Unearthed Films To Release A Three-SKU Helping Of Writer/Director Ryan Nicholson's Gutterballs On Apr. 14

Unearthed Films, with sales and distribution expertise from MVD Entertainment Group, looks to Apr. 14 as the street date for a three-SKU release of writer/director Ryan Nicholson’s 2008 direct-to-video “haunted house” horror thriller, Gutterballs.

Planned for release are both DVD and Blu-ray editions, plus a double-disc Blu-ray “Collector’s Edition,” which comes loaded with all sorts of extras for genre fans to savor (more on that in just a moment).

Gutterballs has all the earmarks of a classic haunted house thriller.   A victim pool, a crazed killer/slasher/maniac and an enclosed structure for the various members of the pool of victims to be picked off one by one … the twist is the “haunted house” takes the form of a bowling alley.

The Xcalibur Bowling Centre is closed late at night, but Egerton, the janitor (Dan Ellis), comes up with a plan to make some cash on the side by renting out lanes to two radically different bowling groups (teams, whatever).   Steve (Alastair Gamble — Hardwired, Trapped, Mind’s Eye) heads up the “frat boy” team, while Jamie (Nathan Witte) is the focal point of a diverse group of lovely ladies, stoners and Sam (Jimmy Blais), a drag queen.

The first night ends in disaster as Egerton actually has to pull a shotgun on the assembly when a brawl between the two warring groups breaks out.   Come back tomorrow night and try it again and out they go.   Things go south when Lisa (Candice Lewald — Hanger) forgets her purse and returns to the Xcalibur to retrieve it, only to be ambushed by Steve and his frat boys who have their way with her.

Are the cops called?   Come on, that would end this late night bowling league and all that follows, so they all return the next night as if nothing had happened.   Steven even brings along a couple of “girlfriends” — Julia (Danielle Munro) and Hannah (Saraphina Bardeaux) — to add to the merriment (add to the number of participants in the victim pool).

We won’t reveal the identity of the “killer,” but even if you played a little game with your friends and wrote down your best guess after the first murder, you’d be wrong.    Gutterballs is full of twists and turns — and brutal blood-letting — to the final reveal.

A long-standing rumor associated with the film is that after it was screened at several horror fests — Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors and Insomnifest Festival — there was a feeling that Gutterballs could get a theatrical run.   The MPAA, apparently, put an end to that plan when they called for roughly 20 minutes worth of footage to be excised or a NC-17 (X) rating would be assigned (hey, that’s a selling point).  

As to bonus features, common to all three release editions are outtakes and two featurettes — “Behind the Balls: Making of Gutterballs” and “Behind the Scenes: Gutterballs.”   

The double-disc Blu-ray “Collector’s Edition” includes commentary from writer/director Ryan Nicholson (best known to genre fans for his makeup and f/x work — The Predator, Deadpool 2, The Chronicles of Riddick, etc.), cast and crew interviews, a photo gallery and the additional featuette titled “Pin-etration Edition.”   And, there are also a “Massive Amount of Outtakes!!!”