.
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find Gutterballs at adultvideouniverse.com
