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The Driller Killer
USA 1979
produced by Rochelle Weisberg (executive) for Navaron Films
directed by Abel Ferrara
starring Abel Ferrara (as Jimmy Laine), Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day, Harry Schultz, Alan Wynroth, D.A. Metrov (as Rhodney Montreal), Dicke Bittner, Steve Brown, Laurie Y. Taylor, Trixie Sly, Maria Helhoski, James O'Hara, Richard Howorth, Louis Mascolo, Tommy Santora, Rita Gooding, Chuck Saaf, Janet Dailey, Joyce Finney, Butch Morris, John Coulakis, Lanny Taylor, Peter Yellen, Steve Cox, Stephen Singer, Tom Constantine, Anthony Picciano, Bob DeFrank
written by Nicholas St. John, music by Joe Delia
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Reno (Abel Ferrara) is the sensitive artist type, who's all into having
big ideas and starting stuff, but he hardly ever gets anything done, is
not all that familiar with the concept of money to pay for basic needs,
but thinks the world revolves around him anyhow. He also lives with two
women, Carol (Carolyn Marz) and Pamela (Baybi Day), and kind of looks the
other way when they prostitute themselves for him. He also can't stop to
complain about the punk rock band practicing all day and night in the
apartment below, but when the singer of the band (D.A. Metrov) asks him to
paint a portrait of him, Reno is quick to take the money for it. What
all this leads to, basically, is that Reno's full of anger, anger against
everybody but especially against homeless people - very probably because
they resemble him and his freeloading attitude a bit too much -, so on
nights he feels very low, he takes his powerdrill out for a walk and
drills some vagrants to death in quite a gory fashion. Doesn't seem the
police ever gets on his trail though, basically because they couldn't care
less about a few less bums. Finally, Reno has finished what was supposed
to be his masterpiece - but his intended buyer Briggs (Harry Schultz)
considers it nothing more than worthless shit, a nicely crafted ornament
with no artistic merit whatsoever. Now this is too much for Carol, who has
"entertained" Briggs just to keep him interested, and now that
Reno doesn't at least "avenge" her breaks something inside her.
She leaves Reno pretty much on the spot to move back in with her husband
(Richard Howorth) - and now Reno's fuse blows completely, and he invites
Briggs over to drill him and Pamela to death, before paying Carol and her
husband a visit ... Apart from his earlier excursion into
hardcore porn, The Driller Killer is Abel Ferrara's first feature
film - and it shows, because the movie tries to be too much all at once: A
genre picture, a celebration to (then very current) punk rock subculture,
a serious drama about artistic expression, ... - and sometimes, these very
diverse elements just jar and stand in each other's way to turn this into
a congruent whole. That said, Abel Ferrara as a director shows definite
promise in this one (a promise he kept of course), and his portrayal of
punk era Manhattan is certainly fascinating, as is his very blunt
treatment of the violent aspects of his story at hand, the only point is,
everything doesn't come together as well as in his later movies ...
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