The Norwegian Drillbit Massacre (1988)

 

Den Norske Drillbor Massakren (1988) - Norway

Directed by: Jon Christian Møller

ABOUT THE FILM:

The year was 1988. It was a decent year for horror films. It's the year that we got such classics as Child's Play, Night of the Demons and Brain Damage. It's also the year that gave us what is, in my opinion, one of the better 80's shot-on-video horror movies, 555 by Wally Koz. We also got a few more decent SOV's like Twisted Issues, and a couple of turds like Death Nurse 2. Meanwhile, in Norway, a teenager named Jon Christian Møller, armed with nothing but a camcorder and some butcher refuse bags, made zero-budget movies out in the forest with his friends. Jon didn't make movies for any reason other than to entertain himself and his friends. But somehow, these movies made it farther than their homes.

The Norwegian Drillbit Massacre doesn't have a plot. Some schmuck in a white mask with really long brown hair runs around decimating people with a power drill. He comes across cyclers, punks and scum and just mutilates them in really violent and juvenile ways. This goes on for the whole movie until two random characters, some guy named Dr. Døllshit and a girl, put up a fight with the lunatic, tie him up and torture him to death with fireworks. Having defeated the menace, the two walk away from the scene holding hands.

REVIEW:

What Norwegian Drillbit lacks in story, it makes up for in being so badly made and ridiculous that it becomes lovable. It's inept and silly but at the same time it's so entertaining that I really can't bring myself to hate it. It's also similar to Live Undead (1991) in the sense that you can watch it and feel oddly nostalgic, as if you would have made something just like it as a teen with your friends. Running around in the woods, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, cycling, reading porno mags you probably stole, playing soccer and getting killed by drill-wielding weirdos. Who else can relate, am I right?

Well with the nostalgia-bug qualities aside, let's take a look at the actual movie. It's very, very bad in almost every way. The camera work and the editing is a mess. There are several shots where the actors laugh, stifle laughter or stare at the camera. Every other shot is followed up with half a second of outtake footage or alternate takes. The camera jitters so much you'd swear the camera person was running off of little sleep and a lot of coffee. The credits are typed out over a computer or a TV screen. Shots will randomly shift into slow-motion, even when it doesn't make any sense. But all of these bad qualities make the movie really funny and even charming in a way, and it's never boring despite having plenty of scenes where characters do nothing. Hell, you could even making a drinking game out of this thing. Take a swig every time you see a random person riding their bike or staring at the camera.

The kills are twisted and juvenile in theory but they're so badly executed that they're almost guaranteed to make the viewer laugh. Random kids and teens are chased down and drilled in the stomach or back, one gets a drill to the ass cheek and another gets his manhood destroyed by the tool. And all the while this unidentifiable meat is spilling out of the actor's shirt or pants, covered in what looks to be red syrup. One of my favorite kills takes place when a kid with the ugliest, most obviously fake wig is playing with a soccer ball and running around in the grass behind a building. Suddenly, the killer leaps down from a tree and falls on the kid to kill him, while hitting him so hard that his wig flies off of his head. That nearly killed me from laughter.

If this movie were more widely available, I could definitely see it being one of the more well-known bad 80's SOV's. After all, it's only the best SOV where a teenager is actually tortured with fireworks. It needs to be seen to be believed, and I would encourage any SOV enthusiast to hunt down a copy.

RELEASES:

-I'm not sure where you could get a legitimate copy of this movie, but I've seen it floating around as part of a bootleg DVD with Jon's other movies, under the name Videogore.