Fear City

R

1984

1h 36m

Crime

Drama

List

69%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

33%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A killer is targeting New York City strippers, and world-weary policeman Al Wheeler (Billy Dee Williams) confronts sleazes Matt Rossi (Tom Berenger) and Nicky Parenzo (Jack Scalia), who have a hand in the local adult entertainment scene. Wheeler wants the duo to dig up some clues and threatens to find find a reason to put them behind bars. But, as Matt watches his stripper ex-lover, Loretta (Melanie Griffith), cope with the murders through drug abuse, he decides to hunt down the killer himself.

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delysid d

a fun but sleazy watch

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/16/21

Full Review

Audience Member

A serial killer and an expert on martial arts is preying on strippers in Manhattan's Times Square in New York. Night after night, he visits smoky strip clubs, waiting for his victims and then randomly slashing and killing them. Matt Rossi (Tom Berenger) is a former boxer trying to escape his past whom is currently employed at a talent agency which caters exotic dancers to mafia-controlled strip clubs all over Manhattan. Matt and his business partner, Nicky Parzeno (Jack Scalia), are relentlessly dogged by Al Wheeler (Billy Dee Williams), a persistent police detective on the case of the murdered strippers, and is hoping to find something to nail both Matt and Nicky on. Matt is trying at the same time to reconcile with his former flame, Loretta (Melanie Griffith), whom also works as a dancer. With the police constantly hounding them, and under pressure from the mob to do something about the killings, Matt must somehow face his inner demons to find the killer before he strikes again... "Fear City" is a low budget b-movie thriller from Abel Ferrara adding a mix of sex, nudity and violence to portray Times Square in the early 80´s, but at the same time he was most certainly looking for tabloid headlines and shock value to get an audience in the cinemas. The movie was originally made by 20th Century-Fox, but they decided that it had too much nudity, sex, violence and drug references for them, so they sold it to the independent Aquarius Releasing. Compared to Ferrara´s quite disturbing, but much more effective and visual "Ms. 45" (1981), this follow up is pretty disappointing. First of all the antagonist, the so called Karate killer makes no sense in my book. I guess due to the success of several martial arts movies back then, they decided that the killer should use martial arts and some how connect his killings to a cleaning of both himself and the city of New York in an eastern philosophical way. Did it work? No. Despite some ok names in the main roles (Berenger, Williams etc), I hardly believe any of them feel all that happy about their performances in this film. Melanie Griffith has never been a very good actress and "Fear City" doesn´t change that fact. It was however nice to see some old 80´s crushes passing by in the shape of Rae Dawn Chong and María Conchita Alonso. Abel Ferrara is good at showing the sleezy side of NYC and that has partly become his brandmark. But, he is quite uneven as a director, and this is a good example of the downside of his profession. The acting is so so, the dialogue so so, the action pretty ridiculous. But, you get a glimpse of some ok tension/ drama once in a while in the film. Nice to have seen it, but "Fear City" is hardly something you would see twice.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Thriller Fear City follows a psychopathic Grim Reaper killing strippers, and a stripper manager hunting him down. Both the protagonist and the antagonist have background stories. The protagonist was a pro boxer, who's career got cut off. A stupid and cliche background story, which gives the character to much of an invincible feel. The antagonist is a religious nut who's ridding the city of filth, I suppose it's better than just a business rival. This film is sexy galore, the strip club scenes contributed greatly to the film. Whenever the movie was feeling dry the audience can escape to a strip club, which creates a whole new atmosphere. I can appreciate people going to one as an escape now. Well this is until all the good strippers are killed/assaulted/scared for their lives. The kills in this film weren't intense due to how dumb they looked, with a white martial arts master holding nun chucks. The film doesn't have many thrills, but has enough pros to make it somewhat pay off.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The script was written with good subplots but it seems to forget how to connect them to the story at hand. See it more for nostalgia of a young Tom Berenger. For my full review of Fear City (1984), check it out on this IMDB link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0087247/reviews-25

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A great cast but feels like wasted potential thanks to a confusing and flawed script.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Billy Dee is barely in this and when he is, he's crazy racist. Mostly its Berrenger's movie and that makes a so-so tale about strippers and a crazy killer. Decent, but not great.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

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Abel Ferrara

Director

Tom Berenger

Matt Rossi

Billy Dee Williams

Al Wheeler

Melanie Griffith

Loretta

Jack Scalia

Nicky Parzeno

Rae Dawn Chong

Leila

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Anton Bitel

Little White Lies

Falling somewhere between Taxi Driver, Maniac and neon-lit neo-noir, Ferrari’s tawdry feature anatomises Manhattan vice in much the way that the killer carves up his victims.

Mar 13, 2024

Full Review

Paul Attanasio

Washington Post

... there's something genuinely nauseating about the way "Fear City" traffics in women's bodies, alive and dead.

Jan 3, 2018

Full Review

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

Has a bitterness and cynicism that's grimily, perversely romantic.

Rated: B

Apr 13, 2006

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…trigger warnings apply to sensitive viewers drawn in by the pre-stardom big-name cast here, has a feel that’s as exploitative as the popular slasher movies at the time…in keeping with St John and Ferrara’s observation of a bleak, cruel universe.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 20, 2024

Full Review

Luis Fernando Galván

En Filme

Provides a fascinating journey to a city that has gradually ceased to exist: that dirty, dangerous and rather hostile New York. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 3/5

Nov 2, 2020

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Despite the visual genuineness of its unglamorous New York setting (a forte for director Abel Ferrara), the film isn't sure of what it wants to be.

Rated: 2/10

Sep 6, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

A killer is targeting New York City strippers, and world-weary policeman Al Wheeler (Billy Dee Williams) confronts sleazes Matt Rossi (Tom Berenger) and Nicky Parenzo (Jack Scalia), who have a hand in the local adult entertainment scene. Wheeler wants the duo to dig up some clues and threatens to find find a reason to put them behind bars. But, as Matt watches his stripper ex-lover, Loretta (Melanie Griffith), cope with the murders through drug abuse, he decides to hunt down the killer himself.

Director: Abel Ferrara
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 23, 2018
Runtime: 1h 36m

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