John Hurt earned an Oscar nomination for his extraordinary portrayal of a tortured soul with congenital deformities in David Lynch’s first studio film following Eraserhead.
![](/globalassets/programs/cinema/2025fy/0924/im-not-myself/the-driller-killer-1979-promo-still-credit---agfa.jpg?width=1920&mode=crop&heightratio=0.5625&quality=80)
—Hysteria Lives!
The Driller Killer
Director Abel Ferrara portrays Reno, a starving artist living under squalid conditions in a sleazy vision of 1970s Manhattan in Driller Killer, his notorious art-horror debut. Plagued by nightmarish visions, Reno loses his grip on sanity when a No Wave band moves in next door, and vents his rage on hapless victims with a power drill. Viewed initially as a low-budget shocker, Driller Killer offers early glimpses of many signature Ferrara themes and preoccupations: extreme violence, religious redemption, urban grime, and an eclectic soundtrack. All that, plus some of the most repulsive on-screen pizza eating ever!
—Hysteria Lives!
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