The Driller Killer(1979)

"The Blood Runs in Rivers. The Drill Keeps Drilling...". This is the line from the poster of The Driller Killer, directed by Abel Ferrara who also directed Bad Lieutenant which I will review in a future post. This movie has the dubious honour of being one of the first of the 'video nasties' which were banned in the UK and elsewhere. It was not available uncut until 2002 but of course, banning the movie made it more popular and now it is a cult horror.

The film begins with a young man,Reno Miller(Abel Ferrara), who is an poor artist. He is living with his girlfriend, Carol(Carolyn Marz) and her pal Pam(Baybi Day) who are getting it on together without Reno knowing. Carol wants him to finish his painting of a buffalo so that he can get some cash, but he refuses as he thinks that it takes as long as it takes. A rock band moves into the building and they play all hours of the night and day. This makes Reno go mental and he begins to kill homeless people with his cordless drill(like you do!).


Reno continues with his art and his painting is finally done, but it is rejected by an art gallery run by Dalton Briggs(Harry Schultz). Carol is annoyed and she leaves him to shack up with her ex-husband, Stephen(Richard Howorth). Needless to say, this drives poor Reno around the twist and he begins to get more psychotic(if that's possible!) He asks Briggs to dinner and he gets drilled and killed! Pam comes back to the apartment and sees what Reno has done and she is drilled too! As the end draws near, Reno breaks into Carol and Stephen's house and he drills Stephen while Carol is in the shower. The movie ends with Reno hiding in the bed while Carol comes out of the shower, thinking that it is her husband waiting for her. Little does she know that all that is waiting for her is a DRILL!!!!!

This movie is good fun and I thought that it was hilarious(though it isn't meant to be!). There is plenty of gore and some great death scenes so I would recommend this to any horror fan. I would give this 8/10. Watch it and see what you think of it!