The New York Ripper

The New York Ripper
Italian theatrical release poster by Enzo Sciotti
Directed by	Lucio Fulci
Produced by	Fabrizio De Angelis
Screenplay by	Lucio Fulci Gianfranco Clerici Vincenzo Mannino Dardano Sacchetti
Story by	Lucio Fulci Gianfranco Clerici Vincenzo Mannino
Starring	Jack Hedley Almanta Suska (as Almanta Keller) Howard Ross Andrea Occhipinti (as Andrew Painter) Paolo Malco Alexandra Delli Colli
Music by	Francesco De Masi
Cinematography	Luigi Kuveiller
Edited by	Vincenzo Tomassi
Production company	Fulvia Film
Release date	4 March 1982
Running time	91 minutes 93 minutes (US director's cut)
Country	Italy
Language	Italian English dub
Box office	€414,859,000 (Italy)

The New York Ripper (Italian: Lo squartatore di New York) is a 1982 Italian giallo film directed and co-written by Lucio Fulci. The film score was written by Francesco De Masi. The film was banned in many countries or released as an "adults-only" movie after heavy editing. Whilst most of Lucio Fulci's other films have been released uncut in the United Kingdom, The New York Ripper remains censored to this day, even for its 2011 DVD and Blu-ray releases.

An old man is walking his dog in New York City when the dog retrieves a decomposed human hand. It is identified by the police as belonging to Ann-Lynne, a local prostitute. Lieutenant Fred Williams (Jack Hedley), the burned-out police detective investigating the murder, interviews the young woman's nosy and obnoxious landlady, Mrs. Weissburger (Babette New), who tells him that during her daily spying and eavesdropping on her tenants, she overheard the girl last week over the phone arranging to meet a man who spoke with a strange, duck-like voice.

Meanwhile, a young woman (Cinzia de Ponti) rides her bicycle down Manhattan to the Staten Island Ferry at Battery Park. After an altercation with a boorish motorist driving a red Volkswagen, whose car she accidentally scratched riding her bicycle, she rides onto the boat with the man yelling misogynist slurs at her. When the ferry is underway, the young woman sneaks into the car-bay and begins vandalizing the man's car, but she is interrupted by an unseen figure. Introducing herself as Rosie, she tries to engage the man in a conversation. But the figure adopts a grotesque 'Donald Duck' voice and brutally murders her with a switchblade, slashing open her right breast and stabbing in the lower abdomen and disemboweling her, then leaving her body to be discovered when the ferry docks at Staten Island. At the morgue, Lt. Williams talks to Barry Jones the pathologist (Giordano Falzoni), who believes he recognizes the "style" of the killing and links it to Ann-Lynne, as well as a similar case in Harlem the previous month.

Having informed the press that a serial killer is at large, Williams is visited at the station by New York's chief of police (Lucio Fulci). Williams' skeptical superior tells him not to make any further public announcements about the case to avoid starting a city-wide panic. Soon after the police chief leaves, Williams is notified that a man "sounding like a duck" phoned while he was out at the press conference wanting to speak with him. Williams travels to Columbia University where he meets with a brilliant young psychotherapy professor named Dr. Paul Davis (Paolo Malco) for help in creating a profile of the killer.