Fear City Three Star Blu Ray Review

The first foray into studio filmmaking for exploitation movie director Abel Ferrara and his screenwriter Nicolas St John Fear City stars Tom Berenger (Matt) & Jack Scalia (Nicky) as booking agents for strippers who perform across New York’s Exotic Dancing clubs; both men deal with certain “connected” people who run the city’s seedy night time economy.

But when the agencies talent played by Melanie Griffith, Maria Conchita Alonso and Quest For Fire’s Rae Dawn Chong are attacked, maimed and murdered by the hoodie-wearing Kung Fu Fighting Psychopath Pazzo (played by John Foster in his only screen role) the two guys who can handle themselves must team up to track down the slasher killer while dealing with Billy Dee Williams NYPD detective Wheeler who is breathing down their necks.

Abel Ferrara began his directing working on short films, the adult movie Nine Lives Of A Wet Pussy in which Abel also “acted” under the synonym of Jimmy Laine a credit that he would also use on his next film the Horror Black Comedy The Driller Killer which became a core celeb of the Video Nasty scandal in the UK purely because of its attention seeking VHS cover which lead to Ms.45 starring the late Zoe Lund as a mute woman who is out for revenge after several brutal attacks then onto this film that was set be distributed by 20th Century Fox until the studio sold it to indie Distributor Aquarius.

Fear City serves as a violent action slasher movie that has some gore moments involving the women that also gives the audience the requisite amount of T&A in the stripping sequences but it feels watered down it’s no wonder Abel doesn’t have any fondness for this film.

The talent behind the camera particularly the cinematography from James Lemmo who’s credits includes five movies with William Lustig and the underrated 80s slasher Madman who captures the sleaziness of 42nd Street long before it became sanitised in the 90s when corporations bulldozed their way onto the strip. 

When it comes to the acting the cast does have a presence Berenger and Scalia work well together alongside a more than capable supporting cast that includes the Oscar-nominated actor/playwright Micheal V Gazzo & South Pacific’s Rossano Brazzi.

This release from 101 Films presents Fear City in its theatrical cut which runs at 95 minutes and the uncut version which is two minutes longer with some extra steamy moments alongside an extended trailer, a booklet of essays & a fascinating audio commentary from Kevin Lyons who talks in-depth about various aspects of Fear City.

Fear City isn’t my favourite of Abel’s movies (It’s 1990’s King Of New York)but it’s fascinating because it serves as a stepping stone that led to rest of his 80s work that included directing three episodes of the Iconic series Miami Vice and the pilot for the Dennis Farina starring 50’s Police Drama Crime Story alongside the movies China Girl & 1989’s Cat Chaser starring Peter Weller in this Elmore Leonard adaption

Fear City Available On Blu Ray From 101 Films On 18th March 2024