The Driller Killer is certainly an odd little horror-thriller that isn’t technically good per se but fascinating nevertheless with a darkly fun performance from star and director Abel Ferrara (credited as Jimmy Laine).
The Driller Killer
(1979)
Genre(s): Horror
Arrow Video | NR – 96 min. / 101 min. – $39.95 | December 13, 2016
Date Published: 12/15/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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PLOT SYNOPSIS
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| Struggling artist Reno (ABEL FERRARA) is a man pushed to the edge by the economic realities of New York living in the late seventies and the No Wave band practicing in the apartment below. His grip on reality soon begins to slip and he takes stalking the streets with his power tool in search of prey. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.0/5 |
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This release comes with a 28-page booklet. Inside there’s a breakdown on the extra scenes in the “Pre-Release Version”. Pre-Release Cut runs about 5-minutes longer and while the theatrical version is still Ferrara’s cut, this one adds some extra character moments but nothing profound. Audio Commentary — Actor and Director Abel Ferrara, with moderation by author Brad Stevens, recounts bits of information on this 1979 movie on casting, locations and story (Theatrical Version Only). This is a new commentary and unfortunately the original one from the Cult Epics DVD was not ported over. Laine and Abel: An Interview with The Driller Killer (17:31; HD) is a new interview with Abel Ferrara made for this release. Willing & Abel: Ferraraology 101 (34:19; HD) is a visual essay guide on the films and career of Ferrara by author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Mulberry St. (1:27:52; HD) – This is Abel Ferrara’s feature-length documentary portrait of the New York location that has played a key role in his life and work. Trailer (0:32; HD) |
VIDEO – 3.75/5 |
| Arrow Video releases The Driller Killer onto Blu-ray with restoration done using the original 16mm AB camera negative, scanned in 4K resolution and as noted in the booklet, apparently portions of the original negative were lost so a 35mm print was used for those sections. As it is, it’s not a bad looking transfer for a 45+ year old film that clearly was low budget. There is some very noticeable film grain and even some minor scratches but for the most part, some fine work was done cleaning it up, but not overly so.
There are two options to viewing the movie (both cuts): the director’s preferred 1.37 full frame aspect ratio or the 1.85 version which more or less zooms in on the picture thus you do lose some of the frame. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The disc comes with a PCM Mono track — culled from the 35mm optical negative — and for a movie of this budget, doesn’t sound half bad. Dialogue levels sound decent though when the music kicks in, it does lose some clarity in some scenes. Still, all things considered, it’s a nice lossless track and certainly, as with the picture, an upgrade over any previous releases. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, The Driller Killer is certainly an odd little horror-thriller that isn’t technically good per se but fascinating nevertheless with a darkly fun performance from star and director Abel Ferrara (credited as Jimmy Laine). Not sure I have much desire to revisit this but for hardcore gore fans, if they haven’t already, it might be worth a watch. The Blu-ray released through Arrow Video offers nice video/audio transfers combined with some decent bonus features. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.