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.
