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| Abel Ferrara depicted as his own titular maniac on this poster for his The Driller Killer |
QUICK REVIEW:
A young artist in a shitty apartment in New York resides with his girlfriend and her girlfriend. He is tormented by unpaid bills and noise from the punk band downstairs, along with the bison he's depicting in his painting, which he doesn't feel quite done with yet.
Much psycho-babble could be read into the protagonist's ensuing murder method, but personally I think he is just tired of feeling part of a world in which everyone gets screwed. Bronxite master filmmaker Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant (1992)) makes his feature debut here, (not counting his 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976), a porno), and also gives a frightening performance as the lead 'driller killer', Reno. The film is written by Nicholas St. John (Ms. 45 (1981)).
Driller Killer is an ultra-low-budget punk pleasure, more a disturbing, urban psycho-thriller than an actual splatter, - for the few who can appreciate such a creation, - in which Ferrara also shows his knack for portraying his hometown of New York. The film is original on several fronts.
Related reviews:
Abel Ferrara: Body Snatcherrs (1993) - Third Snatchers adaptation is a piece of mediocre Ferrara
Bad Lieutenant (1992) or, World of Hurt
Watch an original teaser trailer for the film here
Cost: Reportedly 20k $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[Driller Killer was filmed June 1977 - March 1978 on 16 mm film in Ferrara's own Union Square apartment and in adjacent streets. Its release was reportedly unproblematic in the US, whereas its video release stirred controversy in the UK, where it was instrumental for the creation of the Video Recordings Act 1984. Originally, its marketing through full page advertisement of its infamous drill-through-the-head poster in some movie magazines in the UK drew complaints, which gave rise to its inclusion as a 'video nasty', - a forbidden film, in essence, - in 1983. It was released as an 18+ uncut video in Australia in 1985, but remained illegal in the UK until 2002, in which it was finally released uncut. Ferrara continued after Driller Killer with an urban vigilante flick, the even better Ms. 45. The Driller Killer is fresh at 70 % with a 6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Driller Killer?
Other cool, seamy psychological thrillers that you want to recommend?
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