With this feature debut, Ferrara immediately set the tone for his future work.The troubled painter Reno (played by Ferrara) lives in New York City with two women: his girlfriend and a punk-groupie. His painting isn’t going well, he doesn’t earn very much and, to cap it all, a punk-rock band comes to love and rehearse non-stop downstairs from his flat. That is enough to drive the unstable Reno over the top. Armed with an electric drill and a portable generator he wanders the city killing tramps and alcoholics at night.Driller Killer did not receive the recognition it deserved when it was released (Variety: ‘hastily shot, technically inept in every department’). Yet several elements in the film differentiated it substantially from the splatter-gore-genre. Reno doesn’t kill any attractive young girls but only old men: the group to which he is determined not to belong. The first murders are portrayed spectacularly and bloodily, but later the focus of attention shifts to Reno himself, to his motives instead of his murderous behaviour. So Reno may be the first psychopath with economic causes instead of the usual sexual and psychological. And finally, the film comprises documentary material about the seamy side of New York City, filled with close-ups of filthy fast-food and streets filled with trash.
