Off the Shelf: Driller Killer (Blu-ray)

by Patrick Bromley

Abel Ferrara isn't just a madman. He also plays one in movies.

There are very few "name" filmmakers more punk rock than Abel Ferrara, a guy who doesn't give a shit about any of the politics of Hollywood and makes movies that only he can make. He's unconcerned with having big box office success (beyond what will allow him to make another movie) and makes real art, albeit most times within a framework of genre and exploitation cinema. With a handful of great films to his credit (Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant, King of New York) and a couple others that are quite good -- or, at the very least, interesting -- Ferrara is a filmmaker whose work is always worth seeing even when it doesn't completely work. He's a true original.

1979's Driller Killer is only his second feature, having previously directed a couple of shorts and one hardcore porn, 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy, before being inspired by the success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to make a low-budget horror movie. He casts himself (under the name Jimmy Laine) as Reno Miller, a New York artist who's broke and frustrated and being driven crazy by the New Wave band practicing in the apartment upstairs. One day, Reno finally snaps and begins murdering people with a power drill. That's the movie.

In its way, Driller Killer is a perfect encapsulation of its period, as it's a movie that really couldn't exist at another time or place. It combines the New York art scene, the early days of the post-punk New Wave scene and a specific kind of 42nd Street sleaze to create what is at once a semi-pretentious experimental film and a cheap, gory slasher. It's the kind of movie at home in both the arthouse and the grindhouse. Therein lies its charm. Adding to the fun is the fact that it's Ferrara playing the titular Driller Killer; he's a guy who always seems just one bad day away from becoming completely unhinged -- his movies reflect that -- and so watching him run around and take out all of his frustrations on humanity with a power drill is perversely thrilling. I like, too, that most of Reno's victims are male, as it eliminates the kind of ugly misogyny that once finds in the gritty New York-based slashers released in Driller Killer's wake (and adds an interesting psychosexual component; while there's nothing explicitly homoerotic about the character of Reno, it's impossible to watch him plunge his phallic weapon into a bunch of men and not read something into it). Don't get me wrong; there is still some gross and sleazy misogyny -- the shots of two women showering together don't exactly advance the story -- but at least it's not always directly tied into the violence. When it comes to exploitation movies, you have to take your wins where you can find them.

Driller Killer arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video, who have given the cheap 16mm film an impressive 4K restoration and included two cuts -- the 96-minute theatrical version and a 100-minute "pre-release" version -- in two possible aspect ratios: a 1.85:1 widescreen and a 1.37:1 full frame option that adds a little information to the top and bottom of the frame. Perhaps even more entertaining than the movie itself are Arrow's bonus features, starting with a new commentary by Ferrara and moderator Brad Stevens. On both the commentary and the 20-minute video interview, Ferrara is totally outspoken and uncensored in everything he says, lending the conversations about the film and his career a refreshing honesty. I could listen to him talk all day. Also included is a visual essay about Driller Killer, the original theatrical trailer and, best of all, appearing on home video for the first time is the feature-length documentary Mulberry St. that Ferrara directed in 2010 covering the New York locations where he made his movies. A standard definition DVD of the movie is also included.

Best recommended for fans of either Abel Ferrara or New York-based exploitation from the Golden Age of that sort of thing, Driller Killer is an interesting look at the early work of a director who would refine his voice to better effect just one movie later with Ms. 45. Arrow's Blu-ray restores the film to better effect than anyone could possibly hope, offering multiple ways to view the movie and a collection of extras that celebrate Ferrara as a filmmaker in a really cool way. Plus a lot of people get killed by a drill. Gotta love that kind of truth in advertising.

Blu-ray release date: December 13, 2016
96 minutes/1979/NR
1.37:1/1.85:1 (1080p)
DTS HD 1.0 Mono (English)

Blu-ray bonus features:
Commentary
Interview
Video Essay
Mulberry St. documentary
Trailer

Off the Shelf: The Initiation (Blu-ray)

by Patrick Bromley

You had me at "Introducing Daphne Zuniga."

Know what I miss about the heyday of the '80s slasher movie? There were so many of them that eventually filmmakers had to start finding ways to shake up the formula and continually introduce weirder and weirder shit. That's not to say that all of these movies were "good," necessarily, but that they managed to be distinctive within a subgenre known for its sameness. For as good as horror is today -- and we are in a really good place for horror -- there is no one corner of the genre that is so prevalent as the slasher once was that it inspires various permutations. We don't get a Sleepaway Camp or a Blood Rage much anymore. The reasons for this are ultimately positive and encouraging -- the current crop of horror films are so vastly different from one another that we avoid this phenomenon -- but it still makes me miss that Golden Age of Crazy we got in the '80s.

Firmly entrenched in said Golden Age is The Initiation, a 1984 slasher directed by Larry Stewart and featuring the big screen debut of Daphne Zuniga in a starring role (she had already appeared in a supporting role in another college-themed horror movie, The Dorm That Dripped Blood, two years prior). She plays Kelly, a college co-ed plagued by horrible nightmares in which she sees her mother (Vera Miles, slumming) in bed with another man (Clu Gulager, slumming far less) and then another man set on fire. She's also in the process of rushing a sorority, which requires her and some other kids to spend the night in a department store as part of the initiation. I have literally never heard any any initiation like this for any sorority, but I wasn't cool in college (or before college or now). Wouldn't you know that a slasher crashes the party and starts killing a bunch of them?

To get into all the ways that The Initiation ends up being crazy would require spoilers, which I won't provide here. Like the similarly nutty Blood Rage (ok, Blood Rage is nuttier...way nuttier), the movie has to reinvent certain slasher tropes to stand out. It is more successful in some ways than others. The whole "teens locked in a mall overnight" is reminiscent of movies like Night of the Comet and Chopping Mall (even though one of those came after) and the kills themselves aren't necessarily more inventive or interesting than your everyday slash-and-stab, but the weird psychological detours the screenplay takes (by Charles Pratt Jr., who has spent most of his career writing and producing both daytime and primetime soap operas) are what give the movie color. The presence of both Vera Miles and Clu Gulager help give the project an air of authenticity -- they are genre royalty, after all -- but both actors contribute what are essentially extended cameos. The movie belongs to the young cast. They, too, are mostly generic, save maybe for future soap star Hunter Tylo, who...makes an impression...and, of course, my girl D. Zunigs, who doesn't quite pop off the screen the way she would a year later in The Sure Thing but who still manages to stand apart from the rest of the actors by projecting a kind of quiet intelligence. She feels like some sort of "other" compared to the horny co-eds surrounding her, which works out perfectly for the story being told.

Arrow's Blu-ray is another in their growing line of first-rate editions for movies of which I can't believe we're getting first-rate editions; it's been given a new 2K scan and a 1080 HD makeover so that it looks, while not brand new, better than it has ever appeared to be sure. There's a commentary track included from the members of The Hysteria Continues podcast (the second I've heard from them, as they're also on the Night Train to Terror commentary; if these home video companies are going to be tapping podcasts to do commentaries, can someone get them in touch with us?) that was recorded over Skype and is somewhat spotty as a result. Also included is the original trailer, a single deleted scene and some brand new interviews with actors Charles Pratt Jr., Christopher Bradley and Joy Jones. Sadly, there is no Zuniga to be found.

As both a fan and a student of '80s slashers, I'm all in on a movie like The Initiation. While not quite the rediscovered gem of, say, The Burning or the aforementioned Blood Rage, it's an entry in the genre that's better than some of its better-known brethren (I'm looking at you, Prom Night) and worthy of being a bigger part of the slasher conversation. I love the titles that Arrow is choosing to restore and I love the treatment they're giving these movies, recognizing that while not conventional classics, these are the kinds of films that mean a lot to some of us. Plus, if you're as much a Zuniga fan as I am, this movie's got more of her than it can handle.

Blu-ray release date: November 8, 2016
97 minutes/1984/R
1.85:1 (1080p)
DTS HD 1.0 Master Audio (English)
Subtitles: English (SDH)

Blu-ray bonus features:
Commentary
"Sorority Saga" - Interview with writer Charles Pratt, Jr.
"Pledge Night" - Interview with actor Christopher Bradley
"Dream Job" - Interview with actress Joy Jones
Extended Scene
Original Theatrical Trailer
Screenplay and production schedule (BD-ROM)