10. New York Ripper (1982)
REPRESENTING ITALY Yes, I have talked about the New York Ripper quite a bit, but whenever it comes to this article - which is a partial discussion about sleazy Italian movies - it is impossible not to mention New York Ripper which is so sleazy, it is off the chart. You simply cannot have a list on Italian sleaze without New York Ripper. There is a serial killer running loose in New York. This particularly sleazy killer's modus operandi is to stab young girls and young women in the crotch and then phone the police bragging about his exploits in a Donald Duck voice. There is a depraved woman who goes to sex shows and openly masturbates to them and who also allows a teenage boy to have toe sex with her (I'm not making this up!) - quite what she has to do with the plot, I do not know. Director Lucio Fulci supplies plenty of red herrings and the actual denouement of who the killer is and why he did what he did is quite downbeat and depressing. Not that it mitigates the sleaze factor of the film which remains on 'intense' the whole way through. Fulci's camera lingers on the depravity a bit too much for my liking. He positively wallows in perversion in this film. Young women's bodies are nothing but a playground for the killer to slice and dice. The scene where the killer ties up, gags and then slices the detective's young prostitute girlfriend with a razor is exceptionally nasty. Fulci always denied charges of misogyny but New York Ripper positively wallows in it. Crotch stabbings show us what Fulci thought of women. However, the sleaziness is quite compelling if you are able to sit through all the hatred towards women. But the Donald Duck voiced killer is grating on the nerves.