THE DRILLER KILLER (1979)

DIRECTED by Abel Ferrara

SCREENPLAY by Nicholas St.John

STARRING  - Abel Ferrara (credited as Jimmy Laine) as Reno Miller,  Carolyn Marz as Carol Slaughter,  Baybi Day as Pamela Bergling,  Harry Schultz the 2nd as Dalton Briggs, Alan Wynroth as Al the landlord,  Richard Howorth as Stephen,  Douglas Anthony Metro (credited as Rhodney Montreal) as Tony Coca-Cola.

PLOT - Reno Miller is a struggling artist living in New York. He is living in a shabby apartment with his girlfriend - Carol and her best friend/lesbian lover Pamela. Times are hard, money is scarce and they are behind on the rent. 

Reno is struggling to complete his latest painting which he believes will be the piece of art that will get his career off the ground. He is held back by his increasing anxieties and financial problems. To make matters worse - a punk band called "The Roosters" have moved into the apartment next door and thier late night rehearsals are driving Reno ever further over the edge.

Eventually Reno snaps and he embarks on a killing spree. His victims - the local derelicts and vagrants living on the streets of his neighbourhood. His weapon of choice - a power drill. Reno Miller has become...the Driller Killer.

DIALOUGE  - Title card at start of film - "This film should be played LOUD" - a statement of intent if ever I saw one.

PERFORMANCES  - Its always difficult to tell what the exact intention is when a B-movie director casts themselves in the lead role of thier own film. Is it due to the lack of budget, not being able to afford a main star for the central role, so the director takes a "hands-on'' approach ? Or is it for more egotistical reasons  - the director thinking that ONLY they themselves understand thier character, so ONLY they can play them ? Has the film become nothing but a "vanity project" as a result ? Or...is it both ?

Abel Ferrara (the film's director) plays the role of Reno, and in this case I think it really is a case of both of the above. The film undoubtedly has a VERY low budget so it probably was a case of all hands on deck, but you also get the feeling that the character of Reno is slightly based on Ferrara himself. I'm not saying for a minute that Ferrara is liable to "go postal" and start murdering people left, right and centre with the nearest handy power tool, BUT the film does seem to be talking about the frustration and risk of burnout that faces people of an artistic nature, the stresses, the rejections, the struggle to put food on the table whilst maintaining your artistic integrity. I'm sure some of the obstacles Reno faces where probably obstacles Ferrara came up against himself when embarking on his own filmmaking career.

Ferrara is actually pretty good in the role (especially considering he's not an actor), he manages to make Reno quite a compelling character. Reno is a struggling painter shacked up in a seedy apartment block with his lover and her drugged up "lesbian friend". He's under both financial pressure and the need to hit a deadline for completion of his latest painting. The problem is a rowdy punk band have moved in next door and thier late night rehearsals and parties are keeping the already frazzled Reno up all night. This combination of pressure mixed with sleep deprivation pushes him over the edge, causing him to take up arms with a power drill and go on a late night murder spree as he carves up local hobos with his trusty Black and Decker. Quite why he chooses to murder the homeless is never made clear - maybe they represent what he fears he's becoming, afterall if he fails to sell his latest painting he's going to be joining thier ranks pretty soon...

I think the main problem with Ferrara's performance is that Reno fails to elicit any sympathy from the beginning. We should be shocked to see his downward spiral, his descent into madness as he becomes an utterly irredeemable monster...but we aren't. From the outset Reno is a thoroughly unlikeable character - he's rude, obnoxious and pretentious. He also treats his girlfriend Carol like utter shit, constantly shouting her down and emotionally abusing her. It's no wonder she falls into the arms of her druggy lesbian friend and then returns to her husband. This lack of any empathy for the central character is a shame as without it he just comes over as an utter arsehole before becoming an ever bigger arsehole with murder in mind.

The rest of the cast aren't that great to be fair (Carolyn Marz as Reno's put upon girlfriend has her moments but doesn't get enough to do). All the other performers act in a naturalistic manner (which betrays the film's low budget origins but does add to it's gritty documentary feel), they all seem like they're drugged up though...maybe they where...

SFX - Some fairly realistic blood and gore effects but given the movie's "explicit" sounding title not as many as you'd imagine...

SEX & VIOLENCE  - For a movie with a title like "Driller Killer" you'd naturally expect lashings of both...but apart from a few noteable moments it's all surprisingly tame by today's standards.

There's a lesbian sex scene between Carol and Pamela where they get frisky whilst having a bath together but its done quite artfully.

Perhaps the most extreme bit of violence is the killing that was used for the movie's VHS front cover. We actually DO see the drillbit go into it's victim's skull that time and a river of gore dribble down his face...

The camera lingers on this image for an uncomfortably long time but after that it's all pretty tame. There's one scene where Reno murders loads of hobos in a matter of minutes but its just a case of Reno running up behind them, hearing the drill noise and the "victim" falling to the floor, there's not even any blood on the end of the drill.

At one point Reno murders a character by drilling his stomach but its all filmed from a distance and we dont see much.

There's a fairly nasty scene where Reno "crucifies" one of his victims and there's a moment where he kills his arrogant art agent. Pamela finds his murdered corpse but the whole scene is undermined by the fact that you can see the actor playing the corpse breathing. This isn't just a slightly noticeable rising and falling of his chest either...he seems to be taking great big breaths. Couldn't he have held his breath for the few seconds he's onscreen ???? It really takes you out of the moment and comes over as massively amateurish.

Ironically, the most "gore" we see is in a series of nightmares/visions Reno has before he snaps where he sees himself covered in blood, maniacally screaming into the camera. Seeing as these are just hallucinations and not actually "taking place" in the story they don't really count though.

RATING - The Driller Killer is an odd movie. Its very nearly excellent but its also very nearly terrible. Its got some good ideas but its let down by many little niggles which I've mentioned above.

One point that works really well is the film's atmosphere. EVERYTHING from the setting, the cinematography, even the extras in the background just looks really, really seedy and rundown. I also like the moments where the film seems to switch genres and almost becomes a documentary about the late 70's New York Punk scene which gave birth to bands like "The New York Dolls" and "Television". None of the bands we see here are on that level but the raw documentary style concert footage that we get when our main characters visit various Punk clubs certainly gives you a feel and a taste of what it must have been like to be a young punk rocker in those heady days. It's by far the most authentic aspect of the film and I think it's this rather than the gore that lifts this movie up to be more memorable than it otherwise would be.

So what we ultimately get here is a weird slasher/psychodrama/psychedelic punk rockumentary hybrid. It doesn't all hold together but its certainly weirdly interesting and serves as a snapshot of a long gone era.

3 and a half artistic meltdowns out of 5. Well worth a look but its probably not quite what you'd be expecting going on it's title and poster art alone...

ART -