A blade-wielding psychopath is on the loose, turning the Big Apple bright red with the blood of beautiful young women. As NYPD detective Fred Williams (Jack Hedley of “For Your Eyes Only”) follows the trail of butchery from the decks of the Staten Island Ferry to the sex shows of Times Square, each brutal murder becomes a sadistic taunt. In the city that never sleeps, the hunt is on for the killer that can’t be stopped!
Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci made some classics in his day. Titles such as “Zombie,” “City of the Living Dead,” “The Beyond,” “The House by the Cemetery,” and “Zombie 3.” In amongst those films, he made a film called “The New York Ripper” and for many, this was the beginning of his downfall as a filmmaker. His earlier movies, like so many from the ’70s and ’80s, were horror films that were brimming with gore and violence, much of it leveled against women. During the ’70s and ’80s, horror movies, especially slasher flicks, typically involved the antagonist terrorizing a woman and even today, that aspect still remains intact, for the most part, but in “The New York Ripper,” the level of violence throughout is enough to make a hardened horror fan such as myself, want to look away from the screen. In one particular scene, the “Ripper,” after tying a woman to a bed, begins to slash her using a razor blade and in extreme closeup, slices one of the woman’s nipples in half. In another scene, a woman is stabbed in the vagina with a broken glass bottle as it constantly twists back and forth until the woman drops dead. Were these necessary? Absolutely not. Obviously, director Lucio Fulci felt the need to push the boundaries and in doing so, many of his fans took objection and what few films he made afterward, did not do well at the box office. Up to this point, Fulci was a celebrated Italian filmmaker but after this movie, his career never elevated to the heights it had done so before.
Most of Fulci’s movies did not offer much in the way of a plot and the same applies here. Shot in New York City in Italian and then dubbed into English, “The New York Ripper” follows Lieutenant Fred Williams (Jack Hedley), as he tries to track down a serial killer who is murdering young women around the city. He soon receives phone calls from a person calling themselves the ripper who continuously taunts him, telling him how he is going to kill his next victim but does so utilizing a strange, duck-like voice. When a young woman, Fay Majors (Almanta Suska), gets off the subway one evening, she is chased and attacked by a strange man but manages to escape. Lt. Williams talks with her in the hospital where she is recovering and she claims that she never saw the man’s face but after she leaves the hospital, she tells her boyfriend Peter (Andrew Painter), that while she was being attacked, she passed out a few times but when she regained consciousness, she saw his face. She tells him that it sounds ridiculous and they both laugh it off and try to get on with their lives but when strange things start happening to her in their home, she begins to suspect that Peter might actually know more than he’s letting on. Meanwhile, Lt. Williams continues to discover dead bodies around the city and when one of them hits close to home, he becomes enraged, especially as the killer continues to call him up and ridicule him every chance he gets.
When a man named Mickey Scellenda (Howard Ross) is identified as a person of interest in the case, Williams is close to arresting him but when Scellenda’s body turns up dead, Williams and his men must start over. When Williams receives a phone call from Fay, the young woman who survived being attacked by the ripper, claiming that someone is trying to break into her house, he races to her home, where he finally discovers the Ripper’s true identity.
Watching “The New York Ripper” gives you a great insight into what New York City was like in the early ’80s. Many of the buildings and establishments seen throughout no longer exist and it is especially sad when the Twin Towers make an appearance. Fulci had a great way of creating atmosphere, whether it was on a remote island in “Zombie” (you can read my review here), in a house basement in “The House by the Cemetery,” or in an old Louisiana home in “The Beyond,” Fulci was able to establish and maintain a wonderful, almost otherworldly ambiance that few other filmmakers ever achieved. With “The New York Ripper,” he once again validates this objective, giving the city its own character, which, at times, overpowers everything else transpiring onscreen. The clichéd storyline was not important here, the locales and violence were the main purpose and in that regard, the film succeeds. The endless supply of barbarous and vicious gore was totally unnecessary, the movie could have worked so much better without it and audiences and critics agreed as the film was a flop upon its initial theatrical release and a low-point in Fulci’s career. Since his death in 1996, many of Lucio Fulci’s movies have found new audiences with the advent of DVD and Blu-ray, giving them an insight into the filmmaker thanks to interviews with some of his actors and crew members and archival footage of the master at work.
If you are a Fulci fan, this edition of “The New York Ripper” is for you. It includes the following:
• Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth, Author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films
• The Art Of Killing – Interview with Co-Writer Dardano Sacchetti
• Three Fingers Of Violence – Interview with Star Howard Ross
• The Second Victim – Interview with Co-Star Cinzia de Ponti
• The Broken Bottle Murder – Interview with Co-Star Zora Kerova
• “I’m an Actress!” – 2009 Interview with Co-Star Zora Kerova
• The Beauty Killer – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
• Paint Me Blood Red – Interview with Poster Artist Enzo Sciotti
• NYC Locations Then and Now
• Theatrical Trailer
• Poster & Still Gallery
• BONUS! “The New York Ripper” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Francesco De Masi.
• BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Travis Crawford.
Available on an Exclusive Limited Collector’s Edition which includes Blu-ray, DVD, Soundtrack CD, collectible booklet, reversible sleeve, and 3D lenticular slipcover June 25th
