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Sunday, May 20, 2018

"The New York Ripper" - It's All 80s, Baby

"The New York Ripper", available on Amazon Prime as of the time of this writing, is a movie that will leave you saying, "What the F**K were they smoking back in the 80s?"  It's a pretty disgusting movie, but I say that as someone who realizes that this was the point.  There's all of the things that made bloody independent movies stand out way back when.  Blood, torture, nudity and a bit of a mystery.  The only thing really wrong with the movie is the killer's tell tale "Quacking".  The story seems to treat it fairly seriously, but I can't help but think that it was put in to disrupt the terror and shocking gore just enough to get past the censors.  It didn't work in some countries, apparently.

I say the movie has an 80s vibe, but really, it's a remnant of the growing gore industry of the 70s.  By the mid 80s gore was getting so over the top that it was becoming comedic.

If you're a fan of Lucio Fulci, you'll know what to expect.  Take a look at this NOT SAFE FOR WORK trailer for a small clue as to what you'll see.


There's plenty of blood and a few kills that will make you wonder how they pulled it off.  Overall the F/X are pretty solid, especially for the day.  There is one scene with a razor blade that made even me squirm a bit, but then a close up of the blood revealed the tell tale sugary crystals of syrup.  I guess the victim could have had really high blood sugar.

There is a side story of a rich woman who hangs out in the seedy side of town in her Porsche.  The role is played wonderfully by Alexandra Delli Colli.  It seems exploitive and unnecessary at first, but leads to one of the more suspenseful moments in the movie.

This is a good one for retro gore fans.  Might be fun to watch with someone who has only seen recent horror films just to watch them squirm at the old school F/X.  A bit of distracting voice dubbing, but nothing unusual for the time period it was shot in.


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