I was hooked on Fear City’s (1984) opening credits with its lurid red-coloured titles, New York neon, and strip club montage, all pumping to Joe Delia and David Johansen’s song ‘New York Doll.’ Abel Ferrara directed this film, which feels like a 1940s film noir melodrama but coated in Times Square Eighties Sleaze. Filtering the paranoia of the Summer Of Sam into a slasher format, a deranged killer with a love of martial arts is targeting night club dancers. Once you figure out that the climax will eventually be a street fight between the high kicking psycho and strip dancer agent/ex-boxer (Tom Berenger), the rest of the narrative feels like they’re just marking time until then (and the fight itself is a little bit underwhelming) . There is some attempt at a love story with ex-addict performer (Melanie Griffith), intrigue with a suspicious cop (Billy Dee Williams), and the mafia wanting to keep the streets clean. The main attraction of Fear City is really its atmosphere and milieu, which carries on the vision of New York City popularised in Taxi Driver, Death Wish and The Warriors as a nightmare urban landscape. A more commercialised version of Ferrara’s genre work at that point, though lacking the depth of theme and meaning in his career with King Of New York onward. Also stars Rae Dawn Chong, Maria Conchita Alonzo, Jack Scalia and Michael V Gazzo. Written by regular Ferrara collaborator Nicholas St John. Available to stream on Kanopy and Mubi. Recommended.
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