PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Detroit Driller Killer (2020) opens with a shot of a dead rodent on a sidewalk getting stepped on — and things only get gnarlier and bleaker from there. Director Matt Jaissle (Necro Files 3000 2017) has re-imagined an indie homage to Abel Ferrara’s classic, The Driller Killer (1979), and it’s bloody, ruminative, and at times, oddly funny tale.
Justin Scro (Golden: How to Make a Billion Dollars the Easy Way 2007) both wrote the screen play and stars in the film as Reno, a frustrated screenwriter living in an urban hell. You can tell he’s brittle and unbalanced from the jump. When his job on a cannibal script falls through, he picks up a power drill and ventilates a host of victims in an hallucinatory fugue state.
That’s about it, but that’s all you need.
References to Ferrara’s film abound in Detroit Driller Killer: Some obvious, some subtle. I re-watched The Driller Killer in preparation for this tribute, something viewers might want to consider in order to get the most out of it. I also thought the film also brought to mind Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), and Taxi Driver (1976).
“I don’t have a use for a drill; not immediately,” says Nero. “It could be used to build something. Maybe build a better Detroit.”
Sounds like Nero’s been hanging out with Travis Bickle.
The drill kills are created by practical effects, and they look good, although I did think it was interesting that Nero resorts to other weapons later in the film. Anything that surprises me is good.
And while Detroit Driller Killer doesn’t immediately present itself as a comedy, there’s some solid humor here. One scene where Nero is interrogated by an adoring child is laugh-out-loud funny. Too often, these kinds of setups don’t work, but the timing from both actors is superb, and it’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
There are a few hiccups, of course. A stalking scene seems to go on forever, but in the end, I was entertained by the thought of the cast and crew skulking around downtown in broad daylight. Scro appears very suspicious. I can’t imagine what bystanders, or God help us all, cops, must have thought. And then there’s the dance party, what can only be described as the world’s tiniest rave. But that’s the limitations of indie horror. We make the movie with the money we have.
And after all the blood’s been sponged away, Jaissle has made a damn fine work. SRS Cinema is set to release Detroit Driller Killer later this year.
