It's very hard to admit taking a liking to New York Ripper, possibly the most infamous of Fulci's post House by the Cemetery period. The film is so astonisingly sleazy that it literally defies description. As has been pointed out, it is Fulci's most extreme and misogynistic peice ever and features some of his most grotesque set peices. In fact, New York Ripper may be Fulci's goriest work ever but since it ranks so low on the totem pole with the fans, you never see articles prasing it's effects like you would with Zombie or City of the Living Dead. It is difficult to get worked up over scenes that so relish in the butchery of women. This isn't like the almost mystical gore of Fulci's other films. This violence is too real and hits to close to home. The murder of the young girl on the ferry and the repeated slashing of the main character's hooker girlfriend (why do all cops have hooker girlfriends?) are very unsettling. I'm sure this was the point but as I said, the violence here is too mean spirited. All this is perpetrated by a human villain who does have one ridiculous trait that really comes out of left field. No zombies, undead preists or immortal, mad scientists here but a human being who quacks like a duck. Yes, it's incredibly stupid but there is a rational explanation for his duck tinged accent, trust me. But even so it adds a peculiar feel to the precedings and does not sit at all well with everything else on view here. Anti female murders done by a cop baiting killer who talks like a cartoon character. That is something you don't see all the time.
Like a lot of Italian Giallo thrillers, Ripper has a great deal of red herrings. Not even the helpful psycho analyst is above suspicion as we see him perusing and eventually buying a gay men's magazine although it ultimatley comes as no great surprise who the real killer is. In Ripper's defense at least, Fulci does manage to come up with some nice touches. Building on the New York scenes of Zombie, Fulci here again makes the Big Apple look incredibly alien and foreign. This isn't the New York we know but an alien landscape that just can't be the real New York even though we know it is. Years before the morgue attendant who listens to music on his walkman while going about his gruesome task in Return of the Living Dead, Fulci gives us a forensic pathologist who does the exact same thing. But be warned, the disturbing sight of the little girl wasting away from lymphoma is an image that will haunt you for a long time. Its quite unpleasant.
Fulci again cameos here, this time as a police commisioner. It never ceases to amaze me how this little bespctacled fellow, who looks like your Grandfather was behind some of the most extreme Italian horror films ever, in particular this one. I don't believe that Fulci hated women as some have but New York Ripper gives the opposition fuel for their fire so to speak.
If you're a Fulci completist or slasher fan, then see it. All others, stay away.
Like a lot of Italian Giallo thrillers, Ripper has a great deal of red herrings. Not even the helpful psycho analyst is above suspicion as we see him perusing and eventually buying a gay men's magazine although it ultimatley comes as no great surprise who the real killer is. In Ripper's defense at least, Fulci does manage to come up with some nice touches. Building on the New York scenes of Zombie, Fulci here again makes the Big Apple look incredibly alien and foreign. This isn't the New York we know but an alien landscape that just can't be the real New York even though we know it is. Years before the morgue attendant who listens to music on his walkman while going about his gruesome task in Return of the Living Dead, Fulci gives us a forensic pathologist who does the exact same thing. But be warned, the disturbing sight of the little girl wasting away from lymphoma is an image that will haunt you for a long time. Its quite unpleasant.
Fulci again cameos here, this time as a police commisioner. It never ceases to amaze me how this little bespctacled fellow, who looks like your Grandfather was behind some of the most extreme Italian horror films ever, in particular this one. I don't believe that Fulci hated women as some have but New York Ripper gives the opposition fuel for their fire so to speak.
If you're a Fulci completist or slasher fan, then see it. All others, stay away.