The Horror Show
Billy Club
by Drew Rosas and Nick Sommer
I've been obsessed with the horror genre for the vast majority of my life. I've been partial to the extreme for the bulk of that time, filling my eyes with the brutal images I could point them at. I've watched spines getting ripped out, heads being beaten to nothing but a mass of skull matter; I've seen babies forcibly yanked from their mothers while still in utero and animals killed for real on the screen. But I am here to tell you that none of this is the least bit disturbing to me as having to play team sports as a child. I would do unforgivable things if it meant having to not see the business end of a soccer ball ever again. I would sell my soul, not for money or fame, but to avoid having to high five a bunch of other kids I've been coached to hate for the preceding three hours in alignment like I'm being trained for a horrible future. Soccer, baseball, basketball, archery, boxing; I've been forced to play team sports and the ones where you slowly die alone alike. Many may not believe that having to play sports as a child would make me able to understand the emotional trauma of the characters in The Deer Hunter but it's absolutely the same thing.
Billy Club doesn't lean so much on the sport element to gain its attempts at terror, but it does deal with a group of kids who used to play baseball together. The kickstart of the story involves one little league team member who, years later, reconnects with a trio of friends he once had. They all are dealing with some kind of hidden trauma from the past, somehow centering on a triple homicide that sent a young boy to an institution.
The reunited friends quickly decide to get drunk and hang out in the woods. This leads to the decision to pay tribute to their fallen teammates and coach, who were the victims of the attack years prior. The problem that the friends face is in the form of a nail-bat wielding maniac wearing an umpire mask. This particular slasher is clearly motivated by vendetta, specifically going after past players on the local baseball team.
As the story progresses we are given information little by little, slowly getting the big picture. This ends up being a good decision, the desire to find out what actually transpired in the past to warrant the bloodshed is enough to keep the film at least somewhat entertaining. For the most part, things are played pretty straight. There are a few random moments in which it is unclear if the film is trying to be serious but falls to ridiculousness, or if you are simply witnessing intended jokes falling flat.
Billy Club overall is a competent film, which only makes the few lapses that much more noticeable. Some of the acting is great while other major parts don't quite live up to task. The flashbacks work fine, but at one point the film does everything it can to lead you to believe that another flashback is about to happen, only to have a present-day scene with a slightly different tint. It isn't a huge deal but it seems needlessly misdirected and confusing.
In all honesty, as much as a liked most of the film, I feel like I would have enjoyed the origin story as its own project so much more. I don't hate the story that Billy Club presents, but I would be way more into a story about a group of little leaguers pushing one kid to the brink until he knocks them down one by own. Instead, we are focusing on the “what did we do all those years ago” concept that seems to be bordering on tired.
Some horror flicks go all out with the gore effects while others cut away, using a few squirts of fake blood and calling it a day. In this area, Billy Club falls in between these two ends of the spectrum. It isn't as lazy and boring as some, but the kills aren't anything especially creative or detailed either. It was sufficient enough, however, and can still be fun to watch.
The chemistry between the main characters is good and keeps the story moving along nicely. The origin story, however, makes us care less about them as it's hard not to see them as the bad guys. Unlike the Friday the 13th sequels where we root for Jason, or the awesome horror/comedy Stitches where the kids were in the wrong from the beginning, the film completely realizes it and just lets us have fun watching them getting splayed. Billy Club doesn't really seem to know if it is on the side of the main characters or not. This can make some of their actions a little irritating. Are the characters cliché? Of course. But not as much as they could have been, and I will admit, they allow the characters to betray our first impressions of them.
The ending itself is fairly interesting but it is surrounded by such an aura of serious stuff mixed with wackiness that it's hard to have an overall impression of everything as a whole. It doesn't help that much if the outcome is fairly obvious from the start. You may not know exactly how things will turn out but I have a feeling you'll guess a large chunk of it earlier than you were supposed to.
All in all, Billy Club was an interesting enough viewing experience that didn't leave me bored. Nothing jumped out as being especially unique or creative, but it allowed itself to be a lot more entertaining than some slasher efforts I've seen in the past. So, if you're looking for a quick, mostly typical, slash 'em up film that gives you a few reasons to stick with it, check out Billy Club. You could do better, but you could certainly do worse.
P.J. Griffin, HMS
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