Gutterballs

Ryan Nicholson
2008

Established effects/makeup artist Ryan Nicholson's latest directing experiment is an unapologetic throwback to 80's trash horror with it's direct-to-video feel, obsession with gore, and expectedly atrocious acting. Resplendent in it's repugnance and loose DIY sensibility "Gutterballs" co-opts the standard slasher premise merely as a vehicle for wanton sex and splatter. Vapid potty-mouthed teens (who look well into their 30's) face off in a tournament bowling match which deteriorates into a scuffle and eventually a brutal gang rape. When the game reconvenes the next day the athletes find themselves stalked and offed, in ways both gruesome and hilarious, by a bogeyman sporting a bowling-ball bag on top of his/her melon. Hack 'n slash is the picture's reason for being and Nicholson mixes up his kills with a good blend of the ghastly and amusing. The two most memorable setpieces involve murder by sixty-nine sex position (suffocated by genitals!), and an amazing decapitation by shotgun. Also notable is the amount of penis on display - lowbrow as it may be, Nicholson exhibits a surprising equal-opportunity approach in displaying nudity, something extremely rare for a genre that usually has at least one requisite topless scene. It should go without saying that the thrills here are cheap and tasteless, and it's only likely to please connoisseurs of garbage cinema. Connoisseurs of garbage cinema like me.