Fear City

Fear City (1984)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Abel Ferrara

Starring: Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Scalia, Melanie Griffith, Michael V. Gazzo

From: Zupnik-Curtis Productions

Here’s an obscure movie with a nice cast that’s been talked about on niche messageboard threads for awhile now. It also is VERY sleazy and originally 20th Century Fox was going to release it but they dropped it due to how sleazy it was, and it got a minor release instead. Put in the fact that I just saw it earlier in the week on IFC HD (yep, I’m still getting the Showtime stations for free, and I have no idea why) and it caused me to change things around and what I referenced the last time as the movie I was going to review… it’s pushed back and I’ll talk about this movie instead.

A few days ago I was flipping around the channels and I saw that this movie was on the Independent Film Channel, and as I get that channel in HD too, I watched it in that format, and as I have a feeling that this will never be on Blu-Ray (I’d love for it to be a so far unreleased unrated version, but just in its R-rated version I doubt it will be in that format), I was happy to see it in 1080i.

The movie concerns a “talent agency” (re: place that sends out strippers to clubs in sleazy Times Square, back before it was cleaned up) who ends up having some of its girls attacked/murdered by a karate-using serial attacker who looks like Mark Wahlberg playing Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights playing Dirk’s Brock Landers porno character. I mean, they dress similar and both use martial arts. That was a good comparison that I stole from elsewhere. Unlike Mr. Landers, though, this unnamed character slashes his victims with a razor and with the first girl, he cut off two of her fingers with shears. Yep, it’s this kind of film.

One of the leaders of that talent agency is Rossi (Berenger), an ex-boxer. We’re reminded often that he’s an ex-boxer due to his killing of his opponent in the ring during one fight. Also looking to bring down this villain is cop Al Wheeler (Williams), who hates strip clubs and the talent agency that gives them the girls. You get to hear Billy Dee utter quite a few ethnic slurs, mainly against Italians. Rossi also has to deal with his girl Loretta (Griffith) who is the most popular “lady” in the area.

Like I’ve said, this is a really sleazy movie. You get to see quite a bit of Griffith nudity, and it’s not a body double. This was a surprise to me… but a pleasant surprise! You also get a lot of topless girls, which wasn’t a surprise to me. It’s pretty dark and dreary, so some comedic lines from Gazzo were sorely needed. Not to be crude here, but I’ll mention the funniest one, as it’s popular on said messageboard. Referring to an ugly stripper that he was given by the agency, he stated, “She’s so ugly she hurts my eyes! She couldn’t give a hard-on to a rapist!” To be perfectly honest, she was rather scary-looking…

As for the movie overall, like I said it’s pretty dark and dreary. It’s not boring at all, but for whatever reasons it doesn’t fully come together. I briefly mentioned a similar movie called Vice Squad recently. I didn’t review that but I’ll say that it was better. I know that some have critiqued the villain in this movie as not being much at all. I mean, not only was he never named in the film, but he wasn’t even listed in the credits and literally, I can’t find any site online that definitely states what his name is! No kidding. I don’t think he was as bad as some people think, but aside from stating that he’s against trashy women and that’s why he’s attacking them, he’s just there, and him doing martial arts is just a quirk. Vice Squad’s Ramrod, though, is definitely more menacing, charismatic, and terrifying. So, this movie isn't too shabby but Vice Squad is the better motion picture in the "crazy person targeting seedy women" genre, even if that movie doesn't have a boxing vs. martial arts showdown in the finale like this does.

I have to admit that at least the opening-and closing-credits song is pretty catchy and also fits well for the movie. It's David Johansen's New York Doll.

I'll be back Thursday night for one least review in September.