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

Fulci's 1982 giallo, THE NEW YORK RIPPER (original title Lo squartatore di New York),is an ultra-sleazy slice of film-making in which the director takes his bloodshed and directs it almost exclusively towards women in an odyssey of misogyny and violence. It's a film that sees Lieutenant Williams (an American character played by British TV star Jack Hedley) on the trail of a mysterious killer targeting beautiful young women and slicing them up with knives and razors. There are ten million suspects in the city, so Lt. Williams has his work cut out on this one.

Made at the tail-end of Fulci's gore period, THE NEW YORK RIPPER is a dark and sleazy work which takes violence to a new level; although I love his supernatural gore movies, this film's sexual violence crosses the line for me and I had to look away in some scenes. Aside from the violence, it does feel quite slimly-plotted, another film where the police do very little aside from providing a central protagonist character. The 'Donald Duck' voice adds an unintentionally hilarious aspect to the proceedings, so you're laughing one moment and repulsed the next, although Fulci would have done well to cut out the padded 'erotic' scenes, like the bit with the woman getting pleasured in a bar which seems to go on forever and adds nothing to the plot.

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")