5. Torturing/Killing The Prostitute - New York Ripper (1982)
No stranger to violence, Lucio Fulci had three films on the British Video Nasties list in the 1980s: Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979), The Beyond (1981) and The House By The Cemetery (1981). New York Ripper trumps them all - after being denied a cinema certificate by the BBFC, the print was escorted out of the country by Her Majestys Constabulary. In 80s New York lurks a maniac who likes to slash young girls to death and slash them he does knives, razors and broken bottles are all employed. Fulci, however, saves the nastiest death for Daniela Doria, who has the distinction of dying unpleasantly in three of his other films: after vomiting up her internal organs in City Of The Living Dead, she was stabbed through the back of the head in The House By The Cemetery and asphyxiated in The Black Cat. In New York Ripper, shes tied naked to a bed by the killer, who in an unnecessarily protracted sequence tortures her with a razor blade before slashing her eye and nipple. If ever a scene deserved the Its Only A Movie tagline, its this one.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
