None of Abel Ferrara’s films have quite managed to match the shock, extremity and downright notorious nature of The Driller Killer.
In a career that has encompassed such controversial classics as Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant and Welcome to New York, none of Abel Ferrara’s films have quite managed to match the shock, extremity and downright notorious nature of The Driller Killer.
Ferrara plays struggling artist Reno, a man pushed to the edge by the economic realities of New York living in the late seventies and the No Wave band practising in the apartment below. His grip on reality soon begins to slip and he takes to stalking the streets with his power tool in search of prey…
LIMITED EDITION STEELBOOK CONTENTS
•Limited Edition SteelBook featuring original artwork (2500 copies)
•Brand new restoration from original film elements
•High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
•Original Uncompressed Mono PCM audio
•Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
•Audio commentary by director and star Abel Ferrara, moderated by Brad Stevens (author of Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision) and recorded exclusively for this release
•Brand new interview with Ferrara
•Willing and Abel: Ferraraology 101, a new visual essay guide to the films and career of Ferrara by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of Cultographies: Ms. 45
•Mulberry St. (2010), Ferrara’s feature-length documentary portrait of the New York location that has played a key role in his life and work
•Trailer
•Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Michael Pattison and Brad Stevens
i remember when I was way way younger (we are talking light years ago) I saw the poster on a wall and it had no writing and I thought it was a advert for health and safety in work and it wasn't until years later I found out it was for a film.
i remember when I was way way younger (we are talking light years ago) I saw the poster on a wall and it had no writing and I thought it was a advert for health and safety in work and it wasn't until years later I found out it was for a film.
Have no interest in the film but kudos for getting that artwork approved - well it's an Arrow exclusive so no risk of young kids seeing that steelbook in store.
Fantastic. Never thought this would get a blu ray update, let alone a steelbook. So bad its amazing. And that art work...Instant pre order. Hoping for Bad Lieutenant now as well.
Not a good film. Ferrera tried to straddle the line between exploitation gore/art film and missed both marks.
A very boring film. But I'm happy for the fans of it that there is a steelbook!
(Hopefully a low budget film I love might get the same treatment! Karma!)
As a committed (lol) fan of Arrow products I'll be buying both the Amaray and the steelbook with the only question being "Which one to buy first?"
AMARAY: same content as the steelbook with the only advantage being the REVERSIBLE SLEEVE featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by the TWINS OF EVIL but with the disadvantage of missing out on the booklet unless you pick up a copy from the first print run.
BOOKLET will be in each and every one of the steelbooks.
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Without doubt the strongest cover of any U.K. Amaray or steelbook to date (and there are a few quite gross covers out there) - *actually a scene from the film - and reminiscent of those Video Nasty VHS covers of the era (see SPOILER)
This film, from 1979 was, according to HORRORPEDIA, "lumped together with other so-called VIDEO NASTIES released at the time and a vociferous campaign was launched by the British press to ban them all. It was added to the list of banned UK films on 4 July 1983. According to Mike Bor, the Principal Examiner at the British Board of Film Classification, “The Driller Killer was almost single-handedly responsible for the Video Recordings Act 1984″. According to Brad Stevens, author of a biography on Abel Ferrara, the banning of the film was “almost entirely due to the cover of the video."
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The only official poster for the film is not good front cover steelbook material and the use of the strongest of the old VHS covers is still a bit of a shocker almost 40 years later:-
ORIGINAL POSTER:-
DRILLER KILLER: A few of the VHS COVERS:-
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CENSORSHIP (Australia and U.K.)
For example this article from REFUSED-CLASSIFICATION.COM - Censorship in Australia:-
AUSTRALIA IMDb
THE DRILLER KILLER had a very troubled time with our censors in the early 80s. It was submitted in September 1982, by Video Classics in an 86m tape version, and in July 1983 by Syme Home Video running 90m. Both versions were Refused Registration, and were never released by either label.
THE DRILLER KILLER was back for consideration in November 1984, when 14th Mandolin submitted a 35mm print that ran 2589 meters (94:38). Once again, it was banned. It was finally passed in September 1985, three years after the initial submission, with an R-rating. 14th Mandolin was again the applicant, and the print was described as an 89m reduced version. We would assume this running time refers to a video tape and not a 35mm print.
There were two VHS releases of THE DRILLER KILLER in Australia, both are cut and ran 88:59. Cover one is on the King of Video label. Cover two lists King of Video on the actual tape, but Box Office Int Video on the cover. 14th Mandolin were the distributors behind both of these labels.
The murder of the tramps at approximately 36m and 50m both look shortened. Also missing at 55m is the infamous scene of the drill through the head.
Abel Ferrara's FEAR CITY (1984) also had censorship problems in Australia. It is covered in our Film Censorship Database.
1991: Confiscated by Customs
THE DRILLER KILLER was part of a package of fifteen tapes that were seized by the Australian Customs Service in October 1991. They were forwarded to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) who found them to be:
"…prohibited pursuant to Regulation 4A(1A)(a)(iii) of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations"
2004: Censored MA15+ Umbrella DVD
In March 2004, Umbrella Entertainment submitted a 95m version to the OFLC. It was awarded an MA15+ (High Level Violence) rating for DVD release. The cover has a sticker on it informing the public that the film was 'Previously Banned. Now Released Uncut'. Unfortunately, it was a 94:20 censored version. Why Umbrella Entertainment released this version is a mystery. The true uncut film would undoubtedly have been passed, if not MA15+, then definitely R18+.
This print seems to have originated from the 1999 UK Visual Entertainment DVD release.
At the time UK censorship site, Melon Farmers described the situation as:
"54s were pre-cut by the distributor after having taken advice from James Ferman last year. The main cuts were to the head drilling scene but two earlier drill killings also suffered. 46 seconds of footage has been added to smooth over some of the gaps."
Movie-Censorship has a detailed comparison between the censored Visual Entertainment DVD (same as the Umbrella DVD) and the uncut U.S. Cult Epics DVD
2006: Censored World Movies screening
At midnight on December 9th 2006, THE DRILLER KILLER had its Australian TV Premiere courtesy of the B-Mania season on the World Movies Channel.
Just thought that you may be interested to know that the recent World Movies screening of DRILLER KILLER was the same as the cut Umbrella DVD version.
I e-mailed the channel to try and get some answers about this strange example of censorship.
17.12.06
To World Movies
Thanks for screening the B Movie season. This is something I'd like to see much more of on World Movies. The main reason that I am writing is concerning the screening of DRILLER KILLER last Saturday. I was hoping that you would screen the uncut version, but instead it was the censored. I am very disappointed that you did this, and hope that it is not a sign of increasing censorship on the channel. The version that was shown had an MA rating. I know that (unlike Showtime), you can screen R-rated films. Why not leave it uncut, and give it an R-rating?
28.12.06
From World Movies
Thanks for your kind words, we're very glad you're enjoying our B Mania season!
You're right, we did screen the MA version of Driller Killer. Unfortunately, this was the only print we were able to source in time, and we preferred to screen this version than not include Abel Ferrara in the season at all.
In all cases, we prefer to screen films uncut, as the director intended, however in this instance we felt the film was worthy at any cost, so we sourced what we could at the time. It's certainly not an indication of censorship.
Feel free to contact us with any more feedback you have, happy holidays.
It's good to see the World Movies willing to answer my question. To be honest I didn't really believe a channel that screens uncut versions of IRREVERSIBLE, ROMANCE, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES, THE IDIOTS, etc, to deliberately cut something like DRILLER KILLER. I would guess that the version may have been sourced from Umbrella. It's bizarre to think that a censored version that was originally prepared to get past the UK censors (who have since passed it uncut) has now turned up on DVD and TV in Australia! As you say, the uncut version would have for many years easily passed the OFLC. Instead we are still waiting! Anyway, the B-Mania season has been screening some interesting stuff, so fingers crossed that it will become an annual event.
2012 to 2013: New DRILLER KILLER DVDs
In March 2012, Unearthed Entertainment / Gryphon Entertainment released THE DRILLER KILLER on DVD.
This was followed in July 2013 by a release from Regency Media as part of their Cinema Cult range.
It needs to be confirmed which version these contain.
- well it's an Arrow exclusive so no risk of young kids seeing that steelbook in store.
