Cruising
Legendary director William Friedkin brings together Al Pacino, the 70s New York gay scene, and a searing punk-rock soundtrack in this one-of-a-kind serial killer thriller.
New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who is preying on the patrons of the city's underground gay scene. Young rookie cop Steve Burns (Pacino) is tasked with infiltrating the S&M subculture to try and lure the killer out of the shadows...but as he immerses himself deeper and deeper into the underworld, Steve risks losing his identity in the process.
Taking the premise and title from reporter Gerald Walker's novel, Cruising was the subject of great controversy at the time of its release and remains a challenging and remarkable movie to this day, with Pacino's haunted lead performance as its magnetic centerpiece.
ABOUT JANUARY GIALLO:
"Every January, we like to pour ourselves a glass of J&B whiskey, sharpen our straight razor and slip on those black gloves to celebrate our favorite horror sub-genre, the Giallo. For those of you who don’t know, a Giallo is Italy’s answer to murder mysteries and thrillers that was kicked off by Mario Bava with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (aka Evil Eye) in the early sixties. While filmmakers like Umberto Lenzi made some excellent Giallos in the late sixties/early seventies such as Orgasmo and Knife of Ice, the sub-genre became popularized by Dario Argento with The Girl with Crystal Plumage. Throughout the seventies, Argento along with Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Luciano Ercoli, Aldo Lado and many more made several visually stunning and viscerally violent cinematic excursions. The word Gialllo means ‘yellow’ in Italian, which was the color of the pulp and crime books that some Giallo took inspiration from. Although stylistically, the Giallo shares DNA with the German Krimi Films, the sub-genre took some wild turns mingling with occult, Gothic horror, Poliziotteschi, and psychedelia elements that created many unique variations." -Cinematic Void
