Being on a giallo trip at the moment, I thought it was time for a second look at Lucio Fulci's infamous film maudit The New York Ripper . This was the one notoriously announced with the come-on line "… slashing women was his pleasure…" and which, when presented to the BBFC at the height of the 'nasties' scare, was escorted out of the country with seemingly no prospect of parole.
Times change and the film has now been passed for release. While with cuts, they are nothing to compare to those on Ruggero Deodato's House on the Edge of the Park , shorn of around 12 minutes of material.
Anyway, not being one to go in for cut films, I shall base my analysis on the full version of the film, as presented on import DVD.
The story is straightforward: A maniac with "a yen for slashing up women" and a penchant for talking like Donald Duck is terrorising New York. First a hooker, then a young woman on the Staten Island ferry. Detective Williams (Jack Hedley) seeks the help of a psychological profiler, Dr David (Paolo Malco), who suggests they are dealing with a superior intellect.
In the red light district, wealthy bourgeois Jane Lodge (Alexandra Delli Colli) goes to visit a live sex show. Also present in the audience is Micky Scellenda (Howard Ross), a sexual sadist who eyes up Jane before quietly departing. Backstage, the female performer is killed with a broken bottle to the vagina…
Then, the police get an apparent lead. A young woman, Fay Majors (Antonella Interlenghi) is stalked by Scellenda and attacked in an abandoned cinema, but survives.
Fay can't quite remember every detail of the attack, but does recall that her assailant had missing fingers on his left hand.
The police put out an all-points bulletin on Scellenda, who in the meantime has picked up the thrill-seeking Jane and tied her to his bed…
But is Scellenda just a red herring, the real maniac someone else? Naturally…
Bad timing aside, the problem The New York Ripper has is that it's actually a pretty well made film, with effective direction (replete with Fulci's usual tropes – intense close-ups of eyes, rack focus shots etc. – and some effective moments of suspense), cinematography, effects work (the bisection by razor blade of a victim's eyeball and nippled are particularly unpleasant) and performances.
As a result, it's harder to laugh it off. The odd non-sequitur aside, the only possible point of humour in the film is the Ripper's voice. Many commentators find it detracts significantly from the film. Personally I don't find this to be the case. Instead, it seems to add an extra element to the story, with the ultimate revelation as to why the Ripper talks with Donald Duck's voice being convincing, even if the accompanying psychological explanation isn't.
The problem is compounded by the inability of the film-makers to attain enough distance from the world and worldview of the Ripper. Nothing quite as psychotic as explicitly condoning carving up women for their perceived sexual misdemeanors, more a case of not explicitly condemning the same. Yet, this is also of a one with the harsh, unforgiving view of the human condition the film presents. The New York Ripper offers no exit.
Perhaps the truth is that the film's brutal violence and misogynistic attitude are mere pretexts for its condemnation. The real, deeper, reason may be that most would simply rather not confront the yawning abyss of nihilistic despair that is the world of The New York Ripper and its final, utterly terrifying image…
This disc is one of the lesser entries in Anchor Bay's Lucio Fulci collection. The only extras are a Lucio Fulci bio, which won't tell fans of the director – or owners of other discs in the collection – anything they didn't know already, and the US theatrical trailer. The film itself looks and sounds fine. The picture is clean and sharp and, crucially, is presented in its full 2.35:1 glory, while the audio is clear enough.
Overall, a decent DVD of a film that has been unfairly maligned and is ripe for re-appraisal.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
Rating:
4.0 / 5
(2 votes)
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