Fear City is a 1984 American neo-noir[2] erotic thriller film directed by Abel Ferrara[3] and starring Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Scalia, and Melanie Griffith.

The film follows a haunted former boxer turned mob-connected nightclub promoter (Berenger) and a fiercely driven police Detective (Williams), investigating a brutal serial killer targeting strippers in Manhattan.

The movie spends time showing the killer, a young man with a cold expression on his face, writing about his attacks and going through martial-arts routines in his barren loft that has human anatomy posters on the walls (the doctors from his earlier assaults note that the slashes to the women avoided any potentially lethal arteries or organ areas).

Hungry for vengeance and seeking guidance, Rossi visits a local mafioso named Carmine, with whom he built omerta many years ago when he witnessed him kill someone in a drive-by shooting and didn't report it to the police.

Matt then taps into his boxing memories and begins landing bunches of punches against the killer, leaving the man's face bloody and swollen before winding up for a final belt that sends the guy crashing unconscious to the pavement.

[8] The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin said "Fear City also showcases Mr. Ferrara's skill with action scenes and with nonverbal narration."

Maslin continues and describes "Mr. Ferrara's visual talent for the unexpected is not matched by an equivalent gift for character development, but Fear City doesn't attempt to make personality its strong suit.

"[9] For the Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel criticized the soulfulness of the characters as "Fear City is concerned only with surface thrills--exotic dancers, the martial arts, knife attacks and knockout punches.