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Original publishing date: October 20, 2023
The Driller Killer
Runo is frustrated. He lives with two female roommates (One of which is his girlfriend) and slaves away on his new painting, which he think will be his masterpiece. But the neighbors are loud and the landlord is getting increasingly impatient with the rent. How much more can be take until he snaps?
The Driller Killer is an odd film. The term "artsy slasher" is one I'm sure rarely gets used, yet is perfectly fitting here. It follows a lot of the typical slasher beats, but it also tries to tackle many other subjects such as the music scene of New York, homelessness, art and inaffordable housing to name a few.
Most of it is shown through the perspective of the mentally anguished painter Reno. Abel Ferrara has a fittingly rugged appearance, and delivers the one performance that is consistently worth watching. Although he noticeably struggles with his lines early on in the film, his acting gradually becomes more believable as Reno slowly starts going off the deep end.
Harry Schultz has a funny small part as the arts dealer Dalton Briggs, whose critique is so unfairly savage it makes Comedy Central roasts look like kids' play.
Even though the drilling doesn't start until somewhere in the second half, there's an intense brutality to the killings that makes you feel the visceral shock and sudden terror feel as Reno attacks them with his power drill.
However, there are several mistakes made along the way which prevent me from giving a full recommendation.
The first is the music. It's not that it's bad necessarily (Although it's *awfully* repetitive), but that it takes up much space of the runtime that sometimes it feels like I'm watching parts of a music documentary, with most of the clips being the ones where the band is practicing for their big gig. It grinds everything to an abrupt halt as you're left wondering when we'll cut back to the action. The music does serve a purpose as it's one of the annoyances Reno experiences, but me thinks you could have cut quite a bit of it out and the pacing would've been a lot stronger as a result.
The second major issue is that despite there being so much groundwork laid for Reno to go crazy and start murdering people, the choice of victims and motivation is disappointingly flimsy.
It seems like the script is trying to make you sympathize with Reno's struggles and also show you how ****ed up he can get once he lets go of all restraint, but the structural imbalance makes the character portrait confusing more than anything else.
The acting is hit-and-miss. Ferrara and Schultz (Possibly also Alan Wynroth as the landlord) as I mentioned do well, Carolyn Marz as the girlfriend Carol is okay if not lifting her material to massive heights, while Baybi Day gives a sleepy and dull performance as Carol's friend Pamela.
Well, at least she remembered how to start acting in her last few seconds.
It may sound like I'm giving this movie a hard time, but there still is an earnest quality to The Driller Killer which makes it worth at least a one-time watch. You've gotta start *somewhere*, and both Abel Ferrara as well as writer Nicholas St. John would evolve with future films such as King Of New York and The Addiction. For what it's worth, this buffalo shouldn't be shot down as harshly as Dalton would.
The Driller Killer
Runo is frustrated. He lives with two female roommates (One of which is his girlfriend) and slaves away on his new painting, which he think will be his masterpiece. But the neighbors are loud and the landlord is getting increasingly impatient with the rent. How much more can be take until he snaps?
The Driller Killer is an odd film. The term "artsy slasher" is one I'm sure rarely gets used, yet is perfectly fitting here. It follows a lot of the typical slasher beats, but it also tries to tackle many other subjects such as the music scene of New York, homelessness, art and inaffordable housing to name a few.
Most of it is shown through the perspective of the mentally anguished painter Reno. Abel Ferrara has a fittingly rugged appearance, and delivers the one performance that is consistently worth watching. Although he noticeably struggles with his lines early on in the film, his acting gradually becomes more believable as Reno slowly starts going off the deep end.
Harry Schultz has a funny small part as the arts dealer Dalton Briggs, whose critique is so unfairly savage it makes Comedy Central roasts look like kids' play.
Even though the drilling doesn't start until somewhere in the second half, there's an intense brutality to the killings that makes you feel the visceral shock and sudden terror feel as Reno attacks them with his power drill.
However, there are several mistakes made along the way which prevent me from giving a full recommendation.
The first is the music. It's not that it's bad necessarily (Although it's *awfully* repetitive), but that it takes up much space of the runtime that sometimes it feels like I'm watching parts of a music documentary, with most of the clips being the ones where the band is practicing for their big gig. It grinds everything to an abrupt halt as you're left wondering when we'll cut back to the action. The music does serve a purpose as it's one of the annoyances Reno experiences, but me thinks you could have cut quite a bit of it out and the pacing would've been a lot stronger as a result.
The second major issue is that despite there being so much groundwork laid for Reno to go crazy and start murdering people, the choice of victims and motivation is disappointingly flimsy.
WARNING: spoilers below
Instead of going after any of the people who have actually been bothering him, he chooses a bunch of random homeless people? He was earlier seen trying to draw one of them, which suggested they're not exactly his enemies. It doesn't make much sense, and I felt especially bad for the guy who was offering him a beer and got drilled anyway.
The acting is hit-and-miss. Ferrara and Schultz (Possibly also Alan Wynroth as the landlord) as I mentioned do well, Carolyn Marz as the girlfriend Carol is okay if not lifting her material to massive heights, while Baybi Day gives a sleepy and dull performance as Carol's friend Pamela.
WARNING: spoilers below
When she discovers the body of Dalton her reaction is non-existent. When Reno jumps out on the other hand she screams.
It may sound like I'm giving this movie a hard time, but there still is an earnest quality to The Driller Killer which makes it worth at least a one-time watch. You've gotta start *somewhere*, and both Abel Ferrara as well as writer Nicholas St. John would evolve with future films such as King Of New York and The Addiction. For what it's worth, this buffalo shouldn't be shot down as harshly as Dalton would.