The New York Ripper

A crazed lunatic killer is on the prowl in New York City killing beautiful women.

The Big Apple is turning crimson red with the carnage from this manic psychopath who butchers women in the most brutal fashion while quacking manically like a duck. The intensity of the madness reminds one of Andy Robinson's crazed Scorpio in Dirty Harry (1971).

The prelude to the opening credits, shows an elderly man walking his dog in some wasteland beneath a bridge. The dog is sent scurrying into the bushes for a stick, yet returns with a decomposing hand. It is at this point that the credits roll over the image of the dog with the decomposing hand in its mouth, the image remains on screen for the entire credits... this set's the scene for the rest of the film, the camera never hides no matter how harrowing the image.

The film is relentlessly nihilistic and the humour is exceedingly black and cynical. Lieutenant Williams (Hedley) is the weary, 'seen it all before' detective who is assigned the case of identifying the killer in a city of 10 million inhabitants. He contacts psychotherapy professor Doctor Davis (Malco) for help in tracing the murderer. The victims are mounting. A young cyclist has been slain on the Staten Island ferry, a sex show performer brutally murdered with a broken bottle and a hedonistic wealthy wife (Delli Colli)of an 'open' marriage is stabbed to death, after a severe S&M session.

The killer then contacts Lt. Williams and dedicates a killing to him... The following scene of the killer dissecting the victim's face, eye and breast with a razor blade is admittedly, a tour de force of extreme horror, rarely seen in these patriarchal times. In true giallo style, director Fulci manipulates things so that we continually make incorrect assumptions about the characters, the case reaches a dramatic conclusion in the final ten minutes as the killer's identity is finally revealed.