If you are late to the party, you often wonder if shockers of yesteryear will stack up to their notoriety.
In the case of Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer, I can safely say it does although it was very different from what I expected.
While there is some kills with a drill that are quite graphic at times, this is much more of a psychological horror than it may have been given credit for.
Released just before Bill Lustig’s Maniac and Lewis Jackson’s Christmas Evil, each has common ground as they are the story of a man slowly descending into madness.
There is minor justification to our killer’s descent here as he gets a noisy band move in next door plus his big art deal falls through when the interested party pulls out of the deal. He clearly feels the whole world is against him and starts taking his frustrations out on the general public, under the cover of darkness in the grimy streets of New York.
Ferrara as a New York native knows the city inside out, and just like Lustig, manages to capture the gritty underbelly of the Big Apple, away from the Times Squares etc.
The fact Ferrara also plays our lead Reno helps the creator really sell his dark and twisted vision. While The Driller Killer won’t be a film that many will revisit constantly, its place in cinema history cannot be denied and it set Ferrara off to create classics such as The King of New York, Bad Lieutenant and The Addiction.
The Driller Killer does deserve a watch but you may also feel like a shower after the credits roll.
Bloody Flicks 