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A serial killer is at large in New York. His penchant is
for cutting-up beautiful young women. On his trail is a police
inspector who is told by a couple of phone witnesses that
he speaks like a duck. Subsequent taunting phone calls received
by the inspector confirm this. An intended victim survives
to tell the police about a man who is missing two fingers,
who accosted her on the subway, but she was actually attacked
after that incident and identifies the wrong person. When
the man she identified is dragged from the water, having been
dead for some time, it means he couldn't have been the killer.
The inspector is back to square one. Then the killer makes
another attempt on the victim who survived, and the pieces
begin to come together...
New
York Ripper is the first of many violent horror and exploitation
films to be released by Shameless Screen Entertainment. It
was previously banned and the prints ordered out of the country
by the BBFC.
In my opinion it seems a strange marketing strategy to attempt
to capture a retail audience of perverted sex and extreme
violence mongers, with descriptions like vile and shocking,
and quotes such as "The sickest movie ever made!"
As
with Phantom
of Death, another early Shameless release,
I expected to hate this film, but was rather pleasantly surprised.
The only really gruesome scene is the one in which a secured
victim is seen to be sliced with a razor blade from the forehead
and down through one eye. All other set pieces are no worse
than many other horror films, such as a Friday
the 13th flick or John Carpenter's The Thing,
also released in 1982. Most of the victims are quickly dispatched
(at least on-screen) and the killer is not seen in the same
frame until the end of the movie. Perhaps it's just me, but
scenes of a straight kill are considerably less disturbing
than those depicting rape or prolonged torture, and luckily
they are not present in this film.
There
is more of a 1970s feel at play here, with a jazzy McCloud
or The Streets of San Francisco soundtrack which proves
curiously innocuous during the murder scenes, when you might
normally expect menacing or at least creepy music. However,
the notion of the killer speaking like a duck is intriguing
and proves effective, enhancing the moments when the psychopath
lets go. This works well as a murder mystery, suspects mounting
up along the way before being whittled down as their stories
are played out. I thought the killer might be Daffy Duck or
The Penguin from Batman but, all joking aside, was
relieved to discover there was a valid reason for the voice
which also ties-in with the motive for the killings.
The
violence of the murder scenes is not what should be emphasised
in the marketing blurb, because it is merely an aside to a
relatively good plot-driven murder mystery. This is New
York Ripper's first excursion on to DVD in the UK and,
like Phantom of Death, is certainly worth a look.
Ty
Power
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