Maniac (1981)

i must have seen a different film!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Blistering performances.

Maniac is a gristly, nasty and misogynist horror film. For those such as myself that enjoy this stuff, Maniac is powerful and well done. The film is a collaborative creation between character actor Joe Spinell and director William Lustig. This is a rare opportunity for Joe to act as the lead and he kills it in this film. He totally brings it with a totally intense performance and presence as well as having many layers to this complex and creepy character. Spinell is a brooding loner with some serious issues with his mother, where over the course of the film he runs wild by killing and scalping women in the mean streets of The Rotten Apple. Set in 1980 NYC and taking cues from Taxi Driver, the film is very gritty and sleazy in style and ultra violent in its execution. Plus add gorgeous actress Caroline Monroe ( who had great chemistry with leading man Joe Spinell) and awesome Tom Savini gore and you have one hell of a horror movie. The film has great camera work and an awesome score to boot. This movie when it was released in 1980 was very controversial upon the time of its release and in my opinion is one of the most well made movies of this type. Maniac is a film that lives up to its name and as such is a very disturbing and brutal horror film, absolute classic.

This sick quickie earned its notoriety thanks to its high gore content, taking bloody special effects to a new sickening level of realism thanks to the work of master craftsman Tom Savini. Other than the gore, it's a grim, on-the-street style film, brought to gritty life by director William Lustig (a major film fan himself). It often recalls other films like TAXI DRIVER (a film in which Spinell had a bit part) in its depiction of a New York filled with litter, sleaze and low-lives and it has to be said that this is a depressing, non-entertaining ride through some of the lowest quarters imaginable.The plot is routine, a series of murders as in a slasher film, interspersed with disturbing moments inside Frank Zito's flat, where he talks to his dead mother and imagines that the mannequins around him are real people. It certainly is a sick film, one for those with strong stomachs only; Savini outdoes himself with the gore here, from graphic impalings to throat slashings, garrottings and stabbings. The film is also notorious for a head explosion by shotgun blast (Savini contrived to pull the trigger and shoot himself, in a small role as Disco Boy) which is more graphic than the one in SCANNERS! Yet the worst bits are the scalpings, played out in excruciating slow motion, as we get to see every detail as Zito slices the hair off his victims with a straight razor. Spinell sweats and grimaces as the disturbed psychopath, haunted by memories of childhood torture at the hands of his mother. Yet he also provokes pathos thanks to his plight, and you end up feeling sorry for this monster despite the horrendous acts he commits. Although Spinell starred in many productions this will forever be remembered as his most defining moment. The only other star name is glamour queen Caroline Munro (who re-teams with Spinell after Italian sci-fi epic STARCRASH). Munro isn't much of an actress but she is pretty, so her relationship with Spinell is the result of a bit of artistic license, I think. The film is full of tension and suspense, with the highlight being the lengthy stalking of a nurse, which literally had me on the edge of my seat throughout; fingernail-biting stuff. Things are definitely weird at the finale, where there's a scare copied from CARRIE and a final mutilation which looks to have been copied in DAY OF THE DEAD.

Horror is most purely about the violent impulse that surges from behind the eyes, the mist it creates; a story can be anything. Here it's the simplest story, man goes crazy in the big city, unable to contain the impulse, the whole seen through his mist. There's a trauma that haunts him we find out, his cramped apartment is the mind then that fixates on memory and dwells among the fragments. The walls are lined with old photos of women, mannequins are scattered around; objects of a dead representation that he hoards unable to let go. Quite a bit more of that story is explained to us later on, not much interesting; Freudian stuff about a mother, a vengeful child who never grew. But there's nothing we can't know by just seeing him pace up and down in his apartment, muttering to himself.There's later a human connection to a photographer girl who snaps a picture of him one day in the park. The scenario is completely forced, a stranger and complete weirdo knocks on her door one day and they're best friends within minutes. It's something a weirdo much like the character would imagine (or write about). But it's an opportunity to get closer to the real source, put our finger on the pulse; she a photographer who also freezes life into image but she's able to let go of it and share it in the open, while it just drives him to madness. We see her fuss with her models during a shoot much like he does with his gruesome mannequins; but her fiction has life, playfulness. There's of course the violence, though it doesn't cut like perhaps it did then. It's still bloody and vivid. But what makes it powerful in its niche is the air of desperation around it, the whole film an internal monologue carving its garbled madness on the body of the night. New York looks suitably barren, from the time before the makeover when people would walk down streets as bleak as in this film to see movies like it in dingy fleapit cinemas down 42nd street. The film is from that time when horror could still unsettle with the thought that somewhere in the same city, deranged souls very much like the character skulked around with a camera having horrible thoughts like this.

Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) has mommy issues from child abuse, kills beautiful young woman, and scalps them as a result of his childhood trauma. In all honesty I don't think this is as disturbing as others make it out to be. It is very nihilistic, and it's not a pleasant film, but I've seen a hell of a lot worse, and I've seen TONS of horror movies. The gritty atmosphere in New York City definitely serves this movie well. I also thought the stalk sequences were very good. It has three really memorable ones. One involves a fairly lengthy cemetery chase between Frank & Anna (Caroline Munro) and another is a great chase through the subway as Frank follows a nurse. I did question as to why the nurse turns down a ride from her friend when she knows perfectly well a serial killer is on the loose. It seemed rather moronic to me, but that's a minor carp. My favorite might just be the well shot opening. It takes place on a beach in a dream sequence from Frank. I don't know why I liked it so much, but it was extremely creepy to me. The suspense is here in spades, and you're never fully comfortable while viewing this movie. The first half is better than the second half. The first half gives us a chance to get into the mind of how twisted Frank is. The second half plummets a little bit. The romance between Spinell & Caroline Munro is rather mundane to say the least, and it felt a bit otiose to me. How am I supposed to believe that a gorgeous beauty like Caroline Munro would fall in love with an overweight guy like Joe Spinell? It felt quite artificial to me, and they lacked chemistry. The gore delivers in a huge way. We get slit throats, women are scalped in graphic detail, stabbings. Tom Savini gets his head blown off from a shotgun. (One of the best head explosions you'll ever see. It's disturbingly realistic) A head is ripped off, and more. This baby is pretty harsh with some great effects. Joe Spinell is chilling here. He's essentially the whole film. He's in almost every scene, and his character of Frank is vividly depicted. He's completely unhinged, and he creeped me right out. He's just a nut-case with mommy issues, and you can't help but fear him. The way he taunts his victims for a few seconds before commencing a killing, and just the little things made him that effective. What's scarier is despite that the romance between him & Munro fell flat there is nothing abnormal about him in the romance scenes. He seems like a genuine person with charm to spare, major credit to Spinell for showing a bit of a human side in those scenes. I did feel his inner monologue got to be a bit much at times, and the fact that he wipes a kiss from Munro away from his cheek had me baffled. Why would you do that with such a gorgeous woman like her? I digress. This is Spinell's movie, and he gives a performance you won't forget. Caroline Munro is rather wooden in scenes, but she has a bit of a natural, English charm I couldn't help but like. It's not a great performance, but when you look as good as her, it doesn't really matter. Tom Savini has a cameo, and it's actually quite a hoot. He has a classic mustache as well. The acting is actually a strong point, aside from Munro. Everyone is quite competent. The ending bothered me a little bit. It's clearly there to set up the purported sequel, which never commenced. I felt they should have done a bit of a chase sequence, with authorities flagging down Spinell. They chose an anti-climatic ending, and it's definitely disappointing. Final Thoughts: I've seen this quite a few times, and it always manages to be an effective film. It's not perfect, and not for everybody, but I like it quite a bit. Well worth a watch 7/10