Driller Killer (1979)

Abel Ferrara week continues at tedsmovies.blogspot (more to come!) with the infamous New York art-sleaze director's 1979 debut, the aptly titled Driller Killer. This low-budget exploitation film follows struggling artist Reno Miller (played by a loathsome, swaggering Ferrara) as he descends into madness, spurred on by his annoying girlfriends, the obnoxious punk band next door, and some bad vibes from an old dude in a church that kisses his hand (hey, I can relate). Reno decides to vent his anger in the most logical fashion, by murdering members of New York's homeless population with a power drill. Reno soon becomes obsessed with "killing" with a "drill," eventually offing most of the rest of the cast. The end.

Driller Killer, while not a perfect, or even coherent, or even very watchable, film, remains, I assume, required viewing for fans of Ferrara's work. While extremely rough, Driller Killer provides glimpses of the glossy aesthetic of sleaze Ferrara would perfect in his later work. Driller Killer moves with a lunatic rhythm; it is fast, choppy, and loose, with raw, barely audible performances and sketchy plot machination. At best, Driller Killer is an idiot savante horror, at worst, a bad art school experiment. The film toes the line drunkenly, providing just enough exposition to remain in the category of narrative film, while interpolating bizarre, disparate imagery with little context. Without Ferrara's later work to validate his genius, Driller Killer would likely be unredeemable smut, however, in lieu of his later accomplishments, it can be enjoyed as the zany breeding ground of a singular gutter auteur.

This film is worth watching if for no other reason, than to watch Ferrara create a fairly developed model for Vincent Gallo's later Billy Brown. Ferrara's Reno Miller sounds, and looks, exceedingly similar to Gallo's neurotic, aggravating Brown, and was no doubt a large influence on Gallo's strange aesthetic. Ferrara's performance, though rough, contains a certain brutal charm, perhaps best personified by the scene in which he devours an extra-large pizza single-handedly (apparently murdering people with a drill has given him an insatiable appetite). It is a wonder to watch the gangly Ferrara stuff massive pizza slice after massive pizza slice into his gaunt head, a feat he does with enough relish and aplomb to convince us that perhaps he is eating these slices, and not just "acting."

One thing that astounded me about Driller Killer is the quantum leap in quality between it and Ferrara's next film, the much more focused Ms. 45. While Ms. 45 is no doubt a more professional production, it is impressive to see how fast Ferrara refined and controlled the raw skills displayed in Driller Killer.