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Fear City<\/strong>\u00a0 (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aquarius Releasing\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong graphic violence, nudity and strong sexual content throughout, drugs, sleaze)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Abel Ferrara\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nicholas St. John\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dick Halligan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Lemmo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 16, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Scalia, Melanie Griffith, Rossano Brazzi, Rae Dawn Chong, Joe Santos, Michael V. Gazzo, Jan Murray, Ola Ray, Maria Conchita, Janet Julian, Daniel Faraldo, John Foster, Neil Clifford (uncredited), Emilia Lesniak, Nina Jones, Frank Ronzio, Juan Fernandez.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Abel Ferrara\u2019s Fear City<\/strong> is a sleaze classic! The director takes us into even seedier territory than his previous efforts Driller Killer and Ms. 45 with this thriller about a psychopath preying on strippers in pre-Giuliani Times Square. This was when the streets were still lined with porno shops, strip clubs and XXX-rated movie theaters. Crime was at an all-time high and morale was low. It\u2019s hardly what one would call paradise, but it\u2019s the perfect setting for a sleazy, dirty-minded action-thriller.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Fear City<\/strong> never opened in Philadelphia. I was aware of its existence due to my homeroom teacher\u2019s fondness for the New York Times. I would peruse the movie page every Friday to see what was playing at NY theaters that hadn\u2019t come to Philly yet, assuming it would at all. I didn\u2019t get to see it until November \u201985 when I rented it from West Coast Video one Friday night. I was hooked from the moment \u201cNew York Doll\u2019 (by Joe Delia and David Johansen) started playing over the opening credits montage of Times Square and half-naked strippers performing in seedy clubs. The rest of Ferrara\u2019s film doesn\u2019t disappoint either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Somebody is slashing up strippers that work out of the Starlite Talent Agency run by Matt Rossi (Berenger, Someone to Watch Over Me) and Nicky Parzeno (Scalia, Hollywood Beat), a couple of guys with serious Mafia connections. In addition, Rossi is a retired boxer still suffering from guilt over killing an opponent in the ring. The killer, played by Neil Clifford of Class of 1984, is one of those mute whack jobs who\u2019s an expert at martial arts and human anatomy, making him deadly and extremely dangerous.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0It\u2019s initially thought that the attacks are directed at Rossi, possibly by his main competitor Goldstein (comedian Murray). The investigating detective, Wheeler (Williams, Nighthawks), hates Rossi and demands that he come up with ideas as to who\u2019s behind the killings. The girls are understandably frightened, especially Rossi\u2019s ex Loretta (Griffith, Body Double), a bisexual drug addict whose lover (Chong, Commando) was the killer\u2019s second victim. In the end, it\u2019s going to be Rossi that hits the streets and alleyways to track down the unnamed killer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I\u2019ll concede that Fear City<\/strong> isn\u2019t as great as Ms. 45; it doesn\u2019t succeed on the same emotional level as it doesn\u2019t give you a victim with whom you can sympathize. This is more of a straight-up thriller, kind of like Vice Squad with an East Coast setting. I still think it\u2019s awesome because it takes you on a journey through a world of sleaze. It shows 42nd<\/sup> Street in all its early 80s squalid glory with the pushers, perverts, sleazy club owners, mobsters and other shady types that populated the area at the time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0In his movies, Ferrara shows a great understanding of atmosphere and how to use it to fullest advantage. Not all of his films are great (or particularly good), but they all have this distinctive visual palette that makes them unforgettable. James Lemmo\u2019s cinematography perfectly suits the material. It\u2019s as flashy as the story is trashy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The cast is pretty cool and amazing. Italian actor Rossano Brazzi (The Final Conflict) shows up as a Mafia don who prompts Rossi to take definitive action against the psycho. Michael V. Gazzo (The Godfather Part II) plays a strip club owner losing money because of the killings. Ola Ray (from Michael Jackson\u2019s Thriller video) and Maria Conchita (Moscow on the Hudson) play a couple of victims.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0As a leading man, Berenger does a pretty good job even though his character fails to come off as complex as Ferrara intended. Williams glowers as the upright cop disgusted by the sleaze and slime he\u2019s forced to wade through every night. He often uses racial slurs to describe the gangster-types he\u2019s forced to deal with. Griffith was still young and hot when she made Fear City<\/strong>. She\u2019s not all great an actress, but she gives it her all here as a stripper undergoing an emotional breakdown in trying to keep her addiction in check in the face of tragedy and danger.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The music in Fear City<\/strong> is also great; it perfectly fits both tone and setting. The story is reasonably suspenseful and there\u2019s a decent amount of bloody violence. The attack on Chong on a subway platform is especially brutal as is the alleyway attack on Ray (the first victim). The climactic fight between Rossi (the boxer) and the kung fu killer is cool.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The narrative isn\u2019t always as smooth as it should be. In terms of filmmaking, Fear City<\/strong> is hardly a perfect example. But as a grindhouse picture, it\u2019s exceptional. It has better production values than most B-level exploitation flicks. It\u2019s sleazy, seedy and violent. It features a lot of nudity (boobs mainly) and suggestive dancing. There are a couple of hot lesbian scenes (kissing). It\u2019s exactly the kind of movie that\u2019s made to be seen at dirty grindhouse theaters on 42nd<\/sup> Street. I think it\u2019s freaking awesome!<\/p>\r\n Fear City\u00a0 (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aquarius Releasing\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong graphic violence, nudity and strong sexual content throughout, drugs, sleaze)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Abel Ferrara\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nicholas St. John\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dick Halligan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Lemmo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 16, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Scalia, Melanie Griffith, Rossano Brazzi, Rae Dawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fear-City-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/1134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Fear-City-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C920&ssl=1\")
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