{"id":59232,"date":"2020-12-24T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=59232"},"modified":"2020-12-24T10:00:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T17:00:49","slug":"driller-killer-the-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=59232","title":{"rendered":"Driller Killer, The (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;What&#8217;s happening to you?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster-198x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-59234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster-198x300.png 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster-674x1024.png 674w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster-84x128.png 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster-178x270.png 178w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Poster.png 733w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA painter (Abel Ferrara) living in New York with his &#8220;sensible&#8221; girlfriend (Carolyn Marz) and her &#8220;spacy&#8221; lover (Baybi Day) becomes increasingly unhinged as he struggles to pay his bills, and a rock band rehearses incessantly above his apartment. Soon he is taking his fury out on random male victims across the city, using a power drill as his weapon of choice.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Artists<\/li>\n<li>Mental Breakdown<\/li>\n<li>Revenge<\/li>\n<li>Serial Killers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that this &#8220;sleazy cult film was the first venture of independent New York director Abel Ferrara,&#8221; who &#8212; under the stage name &#8216;Jimmy Lane&#8217; &#8212; &#8220;plays a struggling artist&#8221; who &#8220;paints obsessively and begins to lose his senses&#8221; and eventually &#8220;has a complete breakdown&#8221;. Peary notes that this &#8220;grisly film is not your typical slice-and-dice splatter fare&#8221;, given it&#8217;s &#8220;not about a man stalking scantily clad females&#8221; (the &#8220;artist&#8217;s victims are all men&#8221;) &#8212; but while Peary asserts he believes &#8220;Ferrara is making some point about the artist feeling hatred toward men because he fears he is a homosexual himself,&#8221; I disagree with that interpretation; Ferrara&#8217;s victims are almost all down-on-their-luck vagrants who perhaps represent Ferrara&#8217;s fears of his own fate if he isn&#8217;t able to survive as an artist &#8212; a point highlighted when his finally-finished &#8220;masterpiece&#8221; is scorned by his agent (guess what happens to him?). Peary writes that Ferrara &#8220;scores with a lot of weird touches and humor&#8221;, but the &#8220;storyline is hard to follow and the violence is unnecessarily graphic&#8221;; indeed, this  creatively filmed but self-indulgent flick can easily be skipped. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good use of location shooting in New York City<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-1024x543.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"339\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-59236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-1024x543.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-768x407.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-1536x815.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York-509x270.png 509w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-New-York.png 1751w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Atmospheric cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-59238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-1536x858.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2-483x270.png 483w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Driller-Killer-Cinematography2.png 1649w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNope; you can most certainly skip this one unless you happen to be interested in Ferrara&#8217;s output. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0079082\/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/73667\/the-driller-killer#articles-reviews?articleId=77696\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=1420&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moriareviews.com\/horror\/driller-killer-1979.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1249dril.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/digitalwatch\/drillkill.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s happening to you?&#8221; Synopsis: A painter (Abel Ferrara) living in New York with his &#8220;sensible&#8221; girlfriend (Carolyn Marz) and her &#8220;spacy&#8221; lover (Baybi Day) becomes increasingly unhinged as he struggles to pay his bills, and a rock band rehearses incessantly above his apartment. Soon he is taking his fury out on random male victims across the city, using a power drill as his weapon of choice. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Artists Mental Breakdown Revenge Serial Killers Response to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=59232\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59241,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59232\/revisions\/59241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}