The Driller Killer (1979)
The Driller Killer is a slasher film from 1979 directed by Abel Ferrara. Starring Abel Ferrara (as Jimmy Laine), Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day, and Harry Schultz.
Plot
Reno is an artist struggling to survive in NYC. He draws inspiration from scenes of daily street life and occasional random violence.
Under pressure to finish his oft-delayed grand masterpiece, his psychotic alter-ego takes over and he begins killing random vagrants will a power drill.
He does this to boost his creativity, not quite realizing that it is happening in reality. When an art dealer grimly rejects Reno’s finished masterpiece, Reno’s mental condition quickly deteriorates.
Notable scenes
The power drill kill scenes.
Making of the Driller Killer
Banned in the UK as a videonasty until 1999.
Abel Ferrara claims that half of this movie was shot in 1978 and the other half was shot in 1979. This explains why the actors’ hairstyles and looks in general change quite frequently during the movie. The movie was shot in the weekends.
Abel Ferrara (jokingly) claimed that the black guy cleaning the taxi cab windscreen near the beginning of the film was Bruce Willis.
Title is mentioned in the song “Nasty” by The Damned–a song about horror movies that were banned in the UK after the Video Recording Act of 1984.
While Reno is painting Tony’s portrait, Tony is reading to him from the “Dictionnaire Infernal”, a book that describes demons and their hierarchy in hell. The passage refers to Ronove/Ronwe, a demon who teaches “art”.
Provided the band Driller Killer with its name.
Our view on the Driller Killer
Director and actor Abel Ferrara made the Driller Killerbefore Ms. 45, The King of New York and Bad Lieutenant. The movie has some similarities with Scorsese’s Taxidriver and other gritty seventies movies. It is a good character study next to a horror with black comedy elements. If not for the gruesome cover depicting a man drilled in his head Driller Killer might not be banned and set on the UK’s videonasty list. Exploitflix must see!
