THE NEW YORK RIPPER (1982)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *irony*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Since the rise of the psycho-killer subgenre in the 1960s-- some history of which I covered in this essay-series-- there have been numerous works in the specific subgenre-of-the-subgenre, which I will dub the "sleaze psycho-killer." In this sub-subgenre, the killer is always located in an urban environment, and his activities bring both the killer and anyone pursuing him to delve in the seamy side of city life.

Most of the sleaze-psychos aren't especially well made. Hitchcock's FRENZY is the best known in this category, but as my review should make clear, I found the 1972 movie one of the least compelling works from the Master of Suspense. America and Italy seem to have produced more sleaze-psychos than any other country, and few are noteworthy even from a purely technical standpoint.

Though I've never been a Lucio Fulci fan, NEW YORK RIPPER justifies the director's claim that he was seeking to emulate the work of Hitchcock, at least in the technical sense. RIPPER is a hard film to watch. Not only do its events take place in a vile version of New York, almost destitute of any goodness, the titular psycho preys upon helpless women with an ugly, bloody violence far removed from the artful assaults of Fulci's countryman Dario Argento. And yet RIPPER is technically better than the majority of sleaze-psycho films, and certainly better than FRENZY.

Aging, seen-it-all cop Williams (Jack Hedley) investigates the grotesque killing of a young model, and soon the New York Ripper piles up more bodies in his rage against pretty women. Eventually some witnesses claim that the killer is missing two fingers and that he is heard to speak in a falsetto Donald Duck-voice, and he even has some inside info on Williams, giving the cop an insolent call while the policeman's in bed with a working girl. Concerned by the escalating violence, Williams engages a psychologist to help profile the madman. Though the psychologist does render some aid during the narrative, he makes clear that he will only do so if the police pay him adequately-- one of many references to the dog-eat-dog nature of all levels of New York society.

Fulci introduces a number of potential targets and builds suspense as to which may be the Ripper's next victim. Of these female targets, only Fay (Almanta Suska) survives an attack from the Ripper, and so she becomes the linchpin of Williams' investigation. She's also the only female character who learns the psycho's true identity and manages to deal him a near fatal wound, though admittedly she has to be saved in the end by Williams. But not too many Hitchcock heroines get even that much agency in terms of defending themselves, excepting Grace Kelly in DIAL M FOR MURDER and a tiny number of others.

Most sleaze-psycho directors produce unremarkable visuals and practically exhaust themselves in putting together scenes of sex, violence, or of the two combined. But Fulci makes mundane scenes in the police department look just as well planned as his gross-out moments. RIPPER's main weakness is that the script doesn't really work out much of a psychology for its psycho. I did guess correctly that his affectation of a cartoon-duck voice had something to do with a struggle between the world of childish innocence and the world of mature experience. But Fulci doesn't really have a handle on the former, since RIPPER is almost entirely devoted to the horrors of New York existence. Along with Hitchcock's rural psycho-killer film-- the one that gave the subgenre its name-- NEW YORK RIPPER falls squarely into the mythos of the irony.