TITLE-The New York Ripper
SOURCE-Blue Underground DVD
First off thanks to CodyLL for hooking me up with this DVD. Sure I had seen it before getting this DVD. Hell first time I saw it was a bootleg VHS that I was told was a rip of the rare Japanese laserdisc.
After the surprise world wide success of Zombi,Fulci kept making gory horror movies. With New York Ripper becoming infamous for it's gory and just how dark it subject matter is. Well that and the murderer quacking like a duck. Yep the killer in this gory Giallo QUACKS LIKE A DUCK. And the killer isn't shitfaced drunk trying to piss on the side of the interstate,yes I know maybe 5 people reading this will get that super inside joke.
Beside the gore the only other thing this movie has going for it is all the shot on location stuff. Made in NYC in the early 80s this is a film that gives you a close look at how sleazy and grimy parts of NYC were back then. I love all the scenes of people going thru the 42nd street area of New York City. Odd I have been to NYC 3 times in my life. But the only two areas of the city I can name,and I knew of both long before I visited are 42nd street and the corner of 53rd and 3rd. The first of course was famous all over for being the sleazy captitol of the east coast. The latter because of the Ramones song Dee Dee wrote.
Now as you can see at the top of the DVD cover it says Special Edition. This is one of the weakess Special Editions I have ever seen. The film had already been released fully uncut in the US before this release. The only new stuff is a short interview with actress Zora Kerova,which is mostly subtitled. And a very very very short,under 6 minutes,extra titled NYC locations then and now. Oh and they got the films trailer. Which is a neat extra. There is some different dialogue in the trailer than from the film. The scene with the morgue worker describing how the killer mutilated someone has very very different words in tthe trailer when compared to the version in the film.
Ok yea this isn't even close to the best storywise film from Fulci. Pretty much the little story that is here is just to get us to the next kill. Heard some people call this the worst of Fulci's 80s work. Guessing they have never seen Manhatten Baby.
New York Ripper gets a C+