Gutterballs

Written and directed by special effects artist Ryan Nicholson (who also served as executive producer), the film is packaged as a disturbing blend of eighties-style “rape and revenge” and slasher film, seasoned with massive doses of splatter and peppered with persistent sexual interludes (the uncut version even offers a handful of fleeting hard-core scenes).

At any rate, despite attempting to connect with ’80s B movie nostalgia – the cinematography and art direction give a nod to such trashy predecessors as “Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama” (1988) – the film crashes and burns under the weight of a pervasive vulgarity that seems to ooze from every frame, “treating” us to:

1. brainless dialogue that puts the “L” in lurid with gratuitous offensiveness right from the start (‘F**k her, Steve!’ ‘I should f**k her!’; ‘And that area of expertise you were asking about’ […] ‘Bashing queers’), and the exhausting stream of profanity continues all the way through, perhaps setting a record for the number of “F-bombs” in a single movie (over 500 of them, according to one source);
2. a general overdose of bad taste at every turn;
3. a pathological obsession with ultra-graphic violence, especially when it has sexual connotations.

The fact remains that the director shoots it all with decent skill, distinguishing “Gutterballs” from the amateurish efforts typical of the lion’s share of underground productions. Additionally, Nicholson’s own special effects are very carefully executed (one notable example being the transvestite’s mutilation), infusing quite a few scenes with elevated levels of realism.

Hardly rousing from a narrative point of view, the story concludes with a series of plot twists that are both idiotic and implausible. Among the scenes worthy of induction in the bad taste hall of shame, we would cite the various “penetrations” involving bowling pins (both regular and sharpened) and the simultaneous smothering of the couple enjoying a spontaneous “69” in the bathroom. As always, the equation “sex = death” turns out to hold water in the slasher realm.

The sequel no one asked for – “Gutterballs 2: Balls Deep” (2015) – is another in a long string of unholy alliances between obscenity and insanity.