Le tueur de Manhattan

I noticed on the Net that this one isn't available on DVD and neither on VHS in the US. So for me as an European I was able to catch the ex rental VHS. Watch out, there are two movies from that time titled Bloodrage. This flick here is the bloodless one, the other one is available on DVD but totally ripped to pieces, you have to catch the VHS which is the only one uncut. Anyway, this flick came out on the Vipco label and stated as the bloodiest of their collection. Don't believe it. What's nice of this one are the shots made in New York. Depravity New York, still with their pornshops and grindhouses. I was once their too at 42nd but they started to tear places down. The movie starts of pretty well with a shy boy, a peeping tom, visiting a hooker. It gets out of hand and things aren't pretty well for him as for the hooker. That's the bloodiest part of the movie, well done too, so very promising. When he gets to New York the movie turns over into T&A. Nothing to do with the plot of the movie and it all falls down slowly, it's a shame 'cause his second killing was nice too. And then we go on from one full bush shot to another. Nothing else happens, playing peeping tom and suddenly the cop tracks him down with an surprising end. So almost no blood, sometimes really boring and a lot of titties and 70's bushes.

A title like "Bloodrage" is enough to catch the attention of any horror fan, the cover is also promising but the movie itself isn't that good. Ian Scott plays a violent young man that is about to snap at any moment, the event that leads to that is a encounter with a prostitute that went sour. When she asked him for money and threaten to call his mother, he lost it and unveiled his more basic violent instincts. To escape the police he moved to New York, checking in a motel. Soon he started to feel the pressure of the big city, full of things that deeply bothered him. First in that list, the prostitutes, which he'll hunt down one by one until he meets one that will give him a run for his money. Not only he has to deal with the city life but also the small town cop that came to New York trying to find the person responsible for the death of the first prostitute. Who will get to him first?

The movie's plot is simple, nothing wrong with that if it was well executed, in my opinion it wasn't. It's rather slow-paced. Only in the first murder we see any blood, not enough for a movie called "Bloodrage". The characters aren't developed enough to make them interesting, their actions don't make much sense. Ian Scott reminded me of Ted Raimi, specifically in "Skinner", they kind of look alike.

What a grimy, filthy and bleak film this is! "Bloodrage" is one of those glorious New York City movies, filmed when the place was literally crawling with hookers, pimps, junkies and every kind of deviant freak that can be imagined. Working as both an incredible documentation of a vanished New York in it's "Golden Age" as well as an utterly fascinating character study of a truly sick, soulless maniac. Ryan is a baby faced, average looking young guy, but with this palpable hatred for women...not all women of course. One of the reasons why this sick little film works so well is that it's perhaps the ONLY movie of it's kind that forces the viewer to seriously relate to the psychopath. Although the guy is a complete scumbag, the women in this film, and I mean EVERY woman, is portrayed as money grubbing, dishonest. Not once did I feel sorry for any of the females that got murdered here, because they were all so horrible. And that is how this clever movie gets under the skin. It feels downright creepy to catch yourself relating to a serial killer, but "Bloodrage" forces the viewer into this guy's mindset by making you see women the way he does. Wow. It's as politically incorrect as the worst of these 70's films, and it literally bleeds atmosphere from it's filthy pores. Why on Earth "Bloodrage" isn't available on Blu Ray, or even dvd is an absolute mystery to me, as is this ridiculously low score here. Do people just not GET what director Joseph Zito (of The Prowler fame) who goes under the funny pseudonym Joseph 'Bigwood' has succeeded in doing with this one? For a title like "Bloodrage" it isn't extremely bloody, as the violence here is more of the psychological kind. It does make up for the lack of gore by splashing a healthy amount of T&A on screen (actually nothing about this is "healthy), as "Bloodrage" is based in a World of hyper-sexuality. I urge fans of this genre to seek this movie out and witness some truly beautiful 42nd Street grime. And I urge some Blu Ray distributor like 'Vinegar Syndrome' to please restore "Bloodrage" to it's original pristine version. It is so deserving.

In the 1970s, grindhouse cinemas were awash with sleazy stories of killers and thugs, murderers and prostitutes. These low-budget thrillers often had a gritty, on-the-street look to them, just filming out in the streets amidst the crowds. Violence, drug abuse and prostitution was the norm. The best of the genre was undoubtedly TAXI DRIVER, Scorsese's excellent look at loneliness and madness, and as with any popular film it spawned rip-offs. BLOODRAGE is one of these, a delightful story about a young man who kills prostitutes.

The man is the film's main character, a kind of anti-hero who sometimes narrates his thoughts, just like De Niro. What surprised me is that BLOODRAGE is slightly above the run-of-the-mill for this particular genre, mainly because it has good direction (from Joseph Zito, who later went on to helm many an '80s action flick) and some surprisingly decent turns from the cast. Ian Scott, as the killer, has a lot of screen time and handles his role very well. He's creepy, frightening and seemingly disturbed, which is all that is needed for this kind of role. Inevitably there's a sub-plot about a cop stalking the killer, and James Johnson is also very good as this guy. The actresses playing the prostitutes are grubby and convincing, making you wonder whether they really are 'women of the night'.

What I liked best about BLOODRAGE is that it never descends into plot less gore and depravity, as with so many of these movies. Sure, it's sleazy, but that's inevitable when the entire cast list is populated with hookers, dealers and their clients. The New York locales add grimy authenticity to events, and there are one or two stand-out moments. There's a voyeuristic aspect to the movie as he goes Peeping Tom, scenes which reminded me of Hitchcock in places. There's also a ton of nudity, but for a movie called BLOODRAGE, virtually no blood, except in the opening scene. It's not a great movie, and it's forgotten today for a reason, which is misogyny. But I found it a surprisingly compelling entry in the genre that manages to hit the mark more often than not.

A psychotic young man heads to New York after murdering a prostitute of a small town. Thinking that he has escaped the police, he tries to live a normal life, but he encounters the very sleazy life of the city and goes about fixing up the problems, like knocking more prostitutes. On his trail is a town cop who's looking for him in the hope he can find out what had happened to the first prostitute that he secretly killed off.

I'm so baffled. I went in expecting something of a horror story cross vigilante action piece like it seems to advertise. Um instead, the picture on my video case never seemed to appear in the film. Nor did the folks on it! Also the title is very misleading. With the name like Joseph Zito tagged to the project, you'll be expecting something passionately wild and out going (think of Red Scorpion, Missing in Action and Invasion U.S.A) and gruesomely unpleasant (The Prowler and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), but what a glum character study on a insane killer that tries to be thoughtful, but it just doesn't work when it's going for this aspect. I guess he learnt later on from this effort, as this was just his second feature.

This immensely sleazy slasher is strictly average and too slow. It only goes for about 75 minutes and it still lulls about in monotonous scenes that feel like fillers. I didn't find it boring because it was oddly hypnotic. Thanks to its stone-cold approach, inspired visions and gritty locations, but it could have used a whole lot more verve in its execution. The deaths and the lead up to them are rather bloodless, but still quite misogynistic. Just wait around for the dog scene. Blood might be little, but sex and nudity (a lot of window peeping) isn't discarded. Far from it actually. The 70's New York atmosphere generated a circuit that was scummy, filthy and dreadfully corrupt. Zito filtered this into the flick superbly.

The clueless story has some unbelievable developments (a sudden conclusion) and very little structure to it, as it plays many cards like a psycho serial killer to soft porn and then a look through the damaged mind created by a forsaken society (ala Taxi Driver). Even the husky voice-overs that the film begins off with have a familiar ring to it. But in all it's basic.

Surprisingly the performances are acceptably fair. The spaced out Ian Scott plays the uptight young lad Richard in a very disquieting temperament. Legendary hard-boiled actor Lawrence Tierney is in a minor thankless role that asks very little off him. James Johnson, Rita Ebenhart and Blair Trigg chime in with some solid performances too.

Flat pacing can kill it at times, but this raw project has its moments. Not a bad early effort by Zito.