Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper might not have been on the DPP's "official" list of video nasties, but it more or less counts as one regardless. When it was originally released and submitted to the BBFC in 1984, it not only got rejected for classification outright, but to make sure that it had absolutely no chance of depraving and/or corrupting even a single UK soul, it was actually given a police escort out of the country. The BBFC was really afraid of this film - but were they justified?
The film's plot is pretty simple. There's a killer roaming New York City, targetting women that the killer believes "deserve" to die - the "crimes" they have committed to deserve this fate range from petty vandalism to having an adventurous sex life to performing in a live sex show. One police detective is determined to catch the killer, but his prostitute girlfriend finds herself in danger because of this.
Oh, and the killer talks like a cartoon duck, complete with quacking. Because apparently the surrealism needed to be taken up to 11.
Okay, let's deal with the elephant in the room first. The most controversial aspect of The New York Ripper is the - perceived or otherwise - misogyny in the film. We've seen films that have had this accusation levelled at them before - Tenebrae and The House on the Edge of the Park being two examples - but in both of those cases we weren't being encouraged to agree with the killer. Granted, that's not exactly the case in The New York Ripper either, but the general air of the film is markedly different and certainly feels as though we're being encouraged to somehow "judge" the victims as having somehow "asked for" their murders. One particular scene involving a "toe-job" of quite dubious consent is particularly uncomfortable to watch and seems to be there just to give the audience a cheap thrill in watching it and to show us how "perverted" a future victim is. Even later on, when the detective is breaking the news of her murder to her grieving husband, he all but states outright that if she hadn't behaved the way she had, she would still be alive.
So is The New York Ripper misogynist? Ehhh... Honestly, I'd say it falls on that very fine line between misogyny and prurient interest. During the course of the film, just about every character gets looked down upon because of their extra-curricular activities. At one point, the film even seems to try to suggest a gay man as a suspect because he is gay (because we all know how much all gay men hate women /sarcasm). The fact that this prurient gaze falls on women who end up getting killed most of the film is just a very unfortunate coincidence (because the Ripper is targetting women). That's not to say that there isn't a lot of moments of misogyny in the film, just that they weren't put there for the direct purpose of hating on women.
The other reason The New York Ripper is so notorious (and most likely the main reason it got its nice police escort out of the UK back then) is its gore and violence inflicted against the female victims. When the tamest death scene you see is a woman trapped in a car being slashed to death, you know you're watching a film not afraid to show you extremes. In fact, even now the film's most notorious scene, where a bound woman is tortured and sliced up with a razor blade, complete with a bisected nipple, is still cut from all UK versions of the film (the BBFC have a real issue with the sight of blood on breasts).
When you take away the movie's controversies, however, what are you left with? Well, in this case a sadly mediocre plot, unlikable and boring characters and plot holes you could drive a taxi through. The film has a terrible habit of "telling" rather than "showing", so we'll suddenly have a character comment on something that apparently happened between one scene and another that probably would have been good to see, but we don't even know how much time has passed (at one point apparently "5-6 weeks" passes between scenes, but we get no indications whatsoever about this until someone says so). When people aren't getting killed the scenes are pretty dull as well. All in all, The New York Ripper is a film that highlights how notoriety can lift a film higher than it has any right to be.
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