Ferrara himself stars as a starving artist living in an apartment in Union Square, New York City. He has a couple roommates but can't make the rent, can't pay the phone bill and can't stand the racket from the neighboring punk rock band. His landlord is not sympathetic and his connection to the art world won't give him an advance on his next masterpiece, but promises to buy it -- if it's any good. Problem is, he'll have to create the painting first, and that's the hard part.
Our young artist eventually descends into madness and becomes the titular driller killer, both killing random transients on the streets that he resents, and later moving on to murdering his own friends, acquaintances and enemies.
I guess the greatest strengths in the film lie in the rare glimpses into late 70s New York at a gritty street level, among the punk counter culture, in seedy neighborhoods and trashy apartments. I guess they had to add the stuff about drilling killing in order to get the movie made and released, but there probably could have been a slice of life movie to be made here, or even a documentary.
As it is, the movie is definitely worth looking at as an oddity, but it does not have the memorable qualities of other indie innovators like HALLOWEEN. While it's an interesting conceit to have a horror movie where half the run time is devoted to exploring a subculture and lifestyle, I don't think it quite works here and, thanks to the title, you end up sitting around wondering when the drilling killing is going to start. Maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm supposed to be like "OMG I can't believe I'm a monster who can't wait for a murder to happen." But probably not.
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