Hypothetical: What if Frank Zito hated bowling instead of women?
Heads will bowl.
Gutterballs is a 2008 Exploitation/Slasher Movie created by Ryan Nicholson.
It's late night at the Xcalibur bowling center and tensions are running high between two rival teams; one led by the nasty Steve, and the other featuring a girl named Lisa and her friends.
Following a brawl, the teams are kicked out with the janitor telling everyone they can resume their game tomorrow. Lisa goes back into the bowling alley alone to retrieve her purse and is the victim of a vicious gang rape at the hands of Steve and his cronies.
The next night, a masked killer starts to dispatch all parties at the bowling alley, with his kills being counted on the scoreboard as strikes under the name "BBK".
A sequel, classily titled Gutterballs 2 Balls Deep, is in development. It will relocate things to a water park, and have the survivor(s) of this film be hunted down by a returned BBK.
Has no relation with the Disney Acid Sequence of the same name featured in The Big Lebowski, aside from the bowling theme.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Area: The ball polisher area is undergoing refurbishment and is closed to the public.
- Agony of the Feet: Lisa breaks up the fight by throwing a bowling ball onto Steve's foot.
- Ambiguously Bi: Hannah has threesomes with Steve and the canonically bi Julia, but it's not clear what these threesomes entail.
- Anachronism Stew: Cell phones are brought up, and one of the games in the arcade being from The '90s.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Patrick, to Lisa.
- Ankle Drag: Happens to Sam, as BBK drags her under the toilet stall door.
- And Starring: And Dan Ellis as BBK.
- Apologetic Attacker: Patrick, when forced to violate Lisa with a bowling pin.
- Arch-Enemy: Sarah has Steve, a rival bowling team leader who lead his team in gang-raping her. By extension, Steve is also the nemesis of the Bowling Ball Killer, who is her vengeful father.
- Ass Shove: Steve is sodomized with a sharpened bowling pin.
- The Atoner: Patrick is trying to make up for his part in Lisa's gang rape.
- Bathroom Stall Graffiti: The bowling alley bathroom is completely covered in graffiti.
- Black Is Bigger in Bed:Ben: (while looking over the condom machine) "How about Black Knight? 'For the Big One?' That's for big black cock, that's gonna fall off me for sure."
- Bloodier and Gorier: The Pin-Etration Edition.
- Boom, Headshot!: Egerton's death.
- Camping a Crapper: Julia, Dave, Sam, and Ben are all killed in the bowling alley bathroom.
- Camera Abuse: When Patrick's throat is slit.
- Cell Phones Are Useless:Sarah: "Batteries are dead, Jamie, don't you think that's the first thing I would have done?"Jamie: "Fuck! How convenient..."
- Cast as a Mask: Brandon Dix and Ryan Nicholson both subbed for BBK.
- Closed Circle: The killer chains and locks all the doors at the bowling alley shut.
- Clothing Combat: BBK garottes Cindy with a pair of bowling shoes with the laces tied together.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Much of the dialogue, to the point of being the unofficial second place record holder for most of amount of "fucks" in a film, directly behind Mutilation Mile and barely ahead of August Underground's Mordum. Observe
. - Cool Mask: It's a bowling bag that looks like it has a weird face on it.
- Cool Shades: Lisa wears them after the gang rape.
- Creepy Basement: Jamie and Sarah find that BBK has moved all of the bodies into the basement, and hung bowling shoes from the ceiling.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: AJ has his face dunked in the malfunctioning Wax-O-Matic, leaving nothing but a bloody crater. And let's not even get started on Julia and Dave's death by 69ing.
- Crusty Caretaker: Egerton, the janitor (and seemingly sole employee of Xcalibur), who spends all of his time being snarky at the customers; all of whom treat him like dirt.
- Cue the Sun: The sun is coming up as Jamie and Sarah exit the bowling alley after all of the carnage.
- Cut Phone Lines: The phone lines to bowling are cut while Egerton is on the phone.
- Defiant to the End: Steve."... I still fucked her... I still... I still... I stilll... I... I still... fucked her."
- Depraved Bisexual:
- In the middle of his gang rape of Lisa, Steve threatens to rape Patrick with a bowling pin unless he does so to her, and makes preparations to do so before Pat complies.
- BBK has sex with Cindy before killing her, and skullfucks Ben after killing him.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Steve and his buddies gang rape Lisa because she used him to hook up with Jamie on prom night.
- Egerton engages in this, as well, killing Lisa's friends for letting her go back into the bowling alley alone, despite having no idea that Steve and his friends were in there planning to gang up on her.
- The Ditz: Julia and Hannah, and apparently Lisa.
- Dramatic Unmask: Patrick is also BBK.
- Drunken Master: "Yep, you do bowl better drunk."
- Even Evil Has Standards: Joey and AJ are a bit weirded out by Steve's idea of raping Lisa with a bowling pin, and even moreso when he threatens to do the same to the uncooperative Patrick.
- Evil Cripple: Steve, after his foot is mangled.
- Eye Scream: Ben gets a sharpened bowling pin in the eyes.
- Facial Horror: AJ loses his face to the Wax-O-Matic, and Steve has his beat in with a bowling pin.
- Fanservice: It's almost pornographic.
- Fan Disservice: But then they die horribly before things get too explicit.
- Flashback: A rather gratuitous one to the gang rape, and then one to Patrick faking his death.
- Genre Throwback: Though you'd be hard pressed to find an eighties slasher as vulgar and gory as it... well, maybe Violent Shit.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot:Joey: (on the absent Julia and Hannah) "They're probably licking each other clean!"AJ: (near Spit Take)
- Gender-Blender Name: Of course the transgender character would be named Sam.
- Going Commando: Lisa wears a miniskirt without panties. Nothing is left to the imagination.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: During the brawl, Steve smashes Jamie with a beer bottle.
- Groin Attack: Lisa gets violated with the bowling pin, and BBK gives Sam a "mangina" by cutting her penis in half.
- Guilt by Association Gag: The killer went after Steve, Joey, and Patrick and murdered them to get back at them for raping Lisa but he went after Sarah, Jamie, Ben, Julia, Sam, Cindy, and Hannah because they failed to help Lisa and protect her from the rape even though most of them were not present at the bowling alley in that moment and Julia and Hannah did not attend the tournament that night.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Lisa sustaining a shotgun blast to the stomach results in this.
- Hacked by a Pirate: A skull and crossbones show up on the scoreboard after every one of BBK's kills.
- Hand in the Hole: Jamie, right before Joey's head shoots out of the ball return.
- Hate Sink: Steve is a rival bowling team leader who leads his men in committing a hate crime on a transgender member of the team after they kick his ass. After the protagonists kick his ass, he leads his team in raping their team leader, threatening the one member who tries to resist. Aside from his evil deeds, he also verbally abuses everybody else throughout the whole film.
- Head Hat: BBK does this with Ben's scalp.
- He Knows Too Much: "Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Now, c'mon, be a good boy and move aside, you know the drill, son. She seen me, she got to go."
- High-Pressure Blood: Patrick's throat slitting.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Egerton and Lisa are killed with Egerton's own shotgun.
- Hold My Glasses: "Hold my fucking glasses!"
- Hollywood Healing: It's unlikely Lisa would be up and about a day after what happened to her.
- Hotter and Sexier: The Pin-Etration Edition, which has several Thriller: A Cruel Picture-esque hardcore inserts.
- The Hyena: AJ, who is even described as such.
- I Love the Dead: Ben is found with two used condoms in his eye sockets. It's probably best to not think about what went on there.
- Improbable Weapon User: BBK's main weapons are sharpened and regular bowling pins, the former kept in holsters.
- Improvised Weapon: Hannah is killed with bowling balls.
- Informed Attribute: Lisa is apparently a complete ditz, though outside an early scene with bowling balls this is not apparent at all.
- Jerkass: It would be easiest just to say everybody in the whole movie, but special mention goes to Steve for had the idea for Lisa's rape in the first place.
- Knight Templar Parent: Egerton decides his daughter's rapists don't just deserve to die, but her teammates as well, since they "let" the gang rape happen.
- A Lady on Each Arm: Steve, when he shows up with Hannah and Julia.
- Large Ham: Steve can't let a single scene go by without raising his voice.
- Leave the Camera Running: The gang rape goes on for eight minutes.
-
Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Balls-Out Uncut Edition and Pin-Etration Edition. - Lock-and-Load Montage: BBK is shown gearing up during the opening credits: selecting equipment from the bowling alley store and converting pins into weapons.
- The Long List: The special thanks crawl in the credits is over a minute in length.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Dicks. Dicks everywhere.
- Malevolent Masked Man: "Men", actually. There are three killers, all of who wear a bowling bag over their heads.
- Nerd Glasses: Patrick, who is constantly adjusting them.
- Oblivious Janitor Cut: Egerton is unable to hear Lisa being gang raped due to his headphones and floor polisher.
- Off with His Head!: Joey and Egerton's deaths.
- Oh, Crap!: Egerton, right before he gets his head shot off.
- One-Word Title: Gutterballs
- Out with a Bang: BBK pushes Julia and Dave's heads into each other's crotches while they are 69ing, causing them to eventually asphyxiate.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Patrick's throat slitting.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Joey's severed head is shot out of the ball return.
- Please, I Will Do Anything!: While Sam is being attacked by BBK.
- Poke the Poodle: After an argument with Egerton, Joey snaps one of his pencils in half.
- Rape and Revenge: Lisa, Egerton (her father) and Patrick and extracting vengeance for Lisa's rape. However, the Axe-Crazy Egerton goes far beyond the original plan and starts killing everyone.
- Rape and Switch: Cruelly implied by Steve about Lisa.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Despite their machismo, Joey and AJ rock bright pink shirts. This is commented on by the Wax-O-Matic ("Anybody who wears a shirt like that has got to be a fag").
- Retraux: It's (convincingly) shot to resemble an eighties movie.
- The Reveal: There are several BBKs, but the main one is Egerton, who is Lisa's father. Lisa killed Steve, while he killed everyone else except Joey and AJ, who were killed by Patrick, who Egerton had recruited to help him after he told him about his involvement in the gang rape, intending on going to the police afterward. Lisa and Jamie (who was aware of what was going on, but did not participate in the murders) were oblivious to Patrick's involvement, and Egerton killing their teammates, who he also blamed for his daughter's gang rape, since they let her go back in the bowling alley alone.
- Running Gag: Steve never gets his beer.
- Severed Head Sports: The cover of the Balls-Out Uncut Edition◊ shows a head being used a bowling ball. This doesn't occur in the actual film, which instead has the victim's head get shot out of a ball return.
- Shoe Slap: Cindy is garroted with the laces of a pair of bowling shoes.
- Sinister Shades: Joey; during the gang rape, he takes them off, takes off his shirt, then puts them back on.
- Slashed Throat: Patrick's death.
- Slasher Smile: Egerton during The Reveal.
- The Sociopath: Steve, who's cool with raping a woman with a baseball bat because her friends fought back when he bullied one of their own.
- Sound-Only Death: With all the BBKs dead, Jamie and Sarah leave the alley. Once outside, Sarah turns the shotgun on Jamie, and we hear a shot just as the films cuts to black.
- Spiteful Spit: Lisa, on the dying Patrick.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Egerton, to Patrick.
- Thing-O-Matic: The Wax-O-Matic ball polishing machine.
- Threeway Sex: Julia mentions she sometimes joins in on Steve and Hannah.
- Too Much Information: "I wish I could go commando, but I have to wait until the operation."
- Torture Porn: Some of the deaths (like Steve's) certainly cross into this.
- Two Dun It: There's three BBKs.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The talking Wax-O-Matic.
- Vengeful Vending Machine: The bowling ball polisher is a dick.Anybody who wears a shirt like that has got to be a fag
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Sam and her switchblade.
- Video Arcade: With the gang rape starting on the pinball machine, of course.
- When I Was Your Age...:Egerton: "Hey, let me tell you something, boy. Now, back in my day, we-"AJ: "Ugh, fuck!"Egerton: Yeah, yeah, yeah, look, back in my day, we kept a scorecard. Now we had to write everything down methodically. Same with the pins. That pin setter? That used to be a person. Flesh and bone, not a machine. Automation long since took over everything, though."
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Xcalibur Bowling Centre.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Having used Patrick to commit some of the murders, Egerton kills him when he has no more need of him.
- Your Head A-Splode: Hannah has her head crushed between two bowling balls, while Egerton has his blown off with a shotgun.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Patrick gives the "I thought we were just going to scare her!" variant during the gang rape.
