The Driller Killer (1979)

Summary: Reno is a struggling artist who can’t quite finish the painting he’s working on, nor can he concentrate on his girlfriends and neighbors. Basically everything distracts him and he’s quickly losing his mind. He sees a commercial one day for a portable battery pack and with his drill set up, he’s ready to take out his artistic frustrations on society.           Overall: Only one reason you are watching this film and that’s to see if everything you heard/read about this film, is really true. The “worst of the worst” of the “Video Nasties”...it is sorta violent. But the violence is so campy and so unrealistic...that it’s difficult to take this film too seriously. You never truly feel bad for Reno as he gets mad at everyone, treats everyone terrible and then decides to kill people, for no reason. And the failure to have a reason is truly what starts to lose steam for the film. Think about this. The guy is an artist who needs $$ to pay rent, etc. He’s got 2 girlfriends (with a bit of an age difference) who are totally unmotivated to help this situation out. So he eventually just freaks out and gets a power drill and attacks people. So...only one scene features the drill prior to the killings and frankly, there’s never a good reason for this. It would have made more sense if he stabbed people with a paint brush. And I say that because he treats the drill like a knife using a stabbing motion...then gyrates up and down as if he was riding a Sybian or something. In addition, he’s killing all those homeless men on the streets, who have done nothing to him. Only later on does he finally take his anger out on people who helped create it. It makes so little sense early one, that when the film finally starts to tighten and close the holes...we find no strings attached. It is such an incoherent mess in the middle of the film, you almost forget who the main characters are. The beginning is about Reno, middle is about the rock group and the end is Reno killing people. And this would be such a terrible example for a drinking game...think about this. Take a drink every time you see the police, and you’ll be sober when the end credits roll. Truly, not a great film and the gore is done by better films in the category of “Video Nasties.” So skip it, it’s not worth the hype.           Comparison: Sorority House Massacre 2 meets Taxi Driver

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