The Driller Killer follows a struggling painter and other downtrodden Lower East End denizens in New York City during the late seventies. The painter, played pseudonymously by Ferrara himself, becomes obsessed with avoiding his father's fate as a derelict and also finds his sanity slipping away under a fog of violent fantasies that seem to be triggered by his own artwork and other pressures. Soon, the mad artist is running around the squalid streets of the city on a serial drill-killing frenzy. Adding to the chaos is a punk band that moves in adjacent to his apartment (The Roosters), a gay art dealer, and love interest(s).
The Driller Killer opened in 20 theaters and, at first, was a mainstay of the grindhouse circuit and drive-in cinemas. Michael Weldon's Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film observes that as a "gory midnight movie, it was re-released (with Drive-In Massacre) when Ferrara hit with MS. 45." The Driller Killer, as Phil Hardy notes in his Overlook Film Encyclopedia, was "the object of some notoriety as the film most often cited, along with I Spit On Your Grave (1978), in the debate in the UK over 'video nasties.' In a 1990 interview with James Ferman, head of the British Board of Film Classification, (excerpted from Shock Express: the Essential Guide to Exploitation Cinema, by Stefan Jaworzyn), Ferman says that "The Driller Killer has never been submitted to the Board as a video; it has so many prosecutions as a video nasty that I suppose nobody thought it worthwhile to do so. It seems to me to be a film about psychiatric breakdown, but the middle sequence would be a problem. I think we would trim the process of the violence in a lot of those street killings because of the gloating quality of some of them."
Anyone looking for proof of the prurient nature behind The Driller Killer need go no further than the director's audio commentary. Ferrara sounds like Krusty the Clown on two six-packs of Duff's Beer, providing the kind of vibe you might expect from a lecherous and anonymous phone-call. The Driller Killer is successfully disturbing on its own, but somehow is even more disturbing when one is privy to Ferrara's heavy-breathing and slurred, stream-of-consciousness as it punctuates itself with words like "Whoa!" "Yeow! Yeah! Oh, mama mia!" and "Uh-oh, Spaghetti-O's." Ferrara even, at times, breaks into sing-song, often snickers at a private joke, and always staggers from one thought to the other like a drunk acolyte of the Beat Generation. To be fair, his commentary is often humorous; "Here's a nice shot for a change." "This is cool; the one note acting - let the background take over." "Don't be looking at the continuity, just enjoy the program." "wha' happen? Wait. Oh, Jesus. It's a dream sequence folks." "I don't think anyone ever said this was the work of a mature filmmaker." "Hah! Hah! I mean, if you can't see the humor in this - aw man!, Dude! Whoa, here she comes' rockin' hard, yay! Hah! Yeah!"
Of course, it's not all giggles and fun, and Ferrara also points out intentional color schemes (lots of red, of course) and plot devices (ie; a gay art dealer and the use of homophobia juxtaposed against the obviously Freudian killing tool), but the commentary feels largely reactive (it was recorded at the Chelsea Hotel in New York on May 1999), rather than contemplative. Anyone looking for clues to, say, Ferrara's thoughts on the importance of his film within the context of other horror milestones, such as its influence (and inclusion into) Bret Easton Ellis's book American Psycho, will probably leave with more questions than answers.
The ambitious double-disc limited edition release of The Driller Killer by Cult Epics features a crisp widescreen transfer, the original theatrical trailer, full material for the black-and-white Porto-pack commercial within the film that allows portable electric power to power tool enthusiasts, and a collection of early short films by Abel Ferrara (some of which also include commentary by the director): The Hold Up (1972), Nicky's Film (1971), and a trailer for a hardcore porn film that Ferrara directed (and acted in) called Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976). Informative liner notes by Brad Stevens fill in the background for both the shorts provided on this collection (lamenting the lost Ferrara co-directed short about one of Keith Richards' drug busts called Not Guilty), as well as talking about the "sick joke" genesis behind The Driller Killer.
To order The Driller Killer, go to TCM Shopping.
by Pablo Kjolseth
