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...

Gutterballs (2008)** 1/2 (out of 4) A woman is brutally gang raped by four men. The next night those men, the woman and his other friends meet up at the same bowling alley and one by one people begin to get brutally murdered.GUTTERBALLS is a film I had never heard of before joining a few Facebook groups and it seems this title was popping up all over the place. Writer-director Ryan Nicholson wanted to make a throwback to the 80's slasher film and he certainly accomplished that and a whole lot more. I'm really not sure who to recommend this thing to because it's going to either offend most or it's just going to drive them crazy by annoying them. If you "get" the picture then I think you'll have a good time but viewer discretion is certainly advised before attempting to watch this thing.This is the type of film you really watch as a dare because, like I said, it's pretty brutal from start to finish. It's certainly not graphic like the recent trend of torture porn because the film is so over-the-top that you can't take it too serious. This includes all the characters who are downright stupid and annoying but I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose. The film is notorious for the death scenes and there's no doubt that there's some original and memorable scenes. If you've seen enough horror movies then you know it's hard to see something original but we get at least five original deaths here. Some are so downright crazy that you really have to see them to believe it. Needless to say, even Lucio Fulci would tip his hat.While this film will always be remembered and talked about for its gore, I think the strongest thing is the technical aspects. There's no doubt that director Nicholson does an extremely good job at telling the story and there's no question that he can handle a film. I'm not sure what the budget was but I'm sure it was low but the film still has a professional look to it. The most amazing thing is that the film really does look like it was filmed during the early 80's. A lot of filmmakers try to capture that "look" but most fail That's not the case here. There are some flaws with the picture including some of the performances, the annoying characters and I think the film runs too long but there's still no question that GUTTERBALLS is quite an original film in many ways and that makes it worth watching if you can stomach it.

Ironically, a vast improvement over filmmaker, Ryan Nicholson's movie Hanger, since Gutterballs came out first. It looks like I'm going backwards in the Canadian's filmography.Seems more thought out with a more outlined story instead of just gore and violence cut and pasted together very sloppy like Hanger was. The death scenes were awesome. Some seriously screwed up deaths in this movie and some imaginary ones to the setting of a bowling alley. One sex scene slash death sense was considerably memorable and very haunting. the director tends to linger on the killing for a while to capture that effect.I feel bad cause I did a review on Nicholson's movie, Hanger which I did not like and still don't, so I shouldn't feel bad but I do cause this one was so much better. Great homage to those obscure Slasher movies during the Golden era like My blood Valentine and Sleep away camp.

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.