Review of Fear City

Introduction

A look at Abel Ferrara`s filmography reveals that his works are often controversal, violent or risque. Bad Lieutenant (1992), King of New York (1990) and the infamous Driller Killer (1979) are cases in point.

Fear City isn`t as extreme as any of the above titles, but it still isn`t going to be to everybody`s taste - it`s basically a serial killer murdering strippers story with plenty of nudity, a good splattering of stabbings. In addition, there`s a real rarity in this film - someone both using and fighting with chain-sticks - which until recently was a definite no-no in the UK.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. Picture quality throughout is fairly good, especially as most of the movie takes place either at night outdoors or inside dimliy lit strip clubs.

The locations used are all the real thing, so they still look realistic.

There are no special effects to speak of.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 and despite the immediate shortcomings of the format, sound is not too bad.

The opening song sounds good enough - as does the music in the strip clubs and the dialogue in the film is always clear and understandable.

The remainder of the score is not especially inspiring.

Features

There`s a trailer (which is dire), cast/crew bios and a photo gallery.

What promised to be the most interesting extra - the "Special Melanie Griffith `Peepshow` featurette" is in fact dross and consists of a collage of the numerous scenes in the film where Melanie strips off with the added feature of a "peepshow" overlay - i.e. you only get to look at her through a 2 inch slot in the middle of the screen!

Conclusion

The cast in Fear City is strong and it is a well shot movie. Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Melanie Griffith and Jack Scalia all play their parts well, but inbetween the strip club theme (which gives almost continual topless women) and the killings - the plot is pretty shallow - consiting of Berenger having flashbacks to his former career as a boxer and the Police warning him to keep out of their way etc.

The killer is a martial arts expert and amusingly prances around like a fool before carefully stabbing his victims in such a fashion that they die slowly. The plot draws in the Police and mafia in the hunt for the killer before the eventual showdown with Berenger.

Overall, the film was enjoyable enough, but there really wasn`t a great deal under the surface to warrant a repeat viewing.