User Reviews

There's not much need to go into detail on the plot. Simply put, The New York Ripper is the story of a mad killer with a penchant for slashing young woman and harassing the police with his duck-like voice. That's really all you need to know.

The New York Ripper is Lucio Fulci's latter day ultra-violent take on the Giallo. When I say ultra-violent, I mean ULTRA-violent. If you're a fan of Fulci-style gore, there's surely something here for you. There's one scene where a girl's eye meets a razor that's particularly nasty and particularly difficult to watch. And, if you're a fan of Fulci-style sleaze, there's surely something here for you also. While I won't go as far as some reviewers and call it pornographic, there are a variety of sexual perversions on display. But it's not all blood and sex. Fulci actually manages to create a few scenes with real tension. There are moments where you know that killer is about to strike, but the anticipation Fulci builds in the audience is quite good.

Unfortunately, there are problems I have with the film. I'll limit this to two examples. First, the resolution of the mystery is a real letdown. The killer's identity is far too easy to guess. Fulci telegraphs the answer form the opening moments of the film. Second, Gialli often ask the viewer to suspend reality to accept various plot points, but the final scenes in The New York Ripper cross the line into ridiculousness and really hurt the overall film. I'm certainly no expert, but I sincerely doubt that all the psychological babble made any real sense to anyone.

An elderly man is walking his dog one afternoon, he decides to throw a piece of wood and have his canine companion fetch, but when the dog brings back not a piece of wood, but a human hand the owner is reasonably perturbed. Thus begins Lucio Fulci's most notorious film "The New York Ripper", the most misogynistic film this side of William Lustig's "Maniac". Police detective Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is after one sicko who cuts pretty women up in the cruelest fashion. The killer's Donald Duck voice is ludicrous and annoying, but the rampant nudity, over the top gore, red-herrings and the ultra-sleazy atmosphere make up for that in spades. It doesn't hurt that this is tightly scripted and nicely filmed either. This would be the last film in the second (and starting with "Lizard in a Woman's Skin" best) era of his three part career. The last and worst part would start with his next film "Manhattan Baby"

My Grade: B

Anchor Bay DVD Extras: Uncut version; Theatrical trailer and Lucio Fulci bio

When the dog of an old man finds a decomposed hand in New York, the police identifies the victim as the model Ann-Lyne. Lt. Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is assigned to investigate the crime and is informed by Ann-Lyne's landlady that she had received a phone call from a man that spoke like a duck. While going to Staten Island, the bicycle rider Rosie (Cinzia de Ponti) is stabbed to death in the ferry by a man with duck-like voice. Lt. Williams teams-up with the psychologist Dr. Paul Davis (Paolo Malco) to hunt down the serial-killer. Meanwhile other women are attacked by the murderer. When the beautiful Fay Majors (Almanta Keller) survives the attack of the man, Lt. Williams and Dr. Davis have a lead to be followed but Dr. Davis questions whether the identified man is the killer since he believes the serial-killer has another profile.

"Lo squartatore di New York", a.k.a. "The New York Ripper", is an engaging Italian thriller directed by Lucio Fulci. The plot is interesting, the actresses are sexy, but the conclusion is disappointing. Most of the deaths are brutal and even gruesome as expected by fans of the giallo genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Estripador de Nova York" ("The New York Ripper")

Lt. Fred Williams a new york cop is investigating a number of disturbing killings where the women are to say the least butchered. His first clue is that the killer speaks like Donald Duck, and soon the killer is calling and taunting Williams, so he calls in the help of a local Professor of Psychology to help profile the killer. There are plenty of gruesome killings and seedy set pieces to keep any sleaze fan happy ie.A Latino *beep* a woman with his foot, the same woman masturbating in a live sex porno theatre and taping it to pleasure her husband with later,a girl being butchered with a razor blade ripping open her face right down through her eyeball…pretty gruesome….but wholly enjoyable as only Fulci can do. The dubbed dialogue is poor at times but it didn't take away from my enjoyment…a real video nasty

If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it may be a homicidal manic that has it in for beautiful women.

Fulci certainly raised the Giallo bar with this film, which is, to say the least, realistic and intense.

There is a lot of blood as the ripper plies his misogynistic game to assuage his guilt.

One gets a good look at 1980s Times Square and all it's sleaze. One also sees some who live dangerously until they go over the edge.

It was very good Giallo and Fulci fans will be pleased.

I was not impressed enough with any of the actors to comment.

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.

The late Italian director Lucio Fulci remains a controversial figure among horror film fans. Some view him merely as a hack exploitation director, who unsuccessfully tried to mimic the ideas and techniques of skilled horror directors such as Dario Argento and George Romero. Others view him as a directorial genius with his own distinctive style. Upon viewing my first Fulci film, THE NEW YORK RIPPER, I am inclined to believe that Fulci has not been given as much credit as he deserves.

THE NEW YORK RIPPER is a good example of an Italian "giallo" film, which blends the graphic gore sequences typically found in "slasher" films with the police investigations typically found in crime dramas. The film's plot is simple: a psychopath who talks like a duck is killing beautiful young women in New York City in vicious ways. Burned-out Lieutenant Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is assigned to investigate the case, and soon gets taunting calls from the killer. At the same time, the one woman to survive the killer's attack, track star Fay Majors (Almanta Keller), finds that her life remains in peril.

THE NEW YORK RIPPER is unapologetically sleazy. The gore effects are very well done, and will make even the most hardened fans of gore wince at their brutality. There is also plenty of sex, which is quite explicit even by today's standards. In short, THE NEW YORK RIPPER is tasteless. But that doesn't mean it's bad. The film is well paced and there is hardly a dull moment. The murder mystery aspect of the film will keep you guessing until the film's climax. Fulci also delivers stylish direction and the film has some nice atmospheric shots of New York City.

One of the main criticisms of THE NEW YORK RIPPER is that it is brutally misogynistic. On the surface, this appears to be true. The killer's victims are almost all sexually promiscuous young women, who are killed in a brutal, sexual manner. However, in my opinion, the film is not so much anti-woman as it is anti-humanity. Fulci's New York City, much like Martin Scorsese's in TAXI DRIVER, is a seemingly inescapable hell, filled with perverts, sex shows, prostitutes, and "42nd Street gigolos." It should also be noted that the film's one strong and sympathetic character is a woman, Fay Majors.

Also, it is often said that THE NEW YORK RIPPER is Fulci's ripoff of the 1980 film MANIAC (also one of my favorites). This is simply not true: their only similarity is that they concern a psycho killer on the loose in New York City. MANIAC is a character study horror film, while THE NEW YORK RIPPER is a mystery thriller, much like Brian DePalma's DRESSED TO KILL(1980).

Lastly, I must say that the recently released, uncut, widescreen version of THE NEW YORK RIPPER is a major improvement over the old video version. While the dubbing remains shoddy in some parts, this new edition looks beautiful in its widescreen format. Additionally, the old edition chopped up some scenes which contained crucial clues about the killer's identity. With these scenes now intact, the killer's identity is not as totally out of left field as some critics have charged.

*** out of ****

Possibly the nastiest and most vicious of all of Lucio Fulci's movies, this sadistic giallo not only features some truly unsettling scenes of explicit gore, but also manages to tell a rather involving and immoral tale that perfectly captures the sleazy vibe of New York in the early 80s.

Jack Hedley plays Lt. Fred Williams, a policeman heading the search for the psycho responsible for a spate of bloody murders. Teaming up with a genius psychoanalyst, he attempts to form a profile of the killer that will help him solve the case before too many more mutilated bodies are discovered.

Totally nauseating, unashamedly misogynistic, and completely unmissable if you're fond of graphic on screen bloodletting, this film is perfect viewing for anyone who found the likes of House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead and Zombie 2 a little too tame.

Complete with umpteen raunchy sex scenes (including bondage and a 42nd Street live sex-show), razor blade eyeball mutilation and nipple slashing, a broken bottle attack, and numerous stabbings and slicings with a nasty stiletto blade, The New York Ripper should satisfy even the most hardened of gore-hound's blood-lust, whilst also offering them a rather nifty mystery to solve.

Admittedly, the pace is occasionally a little slow, but with all of the gratuitous gore and nudity, and a crazy villain who talks like a duck, it's easy to forgive the odd lull in the action.

Fulci gives New York a bad name in The New York Ripper. It's a strange and sleazy film with very little story, but enough unpleasantness for 10 other movies.

Fulci has never been known for his stellar and well crafted screenplays, but this one takes the cake. It's essentially a handful of murder set pieces (some of which are well-shot and harrowing) with a whole lot of dull police procedural stuff sandwiched in between with nothing of note holding them together.

The dreamy surrealism of films like The Psychic and The Beyond and the intriguing murder mystery of Don't Torture A Duckling are not to be found in The New York Ripper. The only thing that will keep the audience hanging on is the question of "what will this insane person show us next?" In that sense, there's a compelling carnival freak show quality to The New York Ripper, but it's not enough to give it more than once watch. If that's all you're interested in, this might be the movie for you.

I had heard of Lucio Fulci for years through mail order catalogs, interviews in genre magazines, and newsgroup discussions. I just decided yesterday to shell out $15 to buy the Anchor Bay video version of "New York Ripper". I am a huge video collector and the clamshell box with the lurid cover art just called out to me. Well, I popped it into the VCR after not eating any dinner (to disallow any possible barfing!) and watched the video. Though the gore is plentiful and there are some downright sleazy scenes, I thought this was one of the best "giallo"-type crime films I've ever seen! While not as violent as I thought it would be, there are plenty of graphic murders to squirm at. The worst by far was the murder of the detective's prostitute "girlfriend", including savage razorblade attacks on her nipples and her eyes! Despite the other reviews that say there is a lot of sex, there is only one real sex scene, the rest is heavily implied. As for misogyny charges, I think the film isn't misogynistic, just the killer. And this is never explained, so I guess the film could be a tad anti-woman, but I didn't really see anything expressing this feeling that I wouldn't see in any other slasher film. The widescreen version is the best one to see, it displays Fulci's gorgeous cinematography in full and makes the film look a little more classy and sophisticated than it should. The performance of Almanta Keller as Fay, the heroine, is one of the best I've seen in Italian horror films. Her dream sequence is another disturbing visual sequence that might leave your dinner in your lap! What more can I say, I love this movie, it is sleazy, it is violent, it is controversial, but the atmosphere and style of Fulci's filmmaking more than makes up for it.

It is nearly impossible to bring up 'Lucio Fulci' and 'giallo' without also bringing up Dario Argento; and while some will claim that Argento is the go-to-guy for stylish thrillers splashed with deliberate, often ostentatious uses of Technicolor, I am of the opinion that Fulci had the better stories (and sense of realism).

"The New York Ripper" strikes the same hostile notes of urban squalor that William Friedkin mined in his much-vilified 1980 effort, "Cruising"; only instead of a serial killer stalking patrons of the leather scene, Fulci has his slasher mutilating beautiful women in creatively gruesome ways (it is saying something that the film is still effective 25 years later). Unlike his previous forays into more supernatural terrain ("City of the Living Dead"; "The Beyond"), "Ripper"'s story holds together surprisingly well: down-and-out Lieutenant Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) enlists the aid of Dr. Davis (Paolo Malco--"House by the Cemetery"), a psychology professor who collaborates on the case; it is only when the killer lets one of his victims (Almanta Keller) go that the story starts to unravel. Along the way, we're treated to the specter of 42nd Street, live sex shows, kinky situations (including a suspenseful sequence where a woman bound to a bed escapes the alleged killer sleeping next to her), and an onslaught of brutality; Fulci has never been bashful when it comes to gore, and one can imagine his own demons being exorcised with each violent act portrayed in this film. Excessive, cringe-worthy, yet undeniably creative--there are extremes in "Ripper" that have not been equaled since. Yet Fulci's knack for creating suspense is also on full display (a very well-done scene on the Staten Island Ferry, for instance), along with his restless/invasive camera work (a great POV sequence wherein the police raid a suspect's apartment) that leaves no filth uncovered. Depending on your personal taste, "The New York Ripper" may be the kind of film that requires a shower after watching...and I mean that in the best possible way. They certainly don't make'em like this anymore.

There's not much of a story to be told with The New York Ripper. The murder mystery investigation, as is the case with many of these movies, isn't the most compelling and there aren't any characters to attach yourself to. Most characters are introduced and, 2 minutes later, are brutally murdered, so it's hard to feel much but disgust for most of the movie which is not much more than a collection of stylish, gory murders. Maybe that's enough for gore fans. There's one moment with a razor blade and an eyeball that'll really upset the easily squeamish.

Yeah, well... If you're looking for a movie that's filled up with gore, this is the movie for you. And if you're looking for a movie that has a brilliant script and plot, go and watch Lynch's movies for example.

As I told the movie is very gory as Fulci's horror movies usually are. Plot is weak and acting is even weaker...but it doesn't matter that much because this is Lucio Fulci's movie =) They prob'ly tried to put some kind of humor to this mad and macabre flick by using "donald duck voice" as the killer's voice. Well, it's funny for a while but gets really annoying as the movie goes on.

Close eye shots are Fulci's trademark and this film has them too. Actually lots of them. They work quite well although I think that Fulci has used them enough before.

For a Fulci-flick this movie was quite good but not as good as The Beyond or Zombie Flesheaters. Worth watching though...but only if you like gory Italian horror movies.

I was so creeped out thinking is this real???? How the heck did they pull off some of those cuts? Haha the eye one was so disturbing. And the shot to the face to just plain fun!!!!!! Kudos!

"The New York Ripper" captured the early times of "NYC" just perfect as 42nd street and center city full of sex workers, peep shows and shops and movie houses helped breed victims. And this low budget horror film ran well with this theme as a stalker creep who calls over the phone and talks like "Donald Duck" then carves and slices his prey! As it's up to a seasoned detective to bring him down, only things change nothing is what it seems as the characters and case twist! Many scenes are erotic and exotic with tie up like kinky games of torture! Overall if you like old 80's slasher flicks with a sex and serial killer like theme then check this one out!

Lucio Fulci has got to be the most overrated horror director in the italian horror genre. Comparing this man to the likes of Dario Argento or Mario Bava is awfully favourable to Fulci and in my opinon; he doesn't deserve it. His films are over the top gory, and that part is executed with semi-style, but lack of any suspense or athmosphere (or visual style) make it hard to consider his films to be of any real value.

This one has no story. A madman is killing women in New York and nobody has a clue why. Oh' and by the way, he makes sounds like a duck when he slays his victims.

Everything here is done in an amateurish way. The cinematography is shaky, the look of the film is cheap, the acting is horrible (perhaps some fault can be put on terrible dubbing), there's no script and the violence is repellent, even for a semi-gorehound like myself. Argento at least executes his vicious killings with a lot of visual style.

And...the music score isn't good. If only Goblin scored his films...

You can say NEW YORK RIPPER is bad, boring, stupid, crap, worthless, mean spirited, vile, etc. Whatever you can say about NEW YORK RIPPER though, you can't say it's not sleazy. It's over-the-top sleazy and misogynistic. It never shies away from it. Personally speaking, it's sleaze par excellence. The misogynistic aspect bothers me but then 90% of horror films out there are misogynistic, so it's not like I'm not used to it. As for the sleaze aspect, well, if you don't like sleaze, don't watch it. If you're fascinated by sleaze, like me, then this is like the CITIZEN KANE of sleaze. What makes this so different than the majority of truly worthless sleaze out there is that Fulci is honest about the sleaze. Compare this to let's say the recent MURDER SET PIECES, which is very sleazy but almost totally worthless. It's so self-conscious about the fact that it's horrific and sleazy, it just doesn't work. It's not real sleaze. NEW YORK RIPPER is real 42nd Ave sleaze.

What makes NEW YORK RIPPER unique among the plethora of sleazy films made then and today is the way it's filmed. In scope, garish colors, grimy settings, very gloomy and harsh. I love the scenes shot in the subway or around other parts of a depressed NY city. The acting is not really good but the level of acting is what you expect from these kind of films. It's remarkably violent towards women. Truly appalling. But then after the stunningly blunt ending, everything is suddenly redeemed. Though most of the violence is directed towards women, the sleaze centers around women and men, including a couple having live sex in front of an audience, horny thugs, a nymphomaniac housewife who tries to sleep around with any guy, including the thugs and a hunky psycho who is thought to be the killer, and there's a gay character who's the most likable character in the whole film.

I can't say that I like this Fulci flick. NEW YORK RIPPER is not something someone likes per se. It's just too harsh to attach any affection to it. But I'm fascinated about it and that's why I give it an 8. There are very few films that can claim to be something that will never be topped and because of our PC times and depending of what's in store in the near future, it's almost guaranteed that NEW YORK RIPPER will never be topped as far as the sleaze factor is concern.

I'm giving this movie 3 STARS. It may not deserve it. It is, EVEN IN MY OPINION, truly ghastly. The violence is often misogynist, and not lightly, not innocently. Beautiful naked women don't swim in red paint to amuse us in THE NEW YORK RIPPER. There is nothing to give us the impression that the violence is ever less than mean spirited. Well, except for the killer's voice bearing a resounding likeness to a certain iconic cartoon character, but this too, is most likely the exception proving the rule. There is also something quite sad behind all this cruelty. Trouble is, the violence is so unusually bitter, that it may simultaneously be hurting the films ability to get it's deeper, negative connotations across. One cannot imagine that an artist, of Fulci's caliber, would simply produce something this horrible, for the sake of being horrible. Instead, I propose, there is something more here, something that stays with you. Subversion, perversion, deep hatred, a mirror image of the Director's earlier film, intimations of a diseased city, snapshots of 42nd St, at it's worst...Then, of course, there's the killer, stabbing along as he furiously quacks like Donald Duck. Yes, Donald Duck. At times, you can't help but find it's morbidity, haunting, even poetic. Funny? Only in the blackest way imaginable. I realize that it sounds crazy, to assign depth to such a sleaze fest, but I get the impression there is something important going on here. I can't figure AND digest it. Maybe if it could be seen where and when it was made, at the infamous Times Square Splatterhouses of it's NYC namesake? There is of course the reference to Fulci's earlier DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING to consider, and there are subplots about disabled children and prostitution. I don't think I want to spread it out much more than that. Technically the dub isn't the best, but that was the Italian model at this time. The acting isn't the greatest and I'm not always sure the casting decisions were well made either. The cinematography is understated. It is one of Fulci's stronger stylistic pieces, I think. I agree with another reviewer who took the time to describe it's Noirish tone and feel. Indeed, you'll be hard pressed to like a single character. It's just overall, very, very dark. Which is really saying something, coming from me. I can't think of many other films I would say this about, or feel that way about. This is a cruel film. It may be too much for some, but it seems that, maybe that lump I get, in the back of my throat, from watching this; I feel like, maybe that lump is indicative of something brilliant going on.

A woman-hating serial killer is going around New York carving up women and leaving the police strange phone calls as Donald Duck.

Another Fulci gorefest that has even less of a plot than usual. Some of his set pieces have panache, but it can't make up for an unpleasant script where not much happens besides gory murders. Even the final killer reveal is a disappointment.

Lurid and nasty yet strangely engrossing, 'The New York Ripper' contained enough stomach-churning violence for it to be banned in the UK for two decades...

It's about a razor-slashing maniac who targets sexually active young women while taunting the police with a deranged Donald Duck voice imitation. And it sends us into the sleazy underbelly of New York.

Lucio Fulci, known for his extreme gore, shows more skill here as a filmmaker. He expertly uses extreme close-ups, whether it's by emphasising the anguished realisation in a victim's eyes or forcing us to endure each flesh-tearing attack by filling the frame with blood, the Italian director certainly knows what he's doing in order to achieve the desired effect - and/or gasp.

It's a mean, bizarre, unrelentingly gruesome horror thriller, but it's well-filmed throughout and maintains a vicious intensity in its atmosphere.

8/10

Boobs, blood and some pretty intense gore for it's time. The nice part is that with all that there is also a storyline that is fun to follow. The reason for the duck voice was a great way to tie it all up.

This film is so ducked up

As a giallo, it's not bad. The acting is serviceable. There are some truly suspenseful sequences. However, its misogynism is so over-the-top. And its nihilism is quite repulsive. Its disturbing but not in a good way. I would skip this one.