By Lee Pfeiffer
The cover art for the Blu-ray release of the 1981 Italian thriller The New York Ripper screams "The most controversial horror film ever made!" Although the hyperbole may be true, I'll confess that I had never even heard of the movie until viewing the screener copy from Blue Underground. Apparently, the film does have a long history of being censored and the original version is still banned in the UK. Research shows there have been numerous international versions of film, many of which have been compromised by edits ranging from minor to the exclusion of entire key sequences. Blue Underground's release is the complete 93 minute version of director Lucio Fulci's vision of the film.As you might imagine, the movie isn't for everyone. A strong stomach and penchant for kinky sex scenes might well be advised.
The film was shot on location in New York City (with interiors shot in Rome) in 1981. The Big Apple was in the midst of its decline during this period and movie makers exploited the public misery to the fullest extent. Big studio releases like Taxi Driver and Death Wish were seen as legitimate social commentaries, while other smaller budget movies just seemed to exploit the explosion in crime. Viewing The New York Ripper today, one has to force oneself to remember those bad old days in Gotham. With the city now having undergone an amazing renaissance that has resulted in the lowest crime statistics on record, it might be difficult for those who did not grow up in or near the city to recall how accurately films reflected this era. Fulci's film centers on a psychopath who menaces New York by murdering numerous women in the most horrendous manners. Bizarrely, he uses the voice of Donald Duck in taunting phone calls to the police. Nominally, the film would seem to be based on a modern version of London's Jack the Ripper, but more likely Fulci was inspired by the Son of Sam murders that gripped the city in the summer of 1977.