SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1988)

SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1988)

Tagline: He's so wicked

(Comedy, Horror, 80’s Cheese) [R]

What is this, Midnight Wimp Bowling League?

In this one, 3 morons decide it’s time to sneak into the Tri-Delta Sorority to watch the initiation pledges of a few new girls at midnight. They end up getting caught and the leader of the sorority named “Babs”, has one more prank the new girls must pull along with the 3 morons. They need to break into the Bowl-O-Rama at the mall and steal something from it to prove they were there. Unfortunately, the trophy they steal has an evil imp in it who grants them wishes that go terribly wrong. 

First off the Imp (which is like a European mythical tiny demon) looks pretty much looks like a gremlin that was made by Video Craft International (they did the stop motion “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” in 1964) rather than Amblin Entertainment. He’s pretty goofy looking and his personality reminds me of what you would get if you tried to cast Charles Barkley in a comedy special. The rest of the effects look like they were definitely bargain-basement even for the 80s. 

One of the prime draws for this Full Moon feature put out by Urban Classics is the fact that there is a scream queen draw times two in this. Linnea Quigley might be the single biggest scream queen of all time and has been in horror flicks for going on 47 years. Her first horror flick was all the way back in 1975, so she’s been an actress in horror flicks since I was 2 years old, she plays “Spider” in this. She’s been in everything from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD to JACK-O and beyond. Apparently, this was one of her favorite movies because she got to keep her clothes on. Her character in this takes a bit of time to grow on you, kind of like her character in CREEPOZOIDS. The other big draw was Brinke Stevens who is also a scream queen that is still active. Stevens has an insane 35 movies either completed, in post-production, in production, or announced as of the writing of this review. She has been in even more movies than Linnea including everything from THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE to MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES.  Outside of that, there are several throwaway characters Calvin played by Andras Jones is probably the next most recognizable. He was also in NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER but didn’t have near the career that Quigley or Stevens had. Overall the acting is just okay, no one is going for an Oscar here.

Getting to what I liked about the movie, I have to go with the fact that it wasn’t overly gory or demonic even though it had an Imp. This is very much “patty cake” 80’s stuff and I appreciated that. I also for some reason love horror comedies that are shot in malls in general. One of the first things I was thinking when I read the title was “how can this be in a mall if it’s at a bowl-o-Rama? Well, the actual bowling alley wasn’t at the mall, it was at a completely separate location. They just shot the movie to appear that way. They ended up having to shoot the entire movie when the bowling alley wasn’t at peak hours because they couldn’t afford to rent it out during the daytime. 

What I didn’t like about the movie was the gratuitous nudity once they got to the bowling alley and one of the dude's wishes for a woman. I get that this had to be a draw for the target audience, but when you throw that many scenes in there with nudity it gets a bit ridiculous because it wasn’t necessary to what was going on in the rest of the movie. Granted, teenagers in the 80s were the target, not guys my age that actually pay attention to this kind of stuff and see it as being a bit janky. However, the movie does have “slime ball bowl-o-Rama” in the title. It’s not like they said it was the “classy bowl-o-Rama”. I also have to agree with Linnea Quigley on this one who thought her character cussed too much. It seems like even that bowling alley would have hired someone that was at least a little more professional, even if she didn’t really give a crap and was also trying to rob the place. She is the only character who can’t seem to get a sentence out without dropping an f-bomb. 

Overall this is not nearly as amazing as movies like NIGHT OF THE CREEPS of CHOPPING MALL, but at least now I can say I have seen another iconic cult film from the 1980s. I have to give this one a 4 out of 7. If nudity isn’t an issue for the crowd you are with, it’s a decent Halloween horror marathon movie with just enough humor and cheese to keep it fun. 

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