NEW YORK RIPPER (1981)
Starring Jack Hedley and Almanta Keller
Actually a pretty decent sleaze-fest from Fucli. I originally saw the awful, cut version of this film, which wasn't presented in the original widescreen. It was horrible. Like any Fulci movie, it needs to be seen in the Cinemascope format the director made it in.
That said, the uncut version of the film is decent, but not spectacular. Like many of Fulci's films, it lacks a clear protagonist. But what it lacks in plot it makes up for in raw sleaze.
In New York City, a killer who speaks like a duck and is missing two fingers from his right hand is slashing young women. Police are baffled by the murders. Meanwhile, a strange but beautiful rich woman is cruising bars looking for working class guys to have her kinky kicks with. Another young woman who barely survived an attack by the murderer has a dream that appears to implicate her boyfriend, played by Andrea Occhipini of "A Blade in the Dark." It all ends with a fairly clever twist ending and one of the better gore effects seen in a Fulci movie.
The film probably could have been a hit, but was apparently banned in enough places that it didn't do well. It isn't as extreme as Fulci's best film, "Zombie," or as impressive in the special effects department as his "House by the Cemetery," but as early 1980s trash goes, it's pretty effective. Anchor Bay did a marvelous job remastering it for DVD.