Category Archives: retrospective

Retrospective: The Driller Killer – 40 years on

15 Saturday Jun 2019

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My first entry into the world of Abel Ferrara came in the early 90s with his two features dedicated to the criminal underworld of his hometown; King of New York, and Bad Lieutenant. The latter resonated strongly long in my mind with Harvey Keitel’s powerful performance as a drug-addicted, corrupt police officer intent on changing his ways. Ferrara is clearly inspired by the unhinged minds of mankind and this subject is often the driving force of the lead protagonists in his movies, as we watch them spiral deeper into insanity and out of control.

The Driller Killer, (Ferrara’s debut feature in the director’s chair), is no exception, and follows struggling painter, Reno Miller (played by Ferrara), living in New York, as he slowly descends into madness and despair. His crazed mind, unable to contend with the reality of his dire situation, resorts to taking his frustrations and anger out on the streets and onto the homeless and impoverished, wielding his weapon of choice; a power drill.

Growing up in the UK, The Driller Killer had been thrown into the video nasties heap and wouldn’t see the light of day through legal means until 1999, when a cutdown version would make its way into the video rental market. It was shortly after this that I would finally get to watch the movie, which by now was so heightened in my mind as a dark and distressing feature, that I went in, fully wanting to be shook to the core and have my mind inflicted with some gross-out gore to the extreme.

So I huddled up in my horror haven at the time, a labyrinth of blood curdling wonder that hosted the classics and the downright disturbing delights, and let The Driller Killer wash over me. I have to admit my initial reaction was underwhelming, as I was confronted with a mish mash of a storyline, jumbled up with sparse and confusing dialogue, combined with really long jam sessions from the band living in the neighbouring apartment. True, when Reno lost control, it was suitably unhinged and the SFX were effective enough with its crimson palette oozing from his victims. The trouble was, I found the fractured nature of the narrative too jarring and the abrupt conclusion a little too complex. And yet somehow, something hung in my mind and stuck there to this day.

Abel Ferrara playing Reno Miller drenched in blood from the movie The Driller Killer

So, with its 40th Anniversary upon us, I thought that now would be a good time to dust down the dvd that was immersed in my horror film collection and take a look at The Driller Killer once again.

True, the same old flaws are apparent, but rather than seem like blemishes within the celluloid frame, they become moments of wonder, as we journey with Reno into his state of madness and social decay. I’d like to think that my older, wiser mind appreciates the disconnected and fractured storyline as a symbol of the human psyche, but it may also be that I too have cracked in the realms of reality and find that I am able to connect with the artists plight a little more, (although thankfully I haven’t picked up the nearest power tool to reek my vengenace on the world…yet).

The moments of rage are deliberately awkward and messy, which adds to the raw energy that Ferrara brings to his work, and by the time we reach the climax, the audience is suddenly snapped out of the macabre fantasy. This is something of an unpopular choice these days, as often audiences like to have their narrative sewn up and explained, but I prefer the ambiguity of the films’ closure, leaving us to wallow in the wake of Reno’s rampage. This feeling of desolation that hangs in the air is a stark reminder, that society may have come a long way, but we still have no direct answer to aid anyone with mental deficiencies. We’re quite content to let their actions go by and merely act as spectators, as long as it affects the impoverished members of society, but the moment it has an impact on someone deemed of class, then we feel appalled and react, which is why it seems fitting that Ferrara denies the audience the chance to witness Carol’s outcome. It’s for this reason that I feel The Driller Killer still resonates today and is a must-watch on any fan of the horror genre. It maybe a little rough and raw compared with some of the polished movies of today, but this only makes the impact of the film a much greater one.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Blair Witch Project

25 Friday Jan 2019

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Transport yourself back twenty years and cast yourself in an auditorium draped with red velvet curtains and matching carpet where the unwanted popcorn had stuck to the floor and would crunch beneath your feet.

This is where I found myself ahead of this massively hyped movie that had allegedly had audiences throwing up in the aisles.

Was this a reaction to the events in the movie or from the hand-held cinematography that the filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez were looking to achieve in order to capture the old documentary style filming you often saw in news reports etc.? What ever it was, Myrick and Sanchez had a lightning in the bottle moment that sent the Internet ablaze while it was still in its infancy, (no other film at this stage had created such a multimedia sensation) and in the process reawakened the found footage genre.

The twenty-year-old version of myself was determined not to buy into the insanity, but as I sat as the lights went down anticipating an awakening of my own. To be scared, thrilled, and gripped in fear at the events that would flow before me. This twenty-year-old was also incredibly stubborn. I beckoned, nay, willed the filmmakers to push my senses to the limit. Yes, I was disorientated, but not nearly to the degree that I had been led to believe, and I found my excitement transported to fury at these whining Americans that were lost in the woods.

To say that I was underwhelmed was a gross understatement.

And yet, something kept niggling away at me beneath the surface.

I was aware of the impact that this little movie had had on the horror industry, an industry that I loved so much. And numerous friends of mine would often talk about the impact that it had on them over the years. Was I wrong to have scoffed at the film so readily? Was there more to this movie than just your average run-of-the-mill found-footage horror?

Films of similar ilk like Paranormal Activity, or Cloverfield would come and go and not resonate as deeply, with the exception of Jaume Balagueró’s [Rec]. It was safe to say that I wasn’t a fan of this sub-genre.

It was only upon a few years back in preparation ahead of Adam Wingard’s sequel Blair Witch that I gathered the team together for a podcast on the franchise. It was during this time that I began to appreciate the making of this movie.

Listen to The Surgeons of Horror podcast:

The Blair Witch franchise


As The Blair Witch Project celebrates its 20th Anniversary, I’ve come to realize that it is a cracking example of experimental horror at its finest. The techniques that Myrick and Sanchez use in both production and marketing were exemplary, and should be applauded.

Whilst some could argue that it feels like a student film in places, (which let’s face it, it was) the direction would mark a new approach in film-making moving forward and open the door for similar stylized films.

With a 32-page screenplay and a trio of as-yet undiscovered actors (Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard) in their crew, (some having to double-up as camera crew) they ventured out into the wooded terrain in Maryland to carry out their vision.

The aim was to guide the actors through pre-decided marks throughout the woods, where they would improvise around the screenplay, whilst adapting to each action as it was given to them. The effect was a naturalistic piece of drama, which made the plight of our trio all the more gritty and realistic.

It essentially became a test of endurance on the three actors, as they were deprived of food and disorientated by lack of sleep.

Throw in the shock ending, which was initially asked to be reshot by Artisan Entertainment for its confusion, only to end up in the final cut. It’s a good job too, as the ending is both startling and unsettling leaving the viewer hollow inside. Any movie that can garner such a reaction from its audience will always be held highly in these writers’ eyes.

The final mark of brilliance though comes in the marketing. With so much back-story written, it became an online producer’s playing field to create and sell the ‘history’ and cement the believability further. In an age where the scope of the internets online marketing capability had yet to be explored, and the mythology behind the Blair Witch was catapulted into the mainstream, coupled with the mockumentary, Curse of the Blair Witch, and the book, The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier.

There’s plenty of good reason that The Blair Witch Project should and still be deemed a horror movie classic, and twenty years on, it is a testament to clever filmmaking, marketing, and that special lightning in bottle magic, that only comes around every so often.

Listen to The Surgeons of Horror podcast:

Director Eduardo Sanchez interview

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Saw – 15 years on

19 Saturday Jan 2019

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Strip away all the torture devices and wash away all the blood-soaked, gore-infested mayhem that the franchise has become synonymous for and some of you maybe questioning what’s left? But with James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s original film that kick-started the whole Jigsaw frenzy the audience were treated to an exercise in constrained drama, flickered with tense, psychological elements that quite rightly projected the writer and director partnership into the Hollywood limelight as a result.

Part of Saw’s brilliance comes from the low-budget constraints that were placed on the making of the movie. Once the creative duo realised that the cheapest way to shoot a movie would be to have two actors in one room, this germ of an idea developed into the final product and the birth of Jigsaw and his twisted vision of justice.

Apparently the Jigsaw character began when Whannell feared that he had a brain tumour and pondered the notion of what he would do or need to do if he were only to have a year or two to live. This was the leaping point into the dark recesses of Jigsaws’ mind.

It’s this tightly shot, well structured movie that allowed Wan to develop his technique for manipulating lights and shadow to trick and deceive the audiences’ eye. He would harness this skill further with his sophomore film Dead Silence before working on his masterpiece, The Conjuring.

It wasn’t that easy getting budget for the movie though. With no luck gaining interest from their homeland in Australia, Wan and Whannell tried to taut their project in Los Angeles, but even then had to shoot a short feature to provide a proof of concept before getting any decent interest.
You have to applaud their bravado to. So intent were they in getting their vision made, they insisted on having both directing and acting duties respectively. In the end it took newly formed production outfit, Twisted Pictures to give them their desires and have been behind every Saw movie since.

So with one half of the acting team already cast in Whannell as the photographer with a complex past, the team needed a decent actor opposite him as Dr. Lawrence Gordon, a Doctor with an equally dubious past. In steps Cary Elwes, normally associated with his comical roles but proved worthwhile in this serious performance, more than holding his own and providing gravitas to the scenario.

The masterstroke comes with the casting of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw aka John Kramer, who simply owns his role and has propelled himself into horror movie history with his performance as the disturbed yet brilliant mind behind the various traps and tortuous devices throughout all the Saw movies.

So with the narrative played out with Adam and Dr. Lawrence wake up in a bathroom, chained to the floor with nothing but a corpse, a revolver, and a tape recorder to guide them on a journey that will test their metal and push them to the very limits of their intellect and perception.

Saw would be released in front of a Sundance audience for its initial premiere where Lionsgate picked up the distribution rights and the rest is history.

Since then, Wan has established a firm career in the director’s chair to the point hat he has been given the chance to give DC movies some decent crowd with Aquaman, and Whannell more recently carved his own success with Upgrade.

So for those who may have been apprehensive about checking out the origins of Jigsaw, before the bloodbath began, I’d recommend going back to the original source as you maybe pleasantly surprised by this outing with a clever, psychological thriller that is an example of how to shoot a low-budget movie with a lot of smarts and a decent narrative to keep the audience hooked.

It still stands strong 15 years on and my bet is that this will still be the case in another 15 years.