D Rahul Raj Jsd
This is no ordinary horror movie when it's directed by the Master Of Extreme, Ryan Nicholson. It's packed with high levels of everything an extreme hardcore horror fan will truly love. It's also a homage to 70s and 80s horror, with the vibe of the movie and the soundtrack. It's "I Spit On Your Grave" meets "Halloween", with a mixture of Giallo subgenre in an extreme way. Dan Ellis is a brilliant actor and he is even more talented than most overrated Hollywood actors. If you're an extreme horror fan and you have never seen any of Ryan Nicholson's movies, please checkout his filmography on IMDb. Be sure to get this modern masterpiece. I promise you if you're a true hardcore horror fan, you will not be disappointed...
Scott LeBrun
One thing can definitely be said of "Gutterballs", and that's that writer / director Ryan Nicholson is true to his "balls-out, more-is-more" vision. Those genre fans who prefer subtlety won't find it anywhere here. Basically, "Gutterballs" is 96 minutes worth of excess, leaving nothing to our imagination; it's sure to satisfy if you don't want a meaty story or clever dialogue or very well drawn characters, but just a whole lot of depravity and brutality. On this level, it succeeds quite well. This viewer rated it fairly highly because it did amuse him often, and "amusing" really would be the right word to describe this blood drenched flick as it's far more sadistic than scary. It concerns two rival bowling teams made up of obnoxious young folk, who really aren't worth caring about in the slightest but at least that makes it easier to root for their demise. One female team member, Lisa (Candice Lewald), is raped by the grunting macho pig players on the other team; when next the teams meet *everybody* is fair game for a maniacal individual wearing a bowling bag over their head to disguise their identity. Now, some of the actors are entertaining, in particular Alastair Gamble as major jerk Steve, and Dan Ellis as the "old guy" janitor. What sells "Gutterballs" to those who care are its over-the-top set pieces where the audience won't believe what they're seeing, especially the impromptu operation occurring about the half way point, and the penetration by bowling ball sequences. The bowling alley makes for a unique enough setting, and overall the movie earns points more for its Grand Guignol style showmanship than anything else. It requires a strong stomach on the part of the viewer, but if they're partial to gore and can tolerate the other elements of the movie, they may find this a fair deal of fun. Seven bowling pins out of 10.
garden-17
"Gutterballs" is marketed as an homage to slasher-films from the 1980s. Does it do that genre justice? Well...yes and no.The Plot: Two groups of friends/bowling-teams get into a violent argument at a bowling alley; one group consists of "good people" (and, by "good", I mean horny, oblivious, and annoying), the other group are our villains (and, by "villains", I mean...horny, oblivious, and annoying people). After the argument, Lisa (one of the "good people") is gang-raped by the members of the other bowling team, and sodomized with a bowling pin. The plans of revenge are then set in motion, when--the following night--members of both teams meet to settle a bet, and are systematically executed in increasingly gory and creative ways.The Special Effects: They range from brutally effective to downright crude. I have to give the director, Ryan Nicholson, credit for even considering tackling some of these gory scenes with such an obviously limited budget (although, the first bathroom death-scene was just downright lazy). Some of the scenes were absolutely laughable, while others where unbelievably gruesome. 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 Foley artist(s) was at the top of his/her/their game, too (especially in the main villain's death-scene). I would not be surprised if the sound design used up a huge chunk of the budget; it was worth every penny.The Set Design: The bowling alleys featured in "Gutterballs" do not look like they're from the 1980s. Enough said.The Acting: The acting is atrocious, and an unmitigated affront to great dialogue and screen-writing. No actors or actresses seem to follow a script (if one was even written), and improvise, to no avail; many are grating, and are more obnoxious than they are evil (the pink-shirted fellow--who laughs kind of like The Joker--is a perfect example), and many more expect their breasts, genitalia, curse-words, special effects, and/or costumes to do the acting for them. Not to mention, I do not recall seeing any extras. I never thought I would say this, but extras could have saved this film (and, no, the talking "ball-waxing" machine doesn't count).The Editing: The editing is so-so, but there are numerous scenes that didn't have to make it to the final cut. There is--quite simply--too much dialogue in this movie; too much inane, idiotic, banal, useless, unfunny dialogue.The Sexual Content/Nudity: If you were to look up the phrase, "gratuitous sex" in the dictionary, the copyright-infringing poster for this movie would appear right beside it. If you looked up the word "gutterballs" in a thesaurus, the synonyms would be "graphic nudity", "gratuitous sex", "crappy acting", and "nowhere near as awesome as 'Maniac'". Also, there is a lot of graphic nudity, both male and female. What kind of moron wears a mini-skirt (with no panties) to a bowling alley, anyway? She knows she'll have to bend over at some point! Not that I'm complaining...The Ending: The ending--ironically enough--didn't seem to want to end. It just dragged on...and on...and on. I won't go into too much more detail; let's just say, there were too many cooks in the kitchen.Overall: This film is brutal in every way: Brutal violence, brutal gore, brutally-bad acting, brutally-cheap producers, brutally-absent editor(s), and brutally-inept continuity supervisor(s). While the gore is pretty good, the rape scene is nowhere near as unsettling as the other reviewers have said on this site, due primarily to exceptionally poor acting (and a lack of above average editing). In fact, virtually every flaw in "Gutterballs" can be traced to bad acting, and bad improvisation. However, I--as a gore-hound--was not as disappointed as I probably should have been. That is why I give it a 6 out of 10! Note: I have only seen the unrated-version of this film.
