The Driller Killer (1979)

Very Cool!!!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

"This film should be played LOUD," insists the pre-credits card at the beginning. And not simply to feel the full force of The Roosters, or the squeal of the titular murder weapon, but also because Abel Ferrara's zero-budget slasher is all about anger in need of expression. Ferrara himself plays Reno, a struggling artist desperate to complete a painting that will earn him enough to pay the rent. He lives with a couple of girls, one of whom is kind of his girlfriend but neither of whom particularly likes him, and he's being driven mad by those damn Roosters downstairs. All his repressed rage and his inability to empathise with fellow humans is taking its toll. Then he sees his release: take it out on the New York homeless using a power drill and a Porto-Pak(TM). Reno's disgust of transient men betrays a profound male anxiety: the inability to provide. Furthermore, his "masterpiece" is a painting of a bison – both a icon of masculine power as well as a symbol of hunter-gatherer sustenance. He barks impotently at his indifferent girlfriend, who later turns to their female flatmate for her physical satisfaction. Moreover, Reno is unable to communicate with his artist peers. Even the members of the band who aren't musicians are full of extrovert self-expression. Reno, meanwhile, is a wholly internalised recluse, harbouring a growing loathing of other people. Then there's Dalton Briggs (Harry Schlutz II), a gallery owner who, like a Roman emperor, holds the power to give a thumbs-up or down to Reno's future. In the deliberately theatrical Dalton scenes (a realist style is employed elsewhere) Ferrara scores with Clockwork Orange- style electronic classical music; and indeed there is a hint of Kubrickian absurdity in the juxtaposition between Briggs' high art pretensions and Reno's degenerate world.That world, shot on location around Ferrara's own haunt, is at times as potent a snapshot of post-Vietnam New York's underbelly as Scorsese's Taxi Driver. The depiction of madness and desperation amongst the homeless is pretty broad, although it doesn't stray into the sort of farcical territory we would later see in J. Michael Muro's Street Trash. The Driller Killer is one of the original "video nasties" – a select group of films banned from UK home video in the 1980s for fear of corrupting malleable minds. Apparently, the complaints were based solely on the poster, depicting the famous head drill victim. To be fair, the actual content here more than lives up to that marketing promise. This is a grotty and gory film, the cheapness of whose effects is offset by being shot mostly at night. Smart directorial choices, neat editing, dark humour, and a unique setting elevate The Driller Killer above many of the slashers of the late-70s/early-80s period. It may not be the most fun – think of the intense grimness of Maniac or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer – but it's surely one of the more memorable.

When looking at Abel Ferrara's entire body of work, his feature debut (aside from his dabble in porn - 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976)), The Driller Killer, has many of the same themes theme that run throughout his filmography. In a urban, decaying setting, a central character flourishes while simultaneously destroying themselves in the process, physically and/or mentally. Here, artist Reno (Ferrara himself, credited as Jimmy Laine) undergoes a psychological decline brought on by bill and rent troubles, a demanding boss, the loud punk rock band next door, and the depressing, crime-filled area that he lives. After seeing an advert for an electric drill on the television, Reno begins a killing spree, mainly targeting the homeless and drunk.Whereas the likes of King of New York (1990) and Bad Lieutenant (1992), two of Ferrara's finest achievements, maintained this feeling of grime and general street filth, they were helmed by a far more experienced director, and were anchored by Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel, two of the finest American actors of their generation. The Driller Killer never manages to crawl out of its bargain-basement Taxi Driver (1977) credentials, filmed by a director seemingly more concerned with controversy than creating a serious picture. In fairness, the gore levels are relatively low and features only one scene of full-on blood- shedding - being the iconic moment depicted on the cover that caused so many Daily Mail readers to blow their top in the 1980's video nasty debacle - but it's just so bloody tedious.Ferrara cannot act, but he certainly looks the part. He's always been a strange character in the movie business, which is one of the main reasons why the bulk of his later films are so intriguing. His near- supernatural ugliness and strange mannerisms made me believe that there could be something genuinely wrong with him, that helps to add at least of bit of weight to the film. Yet his screen-time is oddly limited, and the attention frequently shifts to the No Wave punk band The Roosters, who seem to practice endlessly, spout lyrical nonsense, and behave even more bizarrely than Reno. Is this shift of focus Ferrara's way to juxtapose Reno's mental decline with the rise of the New York punk movement, intertwining them somehow? Well, no. You know a film is in trouble when repetitive music scenes primarily there as a diversion is more interesting than the central story of a man drilling into people's skulls with a power tool.The Driller Killer was single-handedly responsible for the video nasties list, so I guess we can 'thank' it for that. Although the films on the list are generally terrible, it created an interesting little story in recent cinema history, and helped save a few titles from absolute obscurity. It's certainly far from the worst nasty on the list (for me, Snuff (1976) holds that title), and is an embarrassing reminder of the nation's reaction to the scaremongering of the 80's, given the film's lack of gore and unconvincing effects. Ferrara would flourish in the 90's, so we all know what he is capable of and how much better this film could have been, but this is repulsive, amateurish film-making.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I can remember the first time I saw this movie, after hearing great things about it and it's some what dubious reputation, I was expecting something outstanding, but when I first watched it I was sorely disappointed, okay everyone has they're own opinion but to my knowledge at the time I found this movie loud and extremely hard to follow. But on further viewings, I gave this movie a few chances, I still don't really see what the fuss is all about.The plot = An artist who lives in a run down New York apartment with his girlfriend and her friend, where things start to go wrong at every turn for him, he can't pay his bills, his relationship is failing and he begins to crumble and lose his mind and sets out on a murderous rampage.Okay firstly the good points of this movie is that it does show creativity by showing the main character's worsening mental state which I found totally believable, and the murders are quite graphic but it does take too long for that to happen, and showing so much of the main character's spiral into madness does become uneasy and unsettling to watch, it just borders on loudness. And not just that the scenes don't quite flow together and the pacing is uneven, and there are just way too many pointless scenes that don't really add anything to this movie, but I do like the grittyness and grainy quality of this movie though.All in all "Driller Killer" is an okayish movie just not to my taste.

I'd heard all the hype for years surrounding this movie,been banned,scary,video nasty etc etc...i'd never got round to watching it till last month as i saw it for £1 in discount media store so i thought why not? taking into account it's a film from the 70's so cant have too high expectations,as old movies don't have the best acting and special affects do they? well? i was blown away by how bad this movie was???? i mean it has to go down has one of the worse movies i have ever seen in my entire life! I can appreciate it's age but come on? the acting was shocking and the dialogue was even worse? in fact most of that was drowned out by the awful music the movie had in abundance (or should i just call it a loud noise?) and whats a video nasty about it?why was it banned? a few people got a drill to head? with poor affects? i could have made better effects in that decade using a kids play set,compared to movies in that year such as ALIEN,AMITYVILLE,WHEN A STRANGER CALLS,ZOMBIE etc etc.. OK it was a low budget but so have other movies? right? Blair witch? paranormal activity? there is no excuse for the this crap,all evidence of this movie wants to be buried really deep in the nearest land-fill,to be honest when i finished watching it i took it out the DVD player and Frisbee'd it straight out my back door and i think that was way better fun :D or maybe we could post all the copy's back to the director and he can use em to shade his embarrassment. i advise people to stay away from this movie,it is pure AWFUL.