I've been trying for over 3 hours to get this filter off, I tried using a cloth, my barehand.. one of those ones that constrict and get tighter as you apply force, and then I read to drive a screw driver through it and use that to get some leverage... it just tore the metal around the hole.

My hand is killing me already, and I just want the damned filter off. Can anyone help here?

I even used this vice grip thing from Fram and that just broke the casing worse.