...New York punk and underground films
Subway Riders
Released: 1981 | Director: Amos Poe
A psychotic street saxophonist lures victims into dark New York City spots with his haunting music – then shoots them.
Seedy characters, including a cop with a junkie wife, an upstairs sax-hating prostitute and other lost souls litter the landscape.
FILM INFO
Director: Amos Poe // Music: Ivan Kral // Genre: No Wave, Art-house // TRT: 1 hour, 53 minutes // Language: English // Format: 16mm black/white // Year: 1981 // Cast: Robbie Coltrane, Cookie Mueller, John Lurie, Glenn O’Brien, Lance Loud, Lydia Lunch, Tony Schafrazi.
QUOTES
“Subway Riders is a hymn to style. It is not an imitation of old Hollywood B pictures…it is a meditation on them. There are eight million stories in the city and this is one”
Roger Ebert
“Ivan Kral’s soundtrack is excellent throughout…his suspense motif is worthy of Bernard Herrman (Hitchcock’s composer). Subway Riders music does not merely accompany the film, but occupies its own aural space and adds its own distinct perspective to this highly stylized, richly textured portrait of a world of random murders.”
Jeff McLaughlin, BOSTON GLOBE