Lo squartatore di New York

There's not much need to go into detail on the plot. Simply put, The New York Ripper is the story of a mad killer with a penchant for slashing young woman and harassing the police with his duck-like voice. That's really all you need to know.

The New York Ripper is Lucio Fulci's latter day ultra-violent take on the Giallo. When I say ultra-violent, I mean ULTRA-violent. If you're a fan of Fulci-style gore, there's surely something here for you. There's one scene where a girl's eye meets a razor that's particularly nasty and particularly difficult to watch. And, if you're a fan of Fulci-style sleaze, there's surely something here for you also. While I won't go as far as some reviewers and call it pornographic, there are a variety of sexual perversions on display. But it's not all blood and sex. Fulci actually manages to create a few scenes with real tension. There are moments where you know that killer is about to strike, but the anticipation Fulci builds in the audience is quite good.

Unfortunately, there are problems I have with the film. I'll limit this to two examples. First, the resolution of the mystery is a real letdown. The killer's identity is far too easy to guess. Fulci telegraphs the answer form the opening moments of the film. Second, Gialli often ask the viewer to suspend reality to accept various plot points, but the final scenes in The New York Ripper cross the line into ridiculousness and really hurt the overall film. I'm certainly no expert, but I sincerely doubt that all the psychological babble made any real sense to anyone.

You can say NEW YORK RIPPER is bad, boring, stupid, crap, worthless, mean spirited, vile, etc. Whatever you can say about NEW YORK RIPPER though, you can't say it's not sleazy. It's over-the-top sleazy and misogynistic. It never shies away from it. Personally speaking, it's sleaze par excellence. The misogynistic aspect bothers me but then 90% of horror films out there are misogynistic, so it's not like I'm not used to it. As for the sleaze aspect, well, if you don't like sleaze, don't watch it. If you're fascinated by sleaze, like me, then this is like the CITIZEN KANE of sleaze. What makes this so different than the majority of truly worthless sleaze out there is that Fulci is honest about the sleaze. Compare this to let's say the recent MURDER SET PIECES, which is very sleazy but almost totally worthless. It's so self-conscious about the fact that it's horrific and sleazy, it just doesn't work. It's not real sleaze. NEW YORK RIPPER is real 42nd Ave sleaze.

What makes NEW YORK RIPPER unique among the plethora of sleazy films made then and today is the way it's filmed. In scope, garish colors, grimy settings, very gloomy and harsh. I love the scenes shot in the subway or around other parts of a depressed NY city. The acting is not really good but the level of acting is what you expect from these kind of films. It's remarkably violent towards women. Truly appalling. But then after the stunningly blunt ending, everything is suddenly redeemed. Though most of the violence is directed towards women, the sleaze centers around women and men, including a couple having live sex in front of an audience, horny thugs, a nymphomaniac housewife who tries to sleep around with any guy, including the thugs and a hunky psycho who is thought to be the killer, and there's a gay character who's the most likable character in the whole film.

I can't say that I like this Fulci flick. NEW YORK RIPPER is not something someone likes per se. It's just too harsh to attach any affection to it. But I'm fascinated about it and that's why I give it an 8. There are very few films that can claim to be something that will never be topped and because of our PC times and depending of what's in store in the near future, it's almost guaranteed that NEW YORK RIPPER will never be topped as far as the sleaze factor is concern.

But I liked it! Obviously not Lucio Fulci´s best ("The Beyond" still holds the top, followed up by "Zombi 2"!), but nevertheless "The New York Ripper" is another gorefest that delights the fans and despairs the censors (Actually this flick is banned in many countries like Australia, the U.K., Germany or Norway...)! Endowed with some nudity (Maybe the sleaziest flick Fulci ever directed...) and elements from Giallo this gem has got some really unforgettable moments: I like the scene when Alexandra Delli Colli (She plays a woman which is permanently on the search for sexual adventures...) gets stimulated by two Latino-boys in a billiard bar and the take where wonderful Zora Kerova ("Cannibal Ferox") was maltreaten by bottle is pretty gut-wrenching! The bloody climax however is when the ripper tortures a prostitute to death with using a razorblade! Really shocking and disturbing!! People who demand a clever story surely will be disappointed, gorehounds however will find a revelation in this! So if you had fun with William Lustig´s "Maniac" (1980) you will also like this effective shocker!!!

While this movie contains plenty of graphic violence beyond most horror movies, I cannot deny a certain brilliance in Fulci's direction. Sure there were plot holes, the dubbing was bad, the duck sounded ridiculous, those were part of the reasons I enjoyed it, simply because a logical movie doesn't play with my mind like this one did. Fulci deals with a lot of psychological issues and the areas of the unknown. There is enough unsaid that keeps you guessing until the very end (some which never gets said, but we won't go there). In my opinion, this movie had a faster pace and more solid plot than most of Fulci's more popular efforts. It was simple: someone who talks like a duck is killing beautiful women in New York. I did find it scary. Sometimes I'm intrigued how they think up some of the things they did in this movie. Maybe it should be called "The Amsterdam Ripper" because of the extreme sex, violence, and drug atmosphere. But on the Anchor Bay DVD uncut release, the cinematography was amazing. I do love that this is an Italian movie filmed in New York, another totally illogical thing to do in my mind, yet on some level, it works for the sheer creativity and guts to do something new. No Academy Awards, but they sure don't make movies like this anymore! I'll give it 3 quacks out of 5.

When the dog of an old man finds a decomposed hand in New York, the police identifies the victim as the model Ann-Lyne. Lt. Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is assigned to investigate the crime and is informed by Ann-Lyne's landlady that she had received a phone call from a man that spoke like a duck. While going to Staten Island, the bicycle rider Rosie (Cinzia de Ponti) is stabbed to death in the ferry by a man with duck-like voice. Lt. Williams teams-up with the psychologist Dr. Paul Davis (Paolo Malco) to hunt down the serial-killer. Meanwhile other women are attacked by the murderer. When the beautiful Fay Majors (Almanta Keller) survives the attack of the man, Lt. Williams and Dr. Davis have a lead to be followed but Dr. Davis questions whether the identified man is the killer since he believes the serial-killer has another profile.

"Lo squartatore di New York", a.k.a. "The New York Ripper", is an engaging Italian thriller directed by Lucio Fulci. The plot is interesting, the actresses are sexy, but the conclusion is disappointing. Most of the deaths are brutal and even gruesome as expected by fans of the giallo genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Estripador de Nova York" ("The New York Ripper")