The Driller Killer

1979 Directed by Abel Ferrara

Horror Marathon 2024 Day 24 Film 50

~This movie has some shit on its mind, man-- some fuckin shit-right!? You just don't get the fucking meaning of art!!~

Starring the Abel himself as self obsessed painter going through creative impotence with father and religious issues. Sure he's living in some shitty apartment with his girlfriend and her girlfriend, but he's down on his luck. His own self indulgence doesn't allow himself to fully participate in his relationships. To put things on edge a noise, no wave, experimental punk band keeps him up at all hours so his mind seems to disintegrate and have daydreams of drilling people in the grimy cesspool that is NYC. He's offended by the musicality of the band and finds himself being a critic too until he brings them in to his own art pieces.

There's an emergence of violence towards the filthy city (as he sees it), the homeless that he preys upon after all that's been bubbling up shows through extended gruesome sequences. Although a zombie films may be more graphic, the context of this carnage being bubbling anger really makes it harder to watch. He maims and chomps his way through food in a way that shows distaste for life itself. When the film shows him openly mocked by a critic though he freezes- feeling totally unable to stand up for himself (the painting of the bull itself isn't even half bad so it feels like an especially cruel moment). It's only through the newly erected phallus of the drill that he's able to really express his rage that was mocked when presented through his art.

In the brief moments where he acts like a person there are some great atmospheric moments of him just cozy with pinball and focusing on living. The distance of buzzy soundtrack keeping him awake. Even drawing the homeless (his father being also homeless) that he'll eventually be targeting. Rather than being appreciated for that side of himself he goes on to destroy what was previously meaningful. The artist figuring out his own murky waters and the ends of his own needs may just be the break he's looking for. As the voyeur to this the humming discordant soundtrack keeps you within that frame of crazy- leading to an unyieldingly dark ending. It works on a visceral level- working as a horrific slasher, but also working through its exploitative format.