Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama

Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama

Theatrical poster
Directed by David DeCoteau
Produced by John Schouweiler
Written by Sergei Hasenecz
Starring Linnea Quigley
Michelle Bauer
Andras Jones
Hal Havins
Robin Rochelle
Music by Guy Moon
Cinematography Stephen A. Blake
Scott Ressler
Edited by Thomas Meshelski
Barry Zetlin
Distributed by Urban Classics
Release dates
  • January 29, 1988 (1988-01-29)
Running time
 80 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $90,000 (estimated)[1]
Box office Unknown

Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (also known as The Imp) is a 1988 American horror comedy film directed by David DeCoteau, loosely based on the classic short story The Monkey's Paw.[2] Notable for 1980s scream queens Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer to appear together, the plot follows an imp accidentally released and causing havoc among a group of teenagers inside a mall.

Filmed in 1987 and produced by Charles Band's Urban Classics, the film had a limited release in January 1988 and was later released to home video since. In later years, it gained recognition as a "So Bad It's Good" cult film.

Plot

Three nerdy frat boys consisted of Calvin, Jimmie, and Keith, follow and spy on the Tri-Delta sorority group, where they are having an initiation. Sorority members Babs, Rhonda, and Frankie prepare for the ritual while newcomers Taffy and Lisa await. Watched by the frat boys outside their house, the two initiates get spanked from a paddle and are sprayed with whip cream during the initiation. While the girls clean themselves, the boys enter the house and are caught by the girls. Due to this, the boys are sent with the pledges on a mission to steal a trophy from a nearby bowling alley. Unbeknownst, Babs' father runs the mall where the bowling alley is at and watches the group through the security cameras.

When the group enters the bowling alley, they encounter and meet Spider, a biker trying to rob the alley with a crowbar. With her help, they break into the trophy room and upon accidentally dropping the bowling trophy, unleashes an imp named Uncle Impie who offers three wishes from freeing him. Jimmie grants a wish of gold stacks, Taffy grants a wish of being the Prom Queen, and Keith grants a wish of having sex with Lisa. After this, Uncle Impie soon possess the sorority trio from the camera; Frankie is turned into the Bride of Frankenstein and Rhonda is turned into a demon minion while Babs flee. After Babes is render unconscious from touching the mall's electric doors, the group finds out that the wishes were turned rather false with Jimmie's gold made out of wood and Taffy's dress disappeared.

Jimmie is killed by the minions and his head is used for a bowling ball, and Lisa furiously tries to have with Keith. Spider and Calvin hide inside a closet from Rhonda, where they find a pistol and shoot Rhonda with it before fleeing. After escaping from Lisa, Keith is killed by Rhonda by shoving his face into a stove and Taffy is pulled apart horizontally by the minions. Babes awakes and fights Rhonda, who shoves her into the alley and is seemingly killed by a bowling ball by Spider. With Rhonda dead, Babs is possessed and turned into a demon minion.

Calvin and Spider finds the Janitor, and reveals that the Imp was summoned to help a bowler and resulting the Imp trapped for 30 years due to the creature killing people. Meanwhile, after Babs kills Lisa with a paddle, she is burned to death with a molotov tossed by Calvin. After Spider and Calvin find the Janitor killed, they are chased by Jackie with an axe. Spider gains the upper hand and decapitates her, and the severed head knocks the doors open. While Calvin starts up a car and is attacked by Rhonda from the backseat, Spider successfully traps Uncle Impie in a box. Calvin's struggles to control the car, and ends up crashing upside down; Calvin apparently survives this and Rhonda is killed from the crash. In the morning, Spider drives Calvin to her house in her motorcycle while Uncle Impie is seen trapped in the box at the curb, asking someone to let him out.

Cast

Production

Production for the film began and ended in September 1987, within 12 days in the state of California; filming locations was shot in Plaza Camino Royale and Bowlplex Super Lane, which has now been torn down and turned into a public swimming pool. Due to the low budget, the movie had to be filmed in the bowling alley during the night when it was closed, until 9am when it opens. This is due to the fact that they weren't able to rent the bowling alley for the principal photography.[3]

The director David DeCoteau was referenced in the story as David McCabe, and his film Creepozoids was seen on Calvin's television in the beginning.

Early trailers for this film featured a high pitched voice for the Imp, while the final film used a lower pitched voice. The bowling Trophy where Uncle Impie is released, is actually made out of Balsa Wood.[4]

After production ended, DeCoteau reused the same cast and crew, and later filmed Nightmare Sisters.[5][6]

Release

The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by the Charles Band funded Urban Classics in January 1988.[7]

For its home video release in the United Kingdom, the film was titled The Imp instead of its original title. The movie also aired on USA Up All Night in the early 1990s.

The film was released on DVD in the United States by Cult Video, a subsidiary of Full Moon Entertainment, in 1999.

Reception

JoBlo.com and Cinema Crazed both wrote favorable reviews for the movie,[8] the latter writing "It's trash, there's no arguing that, but in the end it's entertaining trash".[9] Daily Grindhouse had a similar opinion, stating "If you watch it with a sense that what you’re basically doing the visual equivalent of eating an entire box of BooBerry cereal, you can take these matters with a grain of salt, and enjoy it for its ridiculousness, and for the funny Imp puppet."[10] AllMovie panned the film and gave it one star.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Box Office/Buissness for Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama". imdb.com. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  2. ↑ Conklin, John E. (2008-10-15). Campus Life in the Movies: A Critical Survey from the Silent Era to the Present. McFarland. pp. 129, 133. ISBN 9780786452354.
  3. ↑ "IMDb Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  4. ↑ "IMDb Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  5. ↑ David DeCoteau, John Schouweiler. (2003). Audio Commentary (DVD). Retromedia.
  6. ↑ J.R. Bookwalter, Attack of the B-Movie Makers, Cinema Home Video Productions, Hollywood, California, 1991.
  7. ↑ "Company Credits for Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama". IMDb. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
  8. ↑ "Awfully Good: Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama + Mortal Kombat 2". JoBlo.com. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  9. ↑ "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988) (review)". Cinema Crazed. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  10. ↑ "LITTLE MISS RISK'S DUNGEON!: SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1988)". Daily Grindhouse. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  11. ↑ "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1987) - David DeCoteau". AllMovie. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
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