The New York Ripper
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The New York Ripper, original title Lo squartatore di New York, is a 1982 film directed and co-written by Lucio Fulci. An example of the giallo genre of Italian horror/suspense movies, a genre known for graphic violence and explicit gore and sexuality, this film was banned in many countries or released as an "adults-only" movie after heavy editing.
The plot revolves around a New York City detective's search for a serial killer. The killer (who speaks, bizarrely enough, in a Donald Duck-esque voice) leaves a series of clues for the detective and his temporary partner, a psychologist enlisted to create a profile of the killer.
The film has had many detractors, partly due to the fact that two of Fulci's longtime collaborators, cinematographer Sergio Salvati and composer Fabio Frizzi, were not present. The film is also criticized for being extremely graphic, even by the standards of the horror genre. The explicit gore, coupled with the fact that all of the killer's victims are female, has led to criticism that the film is misogynistic. But admirers of the film, such as Stephen Thrower, author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci (FAB Press, 1999), consider it to be Fulci's last great film and cite the plot's thematically ambiguous revelations as evidence that it is a layered work of profound pessimism as opposed to mere misogyny.
