The Driller Killer (1979)
Genre: Drama / Horror
Duration: 94 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Abel Ferrara
Stars: Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz and Baybi Day
IMDb score:
5,2 (9.303)
Releasedate: 15 June 1979
The Driller Killer plot
"The Blood Runs In Rivers... And The Drill Keeps Tearing Through Flesh And Bone."
An artist slowly but surely goes mad. He can barely pay the bills and the punk band downstairs in the flat doesn't make it any happier either. When his art dealer asks when his latest artwork will be finished and he shows the artwork, the art dealer laughs. At that moment, something inside him snaps.
Actors and actresses
Reno Miller
Carol Slaughter
Pamela
Dalton Briggs
Al the Landlord
The Nun
Man in Church
Stephen - Carol's Husband
Knife Victim
Attacker
Reviews & comments
Richard_Voorhees
-
- 2311 messages
- 2135 votes
Besides the fact that my DVD of this film is of truly abominable image quality, I also could not get into this film. The main character is an almost unworldly figure that I sometimes really could not follow.
In addition, they often switch to a punk band that had their rehearsal space in the same building or something. Anyway, not much good.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Collins
-
- 7346 messages
- 4345 votes
Horror in the psychological sense. The development of the mental decline of the painting main character captured in images of a psychedelic nature and often accompanied by voluminous sounds. Voices, music and ambient sounds. The images do not look nicely polished. The image changes are messy. Sloppily cut and unstructured positioned in the jerky film story. All over the place and difficult to interpret. The story runs like a sick mind, so to speak.
The setting of the story is dirty and filthy. There is waste everywhere. Out and about. There is demolition and neglect. Many homeless people too. The filth is also recognizable in the characters. Sloppy, indifferent, disoriented and depressing as they are.
With all these means, the film very quickly, very effectively and very penetratingly creates an atmosphere of filth and discomfort. It is a stench that nestles in every corner of the film. A penetrating smell that confronts and irritates.
Horror of the mind, then. With a bit of Gore, that is. It is a psychedelic experience, but there is killing of course. With a drill.
Interesting movie.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Vidi well
-
- 540 messages
- 703 votes
Driller Killer does what it promises: entertaining pulp with a few good gore kills.
The build-up to madness is a bit slow, but I liked it. The grimy 70s New York always scores points with me and this dirty atmosphere of artistic poverty, rock and roll and free sex offers a nice background for the horror that follows.
And that horror.. oh, I expected worse. A few scenes are explicit, but most happen in the dark and are quite fake. The best shots I think are his hallucinations in which he is completely soaked in blood in bright red light, taking it out on a victim off-screen. Very beautiful.
Why he chooses homeless people is a bit unclear, but I suspect he kills what he fears. With his unpaid rent, there is a good chance that he will end up the same way. I thought it would be more logical that he would seek his victims in his personal circle towards the end.
A special film. Not very strong in terms of story, but atmospheric and with a few beautiful images. The acting shoots in all directions, especially the women are not very good, but also get little interesting to say. For the rest there is a lot of over-acting and many dialogues are about money problems, relationship problems, music, drugs and so on. Because of this, and because of the long images of the punk band, it feels like we are looking into these lives for a while. I like that.
Extra points for the title, the opening (This movie should be played Loud!) and for the final scene. Because the film never really gets exciting, but that last minute in the dark I thought was an original and nicely cheeky move, which was also exciting because of that.
3.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
