New York Ripper

Lucio Fulci, now there's a name that conjures up some heated debate amongst horror fans. For some, the less forgiving out there, Fulci was always seen as some sort of sub par Italian hack but for others, including myself, Fulci is in fact one of the finest genre filmmakers to have come out of Italy in the past 40 or so years. Sadly Fulci has long left this mortal coil but he has thankfully left us a dizzying back catalogue of genre movies for film fans to enjoy and debate for a long time to come.

With the launch of new UK DVD label (the appropriately titled) Shameless Screen Entertainment, it was perhaps only right that they choose one of the great masters films for their debut release but with 'New York Ripper' (Lo Squartatore di New York) they also have somewhat wildly jumped into the deep end of controversial censor baiting horror cinema.

Astoundingly a whole 25 years since its first release (an anniversary no one has chose to acknowledge or celebrate outside of this very welcome DVD package), 'New York Ripper' is often misguidedly tarred as a misogynistic splatter fest attack on women when in reflective reviewing today it perhaps should be recognised as a misunderstood giallo classic.

The plot, which follows the standard giallo red herring layered scenario, is quite simplistic in its delivery. It's early 1980's New York and young ladies with low inhibitions are being stalked and brutally slashed to shreds by a maniac with a penchant for quacking whilst he kills (like a demented Donald Duck with a switchblade). Lt. Fred Williams (played comfortably by veteran Jack Hedley) is on the case getting growingly frustrated dealing with unreliable witnesses from the seedier side of New Yorks underbelly whilst under pressure from Chief of Police Lucio Fulci (yes in true Hitchcock Style the great man himself does enjoy the occasional cameo) to capture the quacking killer. Enlisting the aid of Dr. Paul Davis (Paolo Malco of House by the Cemetery fame) Lt. Williams tightens the net on the ripper as the gruesome body count continues to pile up.

On its initial release 'New York Ripper' was swiftly labelled as a video nasty by the tabloid press in a time here in the UK when for the licensing market this was the kiss of death for any profitable marketing of a movie. But why so? Simply, the issue for the British Board of Film Censors in the 1980's was that Fulci's films were just too gory. It was bad enough that his zombie films included eye gougings and brain shredding gore but with a film like 'New York Ripper' the censor just couldn't see past the so called 'sexual violence' (which astonishingly is still problematic for the censors today with 34 seconds trimmed from this Shameless release).

But is 'New York Ripper' a misogynistic attack on women or is it in fact a true horror classic that was simply ahead of its time? My own train of thought is with the latter. Of course the film is astonishingly violent, even in its latest slightly trimmed form there's still reams of graphic gore that some will find shocking but why is 'New York Ripper' still being censored today when the largest grossing horror genre movies in the multiplex these days is in fact a lifeless glossy Hollywood spin on the themes of Fulci's gem (the current so called 'torture porn' scene is happily played out in theatres across the land for popcorn munching couples on a date).

In fact, when rewatching 'New York Ripper' with a more balanced approach (and removing any context of tabloid minded hysteria) you have to actually question why the British Board of Film Censors would need to censor Fulci's movie? They state in cutting the movie of the scene where a "woman's stomach and breasts being mutilated with a razor" that those "cuts were required to remove sexualised violence" but this is not in fact sexual violence but simply violence, regardless of the sex of the character as no sexual activity was involved - a point that even the characters repeatedly clarify throughout their investigation and pursuit of the killer. So whilst there's no concern about not censoring the endless line of so called 'torture porn' multiplex movies poor Lucio Fulci's 25 year old masterpiece still gets shorn.

The 34 seconds of trims though should not put the casual megastore buyer off as the film presented here by Shameless is still astonishingly violent with some classic moments of grizzly gore (and even the aforementioned trimmed razor mutilation scene is actually edited smoothly enough the casual viewer would never notice). The print itself has never looked better with a gorgeous pin sharp widescreen print, seriously, 'New York Ripper' has never looked so good and I had a great time revisiting this giallo classic. This new remastered print really does show off Luigi Kuveiller's stunning cinematography very well indeed with some scenes awash with reds and blues very much reminiscent of his work on Dario Argento's 'Deep Red' (Profondo Rosso) giving the film an appropriate feel of a giallo great. The audio is similarly clean and sharp throughout and once you get over the initial giggling of the vintage Italian/English dub you can wallow in some priceless exploitation dialogue and the welcome absurdity of an underrated giallo great.

Shameless Screen Entertainment seem to have been listening to a mantra that we often support here at SGM with the understanding that if we get a good sharp presentation of a film with the trailer we're generally happy and that's what Shameless deliver (though with the wallet threatening inclusion of trailers for their other incoming releases including Killer Nun, Torso, Baby Yaga, Phantom Of Death Black Cat and more). Whilst for the hard core fan there will be that inevitable frustration around censor cuts (which I'm sure even 25 years down the line Fulci will be shaking his fist at from the gates of hell) but even as such it is undeniable that Shameless should be applauded for debuting with such brazen gusto - we salute you!

Review by Alan Simpson