The Driller Killer
Director: Abel Ferrara
Year Released: 1979
Rating: 1.5
A painter (Abel Ferrara) who (a.) has trouble finishing his "masterpiece" (b.) has girl problems (c.) has to live above a raucous punk band and (d.) can't pay the rent pools enough dough together to purchase a battery-pack belt so he can attach a power drill to it, run around NYC and bore holes in the heads and bodies of derelicts (it's called catharsis, baby). Though sloppy, juvenile and (unintentionally) hilarious (the final scenes, with the title lunatic hunting down his former girlfriend, are priceless), it is a curious entry in the more-eccentric-than-fuck Ferrara's oeuvre in part because of the very rough allusions to his fascination with religious guilt as well as the very sight of him gorging on pizza, perspiring wildly and dashing around the Bowery with a power drill. Which I imagine is a recurring fantasy of his....
