User reviews

I must say I was pretty bummed over this one. Slashers are my favorite style of Horror, and after seeing that bat with all the nails and self made bayonet attached, I thought this might be an awesome one.... I was very wrong.

I'm all for a "So bad it's good" movie, but this is just BAD. The acting is really ridiculous, almost inexcusably horrible; and this goes for really every singe actor and actress in this film. There was a typical Slasher movie stoner who was kind of funny, and actually probably the best actor in the movie, though that isn't saying too much.

The story is FULL of plot holes, and it doesn't seem to make too much sense, ESPECIALLY the twist at the end. As I mentioned in the title, this movie drags on so long in between kills that I started to forget what the hell was even happening in the plot. I didn't remember any of the characters names either, all just forgettable throughout. Usually the teens/people in Slasher movies are pretty dumb, but they take the cake in this one. At the end the female character sees a murder and freaks out saying "I need to get out of here!", and instead of jumping in the truck parked outside that has worked throughout the entire film, she decides to run into the woods. What the? The most bizarre and ridiculous scene in the whole entire movie happens when one of the male characters jumps in his truck to go on a drive and think for a minute, and he is joined by another male character who goes to help him get his mind off what's happening. They stop at the edge of the woods, where the driver then tries to kiss the passenger? Out of no where. And after being denied he says " I'm not gay!!" and gets out and runs into the woods? There is just so many stupid and unexplained things that happen in this movie, and by the end I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Other than a few kind of gory kills that looked half decent, I'd stay away from this one. I was going to buy it on Amazon just because I like to collect movies good or bad. But after checking it out on Hulu, this is just too bad to add to the collection.

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

Follows a formula and was watchable, but at some parts tries to take itself too seriously.

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.

Fifteen years after a gruesome triple homicide devastated their Little League baseball team, four friends reunite to commemorate their dead coach and fallen teammates. A mystery unfolds as the secrets from their past return to haunt them and a vengeful killer, hidden by an antique umpire's mask, returns to even the score.

I saw this film as part of the Oshkosh Horror Film Festival and was drawn to it by the fact it was filmed in Wisconsin and many of those involved were from Milwaukee. I knew nothing about it beyond that, and had no expectations. For the most part, I was quite pleased.

Being a fan of slashers, I love the whole plot of a past crime being avenged years later by a masked killer. And then you throw in the mystery of the killer himself -- is it the same guy as years ago? An imposter? Why now? This is always good.

Next, you throw in a good group of actors, some excellent direction and camera work, and plenty of humor. This is a winner any way you slice it. Of the two big Wisconsin films this year (the other being "Don't Go To The Reunion", which also featured Nick Sommer who wrote-directed-starred in this film) this was the one that really hit a home run. (I say that with all due respect to "Reunion", which is itself a fine movie with great kills and humor and was made by two wonderful gentlemen.)

My biggest critique would have to be the flashbacks. From a Q&A, I gathered that the "modern day" (1990s) footage was shot first and the flashbacks were spliced in later. I feel like some it slowed the pace down. The kid parts were alright, but the hospital scenes just seemed to drag a bit and did not add the psychological angle the filmmakers were looking for.

You should definitely see this, though. A few snags here and there do not detract from this being a slasher that bats over .500 in a subgenre that rarely hits .333, if you know what I mean. Nick Sommer is a man to watch out for. First "Blood Junkie" (available from Troma), then this... who knows what is next?

Most great indie horror films are a testament to hard work, a good script, and great cast in spite of lesser production values and a series of technical flaws. There's potential in them even if they need a fresh coat of paint. Billy Club is, surprisingly, the opposite.

Billy Club looks like a million bucks. There's no doubt the people behind this movie worked hard, long hours to make this movie look as professional and polished as its low budget would allow. Framing and angles are inventive and cinematic and most sound cues are crisp and well-mixed.

Billy Club should be a head above the rest of these low budget slasher flicks, but it's not. Despite the impressive glow up, this owes more to the no-budget absurd straight to video slashers of the early 2000s than any of the golden age classics like My Bloody Valentine or Prom Night.

As a concept, Billy Club seems promising. You see, in the early 80's, a few kids and their baseball coach were found murdered on the field and a crazy kid named Billy was sent away for it. Years later, he's let go from the nuthouse and starts taking out the rest of his surviving teammates because they once pulled a near-deadly prank on him. He's actually starting to make sense and I can understand his reasonings. These people are awful.

Billy Club suffers from that ever-present likability problem most post-2000 slasher flicks have. No one in this movie is worth caring about and, even if they are, they end up doing something incredibly stupid just seconds later. The amount of characters in this film who get out of a car in a secluded area and just start walking into the woods for seemingly no reason is staggering. You can feel the screenwriters realizing they desperately need to find a reason to get these characters alone, but this was the best they could come up with. And who can blame them? With characters as shallow as this, that probably was the thing that made the most sense for them at that point in the story.

What Billy Club does get right, it really gets right. The kill scenes are incredibly grisly and there are a few unforgettable images throughout the film. When the film's heroine comes across a macabre art installation of her friends at a secluded lake, you'll be hard pressed to not gasp in awe. It's a truly unforgettable image and any film is lucky to possess at least one of those, so you can't write Billy Club off completely.

It could have used another draft or two before production, but Billy Club does have its saving graces.

Impressively fair slasher.

Can someone tell me if this was inspired by another film with a similar plot?

There was another indie slasher that began with a group of cruel kids on a baseball field who teased another youngster. When the boy attempted to catch a fly ball hit out of the field, he was struck by a car. The movie (that looks similar to this one) is about these same cruel kids who are all grown up years later and are reunited at a bed and breakfast cabin and begin receiving strange threats from a mystery man who stalks them. Very scary and intensifying indie Thriller with a similar plot to "Billy Club".

The problem with this film is that it's scarce. I don't remember if it was part of a Horror Anthology or actual indie movie that possibly inspired Billy Club.

Can anyone remember this scarce film?

Firstly I must say that I thought that this movie was excellent and makes me wonder why I didn't hear about this sooner than I did. For a start for an independent feature it looks so stylish and has excellent production values that it looks just like a big budget Hollywood feature. So for a start well done to the directors and writers Drew Rosas and Nick Sommer for making something that pleases horror/slasher fans such as me.

The plot itself isn't anything original but that doesn't matter as long as it's interesting and engaging enough for the viewer to keep interested all the way through. Here we get a group of old friends reuniting from their childhood days of being in a little league team, where their coach and some of their teammates were murdered by a boy named Billy who got sent to an insane asylum. But now somebody has been hunting down and killing the remaining members of that team, could it be Billy back for revenge, who knows.

To be honest I don't think that I've seen that many baseball themed slashers (the only one that comes to mind was 1998's "The Catcher") which I don't really remember all that well. But this comes as a really strong entry with a decent cast, namely from the 4 main leads were really strong and likable and I liked how the first half developed them, and then the 2nd half of the movie that's where things really take off, I really liked the homage scene where it showed the killer creating his weapon adding nails and a blade to his baseball bat, which was really cool and effective. Then of course the kills which were gory and well handled, and also left me wanting more and even the mystery surrounding the killer was again mind blowing and does keep the viewer guessing until the very end.

All in all "Billy Club" is a definite must see for any horror/slasher fans, it has a good story, engaging characters and gory kills which is basically everything you need and want in a movie of this genre.

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.

Not a great slasher movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it has enough different and unique elements to make it a worthwhile watch. None of the characters are very likable and some are downright monsters, but it's reasonably well shot for a low budget movie and I liked that it focused on adults and not teenagers.

This instant cult classic had me on my seat the whole film. Suspense, Surprise and humor is delivered with impeccable timing throughout the movie. A total blast to watch, this delivers everything you could ask from a horror movie: Scary and mysterious murderer, spooky set and ambiance, adrenaline pumping surprises, fun cast and plot, comic relief and awesome pacing.Though Rosas and Sommer took great care to pay homage to 90's horror they kept the story and characters fresh and captivating and plot twists were unexpected and exhilarating. The moments of comedy always hit it out of the park, and certainly had the theater in hysterics. I still start laughing whenever I think of the scenes in the forest, these brought me to tears because they were so gut busting hilarious. My dream come true would to go to Rocky Horror style midnight screenings of this flick. So many great lines and moments to share!

This movie is a must watch for slasher movie fans! It is a masterpiece and one of my favorite horror movies and here's why:

BILLY CLUB IS PURE NIGHTMARE FUEL: Billy Club transforms the innocence of childhood into a chilling nightmare, with baseball morphing into a sinister embodiment of trauma. What once was a symbol of community and camaraderie swiftly devolves into a grotesque arena of bloodshed, where the sweet nostalgia of Little League is twisted into a haunting massacre. Armed with a bat sharpened with nails and knives, Billy becomes a relentless force of vengeance, exacting brutal retribution on those who tormented him in his formative years.

His skill is terrifying; he effortlessly dismantles armed opponents, stripping away any illusions of safety or plot armor, leaving viewers breathless and terrified at the sheer brutality of his methods. The way he commandeers this cherished childhood game into a nightmarish spectacle is both shocking and unforgettable, transforming the familiar fields into a stage for gruesome acts that will haunt you long after the credits roll. And don't even get me started on the lake scene-an absolute descent into horror that redefines what it means to fear. This isn't just a movie; it's a visceral experience that chills you to the bone and forces you to confront the darkness lurking behind the façade of innocence.

Characters: In almost all slasher films, the characters are very generic and they don't have any good character development. But Billy Club defies convention with its richly crafted backstories that breathe life into its protagonists. As the narrative unfolds, these childhood traumas forge complex dynamics that elevate the plot beyond mere survival horror. The depth of their histories evokes a visceral empathy, transforming each encounter with the eponymous killer into a nail-biting struggle for redemption as much as survival. Consequently, when the terror strikes, viewers find themselves not just spectators, but invested allies, fiercely rooting for their salvation.

The environment: The picturesque facade of the small town-azure skies and vibrant trees-lulls you into a false sense of security. As the characters embark on a nostalgic day drive, revisiting the cherished haunts of their youth, the serenity is shattered by an insidious reality: a serial killer, once a shadow from their childhood, now stalks these familiar streets, leaving behind chilling reminders of their traumatic past. The juxtaposition of bucolic beauty and lurking terror amplifies the horror, making the seemingly idyllic town a disquieting setting where innocence and malevolence collide, enveloping the viewer in a state of unease.

The idea sounds idiotic. A killer dressed up in baseball catcher's gear? Killing people with a bat? C'mon! One may fully expect to hate every dumb minute of BILLY CLUB.

And yet...

Back in 1981, in a small town in Wisconsin, two little league baseball players and their coach are slaughtered by young Billy Haskins, who is arrested and sent to a mental institution.

Fifteen years later, someone dressed as a catcher is murdering people. Has Billy returned to... catch up?

Meanwhile, four former teammates gather at a remote cabin to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the tragic event. Not-so surprisingly, they soon cross paths with the world's most homicidal catcher!

Mass carnage abounds.

Filled with sympathetic characters, humor, and retro-style, late 1970's-80's slasher ambiance, BILLY CLUB is a well-constructed, low-budget film that delivers the gushy goods!

BEST SCENE: a guy unknowingly eats about a pound of "magic" mushrooms, only to be chased through the now-psychedelic forest by the maniac!

Both harrowing and hilarious, the aforementioned scene illustrates the care that went into making this movie.

Highly rrecommended for the horror / slasher enthusiast...