The Driller Killer (1979)

An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.

Director:

Abel Ferrara

Writer:

Nicholas St. John (screenplay)

Stars:

Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Abel Ferrara	...	Reno Miller (as Jimmy Laine)
Carolyn Marz	...	Carol Slaughter
Baybi Day	...	Pamela
Harry Schultz	...	Dalton Briggs
Alan Wynroth	...	Al the Landlord
Maria Helhoski	...	The Nun
James O'Hara	...	Man in Church
Richard Howorth	...	Stephen - Carol's Husband
Louis Mascolo	...	Knife Victim
Tommy Santora	...	Attacker
Rita Gooding	...	TV Spot
Chuck Saaf	...	TV Spot
Gary Cohen	...	Voice-over (voice)
Janet Dailey	...	Girl at Audition
Joyce Finney	...	Girl at Audition

Storyline

An artist slowly loses his mind as he and his two female friends scrape to pay the bills. The punk band downstairs increasingly agitates him, his art dealer is demanding that he complete his big canvas painting as promised, and he gets into fights with his girlfriends. When the dealer laughs at his canvas he snaps, and begins taking it out on the people responsible for his pain and random transients in the manner suggested by the title.

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Plot Keywords:

painting | artist | drill | painter | power drill | 

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Taglines:

There are those who kill violently!

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 June 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Driller Killer

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Navaron Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min 94 min (cut) 96 min (uncut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Could have easily escaped the UK 'video nasty' list if the original pre-VRA video cover wasn't so graphic. it featured a very bloody close-up of a drill boring into a man's head with lots of blood. The video cover was featured in video catalogues and received many complaints.

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Goofs

In one scene, the killer is drilling into the head of a victim at a bus stop with a cordless power drill. In the next scene, he's running down the street with a cord dangling from his drill.

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Quotes

Reno Miller: Oh, so it's finished? Thank you. It's finished... Since when did you become such an expert on painting? I mean, you're telling me it's finished? What do you know about painting, anyway? Really, what do you know about paint? I'll tell you what you know about paint, man: you don't know nothing about paint, man. You know what you know about? You know about how to bitch and how to eat and how to bitch and how to shit and how to bitch! But you don't know nothing about paint, so don't tell me when ...

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Crazy Credits

Movie opens with message "THIS FILM SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD."

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Connections

Referenced in Fear in the Dark (1991)

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Soundtracks

"Grand Street Stomp"
Written by D.A. Metrov (as Metro), Abel Ferrara (as Laine) and John Paul McIntyre (as MacIntyre)
Performed by Tony Coca-Cola and the Roosters

User Reviews

Unfairly maligned punk rock psychodrama.

Abel Ferrara's 'The Driller Killer' is generally best know for igniting the "video nasty" debate back in the 1980s in Britain and little else. Which is a shame because it is a fascinating low budget psychodrama. The horror or slasher tag it is usually given is quite misleading and will no doubt disappoint hard core horror fans expecting quite a different kind of movie. Sure it does eventually lead to a violent climax but it is closer to being a character study of a man driven to insanity by his squalid, and increasingly anarchic urban environment. Almost like a bargain basement 'Taxi Driver' with some CBGBs era atmosphere thrown in. Along with Uli Lommel's little seen 'Blank Generation' there are very few other films that successfully document the mid 70s NYC punk scene of The Ramones, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, The Cramps et al, and 'The Driller Killer' is worth viewing for this reason alone.

Ferrara himself plays the lead character, tortured scumbag artist Reno. In his later, more sophisticated, and yes, better movies this role would no doubt have been played by someone like Keitel, Walken, Hopper or Gallo. Ferrara doesn't have the acting chops these guys have and so the movie suffers somewhat, but even so, his performance is crude but effective. Unknowns Carolyn Marz and Baybi Day as his girlfriend and his girlfriend's girlfriend respectively are both more than adequate, and The Roosters may be second rate but help lend some authentic punk rock feel to this underrated slice of urban nihilism. While by no means my favourite Abel Ferrara movie, this movie doesn't deserve to be dismissed. I like it.