Review of The Driller Killer (1979) by Andrew M — 03 Sep 2007

The Driller Killer: There's a scene in the 2nd half of Abel Ferrara's debut in which his lead character (played by himself) gorges with a seeming insatiability on what's quite possibly the grossest pizza ever.

The pizza's an absolute mess, but Ferrara slams it into his mouth with animalistic urgency. And that's really what I imagine the making of the film was. Quite frankly, the film is a complete and utter failure of narrative, both thematic and subtextual.

Any kind of theme that Ferrara develops is only in the most rudimentary form here. I imagine that somehow, Ferrara connects the drunken father of Reno to the hobos, and the abuse that Reno suffers keeps him from truly feeling (reflected in the empty stare of the buffalo), and his artistic repression expresses itself when he drills hobos to death.

As you can see by that simple explanation, it's absolutely ludicrous. And honestly, such a suggestion skips other stuff: his bisexual roommates, his homosexual art dealer, and of course, The Roosters.

These elements all take up considerable time from what's really Reno's narrative, and while all of these elements have further implications on the narrative, none are developed at all. Of course, The Roosters come to present a form of art more immediate and easily expressed than Reno's, but that doesn't explain the endless endless endless scenes of them practicing.

Also, the obvious pass of sex onto a bisexual female party helps to paint Reno's disaffected nature that was presumably caused by abuse from his father. In catching that his father figures into the story, Ferrara does a pretty good and subtle job.

It's really only in that really odd and unlikely first scene that you can pick up the thread that follows Reno throughout the rest of the film. And despite the fact that the film is put together in an extremely sloppy way, there are some effective scenes.

The buffalo painting in particular is quite a piece of work that figures in a very vague but certainly important way into the film. Likewise, the overall theme of alienation and artistic writer's block are handled with, I guess, marginal competence.

And the ending is certainly effectively creepy and is a satisfying end to the story in both thematic and subtextual terms. Ironically enough, the drilling killing really doesn't add up to much more than sometimes silly fleeting scenes of Reno running through the night murdering caricatures of hobos.

It seems to me that if only Ferrara could have made the connection between the abuse of the father or somehow developed Reno a bit more, the film would have been quite a success, but unfortunately, the incompetence with which the narrative is handled leads quickly to repetition with only a handful of minutes actually being effective.

Luckily, the sleaze elements can keep you occupied for awhile as poorly handled as they are. The image of Reno stalking hobos is about as disturbing as his art dealer's haircut. *** out've *****.