Nueva York, ciudad del terror

Good film that doesn't get the same amount of respect as other Ferrara movies. Fear City(1984) is a precusor to Spike Lee's Summer of Sam(1999). The character Matt Rossei is the typical Ferrara person who is guilt ridden and is continously searching for the pain relieving rewards of redemption. Influenced heavily by Maniac(1980), New York Ripper(1982), and The Godfather(1972). Like most of Abel Ferrara's films, Fear City(1984) was horribly cut to prevent it from getting an X rating. The opening attack is reminscent of the first attack of Thana in Ms. 45(1981). Melenie Griffith has never before or since looked and acted with an erotic and sexy quality like she does in Fear City(1984).

A psycho killer is slashing beautiful strippers in New York.Tom Berenger tries to stop him!"Fear City" is pretty good,but it's obvious that scenes of violence were heavily cut.It's really a shame,I'd love to see an uncut version.The urban setting of New York and the whole story reminds me a little bit "Maniac"(1980)and "The New York Ripper"(1982).There's plenty of sleaze and tons of nudity(even Melanie Griffith is naked in a couple of scenes!).So if you like Abel Ferrara movies("Ms 45","Driller Killer")check out this vastly underrated film.

Although FEAR CITY is provocatively titillating, and sex drenched, it really never manages to seduce. However, the film does a remarkable job of capturing the essence of early 80's tawdry 42nd St. Midtown Manhattan (Pre-Disneyfication). And, the film boasts a cavalcade of 80's talent; Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Melanie Griffith, and Rae Dawn Chong. Although director Able Ferrara was throttled by too many producers, he has still managed to craft a fairly interesting picture. What makes FEAR CITY slightly unusual is the treatment of the killer. In most films of this nature, the primary aim is to identify and demonstrate the Evil Doer's, Means, Motive, and Opportunity. However, in FEAR CITY Ferrara only shows the manifestation of the killer's violence, and nearly nothing is divulged of his character or motivation. The killer is shown as a mere cipher, and such a depiction is more in keeping with the Horror Genre rather than Detective Fiction. FEAR CITY is certainly not a great film, or even one of Able Ferrar's better efforts, but it is still worthy of a look.

Abel Ferrara has definitely done better things in his life. But I think this is just the uneasy transition point between the early gritty horror of Ms. 45 and the later high gloss of "King of New York." There are many points at which Ferara has rarely been as outrageous as such as the stabbing of a stripper montaged together with a sexy strip routine. I also think he deserves points for putting half naked women in almost every scene.

But the martial arts fighting serial killer was utterly ridiculous and in the ending fighht scene I didn't see why he had to be so tough if his aim in life was to beat up women half his size and weight.., This was made for cable by the way, they just decided not to air it.

This Abel Ferrara has some weaker aspects to it, however it also boasts some pretty impressive things within it. Honestly as far as these type of 1980's films go, this one is far superior in many ways to the average. The IMDb rating here on this film is crazy really. It does have some problems this film, for sure. As said however, when compared to the average police crime thriller of the time, this one really does have many great things going for it. Overall, it is a pretty good film, and well worth a watch for many.

There also may be many different opinions on how good the film is, because there actually is a number of differently cut versions out there. Many of them with a lot of censorship. So if you do have interest in seeing this, definitely make sure you're going with a version that is not too heavily cut. Apparently even the US R Rated version does contain some extra edits, but not as much as many other versions. To my knowledge only the Dutch and Greek video versions are fully uncut.

7/10.