Billy Club (2013)

the audience applauded

A Major Disappointment

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Pure garbage, please don't waste your time. I love horror movies, but this is not one of them. Low budget is no excuse to make this kind of mess.

Not horrible and not good. And nowhere near great or bad enough to be trashy campy treasure. Some nice use of 1990's nostalgic microfilm and a CD jukebox. Back before the internet murdered everything and made most things available in your home and at your fingertips instantly. A funny pizza delivery scene killing with the wrong suspect being arrested by cops and fleeing away in his Bryan Cranston tighty whiteys. Kudos to the ATV go-pro hallucination scene that came out of left field and was a home run. Most of the kills were professional and impressive.To harsh to call the filmmakers "wannabes" or fugazi because their heart was in the right place. But if I watch one more formulaic clichéd flashback than I will bash myself in the head with a baseball bat full of rusty nails.Nothing real original a Graduation Day (1981) / Some Guy Who Kills People (2011) ripoff played out with a baseball theme. And a crazy baseball horror movie called Catcher (1998) seemed to inspire a few scenes as well. Just passing my opinion to fellow movie lovers to skip this one like a rock and get your jolly ranchers elsewhere. Time available to watch our beloved films is so precious.Nobody likes to trash somebody's art. These guys obviously love movies. Fanboys love them so much we all dream of making one or two. But at the end of the day some of us were just born to watch them.Trevor Layne Movies & Candy

The story is a pretty clever, dark piece of horror that draws on tradition slasher elements like the surrealist atmosphere, horrific backstory, and plenty of blood and gore. "Billy Club" starts with a terrible tragedy that comes back to haunt all those involved. Totally typical and completely perfect for any slasher. It is a set- up that I personally feel never becomes tired. Rosas and Sommers manage to bring out a nostalgia and adoration for classic 80's horror while creating a truly individual horror story and truly inventive masked slasher. One that is sure to be a modern day slasher icon worthy of franchising. The acting and direction of the film is pretty standard with a cast that is rough in spots hitting the dialog and timing, but honestly no more than so many films that have come before it. Films that I find myself watching over and over. There are a few too many flashback moments in the film that can seem confusing but really fit when you get to the ending. The ending is one that is clever, well hidden until the very end and really solidifies "Billy Club" as worthy of the awards it has won. The humor is not the comedy "spoof" stuff but a blend of characters that fit into the "loveable losers" category and drug induced humor. It does seem to confuse the overall dark nature of the material but only in the way that several of the characters in the "Friday The 13th" franchise do for those films. The special effects are all practical, organic, and traditional-no CGI here, at least none that I could tell. The directors never shy away from the kill scenes and showing the gruesomeness of it all, the effects artist has is consistency and quality at a level that the directors don't have to "insinuate" the brutality so deaths are pretty cool and graphic. The sound effects are a bit garden variety creepiness but work well to create a chilling environment for this nightmare to unfold. The effects in one final scene aren't quite as stellar as the rest of the film's gory effects but whatever, 95% of the slaugherfest in "Billy Club" is pretty tight. Overall "Billy Club" is a worthy slasher film that is an instant cult classic. I enjoyed this film immensely, I connected with the vibe of little league having played up until JV, the nods and homage to classic 80's slashers are tasteful and not rip-offs, and the killer is just a nightmare. Truly creative and menacing. The cinematography is done nicely, enough of the film happens in darkness (which is how a horror film should be), the scenery and sets are odd, eerie elements that just amp up the chilling subject matter. But mostly the guts and gore are the big draw for horror fans to the film. Definitely check this one out!

Balancing humor with horror, and honesty of emotion is not an easily accomplished feat. The baseball/slasher film Billy Club does so with such unique dexterity that there are few comparables. Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell and his original Evil Dead films are probably the closest you'll get. And Billy Club is right on par with them. It's a testament to the entire production team how well each of the films diverse elements contributes to the whole. The hilarious drugged out trip through the woods personifies the entire film. It is so well acted, directed, and written that viewers are engaged viscerally in the terrible feeling of ingesting far too many mushrooms. By capturing the inebriated emotional flailing so well, the hilarity and terror of the ensuing moments are felt much more acutely. This is a feat that countless lesser films attempt and fail. What's more amazing is that this is accomplished frequently and with different actors driving the drama each time. The consequence is a film that gets to have its cake and eat it too. Director/writers Drew Rosas and Nick Sommer are filmmakers who are adept at handling the disparate elements of their craft and they're having a blast doing so. The fact that they're local boys who film primarily in Wisconsin is an added bonus. Looking at their 2010 film Blood Junkie and the refinement of skills from then to now, it will be exciting to watch where their collaboration takes them. The sky's the limit.