The Driller Killer

The Driller Killer (1979), Director's Cut, Arrow 4k remaster, directed by Abel Ferrara, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including original theatrical mono, commentary track, and English subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079082/

Video encoded in two-pass 9 500 kbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected.

Note : Abel Ferrara's debut film (well, except for the porn movie he directed, titled "Nine lives of a wet pussy") isn't a great movie, but it's certainly an interesting one, a psychological thriller slasher movie about an artist who goes slowly insane from stress and starts killing people with a power drill. It's not particularly gory or explicit, and it takes a while before the killings start, and in the meantime, it's an interesting portrait of a very specific time and place, the no-wave scene in late 70s New York City, and it's pretty amazingly grotty, with a strong sense of place. It's also, of course, notable for being one of the UK's notorious "video nasties", possibly the film that got the whole movement to ban a bunch of movies started, more because of marketing than actual content in this case.

Ferrara himself plays the lead, and while he's not a great actor, he seems to grow into the role as his character gets more psychotic. The supporting cast is very much a "whatever friends I could get to participate" kind of affair, but on the other hand, if your cute female punk friends are up for lesbian scenes in the shower, by all means, there are worse things to put in your movie.

This is supposed to be a 4k remaster, and while there's nothing wrong with the sharpness or detail, the grain is very harsh, and the image is only decently clean. Still, I'm assuming this is about the best you can get out of the original material, since it shows that it was shot on 16mm and on a shoestring budget. Ferrara's mumbly, gravelly commentary is entertaining, if a bit hard to understand at times.

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