Retro Slashers

Everything about Cruising is difficult. The plotting is labyrinthine, the tone relentlessly sleazy, and there’s bound to be something about it that offends you, whether it’s the extremes of the subject matter or the social attitudes of the time, which, like everything else in the film, positively perspire off the screen. But is it worth the effort for a retro horror-fan looking for some hybrid-slasher overtime? Yes, definitely… So pull on your leather gear (don’t hog the talcum powder) and let’s hit the underground fetish clubs of early-Eighties New York, in search of illicit thrills, a killer who’s chopping up gay men, and a young Al Pacino as the undercover cop on the case.

It’s 1979 and, with The Exorcist and The French Connection under his belt, director William Friedkin can probably do whatever he wants – even considering the considerable flop of his 1977 action film, Sorcerer, which tried to take on a certain George Lucas blockbuster at the box office and lost more than an arm to the swish of that movie’s mighty light sabre. And what does Friedkin want? He wants to combine a shocking tale of sex and murder with an unflinching examination of urban gay subculture and police corruption. Unfortunately for him, that’s not what many other people at the time wanted: gay groups protested the filming; straight audiences protested the product; and Cruising ultimately ended up on many a critic’s “worst” list for 1980.

At least that’s how it essentially went down. In fact, the film was shot on authentic New York nightspot locations with the willing participation of the many leather-clad clubbers who effectively play themselves on the screen. A handful of name actors gave fully committed performances, along with a fair few up-and-comers who would go on to become familiar faces (including Ed O’Neill, James Remar and Powers Boothe). Seen today, Cruising is actually way ahead of its time, even outpacing the explicit Eighties sex-thrillers that would follow it, such as Body Double and Crimes of Passion, neither of which can quite match its dirty mouth and not-sure-where-to-look excesses.

But it’s not just the extreme themes the movie deals with that will stick with you. As with the brilliantly overwrought Exorcist, Friedkin uses every trick at his disposal to unnerve you here, from subliminal insert shots (of gay porn, no less) to the use of different actors to play the murderer (one of whom has already been killed within the film!) and a soundtrack bursting with anachronistic but ear-rapingly effective L.A. punk. As a director and storyteller, he lies, cheats and bamboozles, but if you’re anything like me and love a nasty thriller with a lot going on, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in Cruising.

Whether Al Pacino found a lot to enjoy in it is another matter. Although enthusiastic about the project at the time (and undoubtedly not a homophobic actor, having played gay magnificently in Dog Day Afternoon and Angels in America) rumours persist that he was unhappy with the final product, and refused to allow certain footage to be reinstated for 2008’s special edition DVD. In any case, he certainly didn’t participate in any of the retrospective documentaries found on that release.

None of this, however, is reflected in his utterly fearless and largely convincing performance. Pacino (aged 40 at the time but passing for ten years younger) plays Steve Burns, an NYPD officer tasked with infiltrating the all-male leather ’n’ chains scene, posing as a gay man. As evidenced in the movie’s gruesome opening, body parts have been turning up in the Hudson River and the victims were all gay, sexually active, and look a bit like Al Pacino with a perm. Steve, then, is the perfect choice to go undercover and, if it comes to offering himself up as a potential victim, well, he’ll just have to go as far as he thinks necessary in order to entice the killer…

It’s a pretty powerful premise with a provocative stance on police (and public) attitudes prevalent at the time. The notion of a deranged “punisher” operating untouched amidst a ghettoised and misunderstood sector of society is a disturbing one – but similarly troubling is the way this subculture itself is portrayed within the film as primal, predatory and somehow unknowable. Furthering the ambiguity, while it’s possible to read Cruising as a cautionary tale of a straight man corrupted by a gay lifestyle, it’s equally viable to view it as a criticism of the way society crushes people into damaging personas. In fact, you can even take it as a demonic-possession horror movie, as this scholarly essay by Bill Krohn points out. Ultimately, it’s possible to project a lot of different things onto Cruising, but beware – it’s a funhouse mirror of a film and you might not like what it reflects back at you.

Slasher connections: One of the first (and dirtiest) cops we meet in Cruising is played by Joe Spinell, who reportedly used his paycheque to fund Maniac, a movie that could easily occupy the same sleazy universe. Technical adviser and former real-life cop Randy Jurgensen also plays police officers in both films. Cruising’s cross-dressing hooker/informant DaVinci is played by Gene Davis, who later faced off against Charles Bronson in the slasher hybrid 10 to Midnight, and again in Avenging Angels, both of which were directed by Happy Birthday to Me’s J. Lee Thompson. He also played a trooper in the original version of The Hitcher. The aforementioned James Remar, who has a great fight scene (whilst wearing Y-fronts, naturally) with Pacino in Cruising, got a slasher-hero lead in 1995’s hospital oddity Exquisite Tenderness, and turned up in the Psycho remake. And Pacino’s best gay buddy Ted is played by Don Scardino, who’s one of the leads in He Knows You’re Alone.

Slasher or not? Plenty of slasher elements turn up in Cruising, from the use of prowling POV shots representing the killer, to the creepy, nursery rhyme-like song he whispers before he strikes (“I’m here… you’re here…”). He also has a slightly unnatural, overdubbed voice (provided by James Sutorius) that manages to sound almost exactly like the voice of Ghostface in Scream, not to mention a signature weapon (a steak knife). There’s gore, and while it’s not overdone, it’s pretty effective – ranging from a nasty, squirting neck wound to a few body parts – while the kills are staged in apt locations I won’t give away, except for one in a peep-show booth that prefigures The Howling. Finally, there’s a strong element of deliberate ambiguity that, depending on your view, either fits the slasher mould or flies in the face of it… Remember how Michael Myers disappeared at the end of Halloween, leaving everyone wondering if he really was the boogeyman? Well, Cruising has its own disturbing identity issues, to say the least. A full-on slasher? Not really, then. But, as a cruise into terror that packs in murder, gender-bending and the sight of Al Pacino disco-dancing, it’s well worth a one-night stand.