brilliant actors, brilliant editing

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Abel Ferrera who directed this film also plays the main character Reno Miller who is a struggling artist with two female roommates (Carolyn Marz & Baybi Day). You can tell quite early he is unstable. After Ferrera completes his descent into madness, with his power drill in tow he starts knocking off derelicts in the NYC streets late at night. The couple good things about the film were that Ferrera did do a good job in showing a dirty, grimy, scummy side of life. The film actually always leaves you in that setting. The other was the music by The Roosters (which perform their music next door to his apartment). The music alone brings my mark up one point. Yes, that is how much I didn't enjoy this movie. Without the music it would have been 2/10. I wouldn't really suggest this movie to anyone as I did find the opening 20 minutes confusing, but once my mind got into Ferrera's way of telling this story it clicked better, but it didn't help improve the story. I also found it as scary as a warm summer day. I certainly will see Ferrera's other work after this one, but I do hope they get much better than this one.

This little clunker actually proves that with the right cover artwork at the right time you too can have a career in film making ... Driller Killler was one of the original videos that caused Britain to loose its sanity again and created the video nasty craze ... You either know what that is or you don't, but it caused ripples worldwide and catapulted a few great films and a lot more awful films into the spotlite ... Of course the idiots that created this silly unthoughtout farce would turn in their grave if they realised that their pointless interfering caused the exact opposite effect that they wanted it to ... Spin faster and suffer you idiots :)) ... Everyone wanted to see the films after these fools started promoting them ... Driller Killer was there much more due to its eye catching cover than any content ... Amateur ( nothing wrong with that ) but unexciting and not of any interest to most people, it launched the career of Abel Ferrara, who continues to churn out mediocre trash to this day

When looking at Abel Ferrara's entire body of work, his feature debut (aside from his dabble in porn - 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976)), The Driller Killer, has many of the same themes theme that run throughout his filmography. In a urban, decaying setting, a central character flourishes while simultaneously destroying themselves in the process, physically and/or mentally. Here, artist Reno (Ferrara himself, credited as Jimmy Laine) undergoes a psychological decline brought on by bill and rent troubles, a demanding boss, the loud punk rock band next door, and the depressing, crime-filled area that he lives. After seeing an advert for an electric drill on the television, Reno begins a killing spree, mainly targeting the homeless and drunk.Whereas the likes of King of New York (1990) and Bad Lieutenant (1992), two of Ferrara's finest achievements, maintained this feeling of grime and general street filth, they were helmed by a far more experienced director, and were anchored by Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel, two of the finest American actors of their generation. The Driller Killer never manages to crawl out of its bargain-basement Taxi Driver (1977) credentials, filmed by a director seemingly more concerned with controversy than creating a serious picture. In fairness, the gore levels are relatively low and features only one scene of full-on blood- shedding - being the iconic moment depicted on the cover that caused so many Daily Mail readers to blow their top in the 1980's video nasty debacle - but it's just so bloody tedious.Ferrara cannot act, but he certainly looks the part. He's always been a strange character in the movie business, which is one of the main reasons why the bulk of his later films are so intriguing. His near- supernatural ugliness and strange mannerisms made me believe that there could be something genuinely wrong with him, that helps to add at least of bit of weight to the film. Yet his screen-time is oddly limited, and the attention frequently shifts to the No Wave punk band The Roosters, who seem to practice endlessly, spout lyrical nonsense, and behave even more bizarrely than Reno. Is this shift of focus Ferrara's way to juxtapose Reno's mental decline with the rise of the New York punk movement, intertwining them somehow? Well, no. You know a film is in trouble when repetitive music scenes primarily there as a diversion is more interesting than the central story of a man drilling into people's skulls with a power tool.The Driller Killer was single-handedly responsible for the video nasties list, so I guess we can 'thank' it for that. Although the films on the list are generally terrible, it created an interesting little story in recent cinema history, and helped save a few titles from absolute obscurity. It's certainly far from the worst nasty on the list (for me, Snuff (1976) holds that title), and is an embarrassing reminder of the nation's reaction to the scaremongering of the 80's, given the film's lack of gore and unconvincing effects. Ferrara would flourish in the 90's, so we all know what he is capable of and how much better this film could have been, but this is repulsive, amateurish film-making.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I'd heard all the hype for years surrounding this movie,been banned,scary,video nasty etc etc...i'd never got round to watching it till last month as i saw it for £1 in discount media store so i thought why not? taking into account it's a film from the 70's so cant have too high expectations,as old movies don't have the best acting and special affects do they? well? i was blown away by how bad this movie was???? i mean it has to go down has one of the worse movies i have ever seen in my entire life! I can appreciate it's age but come on? the acting was shocking and the dialogue was even worse? in fact most of that was drowned out by the awful music the movie had in abundance (or should i just call it a loud noise?) and whats a video nasty about it?why was it banned? a few people got a drill to head? with poor affects? i could have made better effects in that decade using a kids play set,compared to movies in that year such as ALIEN,AMITYVILLE,WHEN A STRANGER CALLS,ZOMBIE etc etc.. OK it was a low budget but so have other movies? right? Blair witch? paranormal activity? there is no excuse for the this crap,all evidence of this movie wants to be buried really deep in the nearest land-fill,to be honest when i finished watching it i took it out the DVD player and Frisbee'd it straight out my back door and i think that was way better fun :D or maybe we could post all the copy's back to the director and he can use em to shade his embarrassment. i advise people to stay away from this movie,it is pure AWFUL.