"The Driller Killer" follows Reno (Abel Ferrara), a struggling artist in late 1970s New York City. He lives with two female companions who are lovers, and the three struggle to pay their bills. As tensions rise within Reno, they are exacerbated by a no wave band incessantly practicing in his building, and he slowly loses his sanity. To cope with matters, he purchases a power drill and a battery pack, and begins drilling through the heads and torsos of anyone who crosses his path.Often credited as Abel Ferrara's first proper film, "The Driller Killer" eluded me for years. It seems to be an extremely polarizing film, with people either lauding it or calling it the worst film they've ever seen. While it's not a grand slam masterpiece, I'd question anyone who called it the "worst film they'd ever seen." It is in an extremely similar vein as Joe Spinnell's 1980 New York psycho character study "Maniac," though slightly less gory; that said, it does depict some startlingly realistic murder scenes that are even enough to provoke a wince to this day.The film captures the late-seventies sleazy side of Manhattan, a world long gone but nonetheless notorious. The cinematography is rather impressive, and there are multiple hallucinatory sequences that give the film an art-house feel to it. The script is straightforward, charting Reno's Dostoyevskyan descent into madness, but the film's gritty style gives it a bit more of a punch even when it is lulling in places. The acting is a mixed bag, though Ferrara's performance as the troubled Reno is compelling. The remainder of the cast are unknowns, and though they aren't standout performances, they are serviceable, especially given the type of film this is. I watched the pre-theatrical cut of the film so I am not sure how much it differs from the theatrical cut, but based on what I watched, the film had a bizarre and downbeat ending that was utterly appropriate to all that preceded it.Overall, "The Driller Killer" is a solid psychothriller that has been either maligned or much-loved. I thought it was a rather good film; a nice blend of grimy slasher elements, scuzzy late-seventies New York aesthetics, and a psychological character study. It's not really a slasher film, though it does take on that role, especially in the last act. It's a gritty film, something I'd liken to other grindhouse thrillers like "The Last House on Dead End Street" or the aforementioned "Maniac." For what it is, it's very solid—well shot and sufficiently disturbing. 8/10.

Artist and house-mates struggle to make ends meet, band move in downstairs, tensions running high, nonsense. Video nasty from the late Seventies which really hasn't stood the test of time with most of the cast becoming annoying very quickly and it just sort of goes round in circles. Some of the film seems to be mostly a promotional vehicle for the band with a man losing his mind tacked on to the side and even when it does reach its crescendo it's disappointing. You could say it influenced later works like American Psycho but all in all it's quite a hard and unrewarding watch.

When I first watched this, I absolutely hated it. I still do to this day. I posted a comment on Youtube on the full movie and everyone seemed to hate me for it. I was telling the truth when I said this movie was garbage. They just don't seem to understand good taste.Ironicly, This film wants you to turn the volume up on your TV at the beginning of the film. But doing that is like getting yelled at by someone that blames you for something that you didn't do.This film has little to no plot. Its just a artist killing a bunch of stupid people who seem like aliens. The gore and blood looks OK but not as good as something like Evil Dead (The Original).At least this movie is rewarding at the end... kind of. You are still left in the dust with all your precious minutes wasted but in the end all the people you hate die.This film is inept.41/100 D+

The version I saw (or tried to) was on The Horror Channel and for most of the time, I could not even make out what I was seeing, let alone relish in the supposed notorious gory 'video-nasty' bits. I might as well have not worn my spectacles (I'm strongly short-sighted) for the difference they would have made.Darkness came across as giant globules of pixelated olive green instead of black and it all must have been recorded with the microphones still in their boxes, as it's muffled, dull and horribly distorted.Any potential tension originally intended has long been evaporated by the sheer strain of trying to follow it, though the "story", such as it was, is trite, mostly domestic and very boring. It was only that the presumed promise that more vital drilling into live people would make watching further less of a chore that I didn't simply switch off.