The Driller Killer (1979)

This film is in the public domain and I watched it this week streaming over the internet. The reputation of the film in the UK is a bad one but I think it was one of a series of VHS titles that got labelled as Video Nasties which the BBFC cut or banned, I think it was banned here in the UK. I don’t know why really. The film is not as low quality and just plain nasty as I was expecting. It is based around a male artist who is driven mad and who goes on a killing spree with a drill powered by a battery pack on a belt. He lives with two beautiful women who are struggling to pay the rent. He hopes to sell a large painting for a lot of money to a gay art dealer and use the money to buy whatever he and the girls want. Their relationships seem to be bi-sexual. The art dealer hates the painting. A band move in downstairs and practice their songs all night so the artist can’t think straight. He resents the fact that one of the girls seems to be able to find some money for the rent from the husband she is separated from. The killing is the culmination of this downwards spiral, so I don’t think it is as gratuitous and as nasty as it was portrayed at the time. It isn’t even very graphic apart from one scene when a man’s head is drilled in to. Worth a watch if you’re intrigued but it certainly isn’t a classic or anything to get worked up about.