Maniac is set in New York City where psychotic loner Frank Zito (Joe Spinell, also executive producer & co-writer) has snapped after spending too much time in his seedy apartment, he now regularly goes out & viciously murders people & in particular young women. You see Frank has a big problem with women & resents them so he kills them, simple. Besides killing them he scalps them & places the scalp on a store window mannequin inside his apartment & he has amassed quite a collection. He then falls for sexy photographer Anna D'Antoni (Caroline Munro) but the fact that he is a brutal serial killer of women is sure to cause problems in the relationship eventually...
This notorious 80's sleazy gore flick was directed by William Lustig (surely the man who has directed the most films with the word 'Maniac' in the title since he also directed all the Maniac Cop trilogy) who has a small cameo at the start as he plays the hotel manager & if we are all totally honest Maniac would be virtually unknown & almost certainly have disappeared into obscurity if it were not for the aforementioned gory & sometimes disturbing special make-up effects courtesy of the main man Tom Savini who also plays the dude who gets his head blown off to save having to mould another fake head presumably since Savini had a fake head of himself lying around anyway. Maniac was a difficult film for me to rate & judge & I am still not sure whether I should give it a six or seven out of ten, on the one hand you have one of the most threadbare films I have ever seen with virtually no plot whatsoever yet it's undeniably effective & those gore effects are just terrific if your into that sort of thing which I am. There are no character's beyond Frank & Anna who barely features anyway, Frank has the whole Psycho (1960) thing going on as he has been left mentally scared by his late abusive Mother just like Norman Bates & as such has a misogynistic attitude towards women & likes to kill & scalp them in his spare time. That's the whole plot. Seriously beyond a shallow relationship between Frank & Anna & his killing if women nothing else happens in Maniac, nothing. At just under 90 odd minutes the pace is alright, there's enough gore & horror to satisfy the exploitation crowd & it is oddly watchable but when all said & done there's just not enough to it to justify 90 minutes of most people's time.
The film definitely has a sleazy, seedy feel & atmosphere to it, those graffiti covered toilets in that New York subway are enough to give anyone nightmares. I wouldn't have liked to take a crap in one of those late at night that's for sure! The whole 80's New York feel is there too which adds a lot & it is generally well made although a bit basic. The one real stand-out feature of Maniac has to be the gore effects, from scalping's to slit throats, from sliced throats to stabbings, from chopped off arms to heads being pulled off & the infamous scene in which a guy has his head blown off from point blank range by a shotgun. Good stuff & the effects by Savini are up to his usual high standards. There's a tight, claustrophobic atmosphere to the film & it can be unsettling at times, the surprisingly suspenseful chase through the subway as Frank stalks the nurse is particularly well shot & put together in this regard.
Apparently shot on a low $350,000 budget the real life New York locations really help sell the film, the production values are alright if basic & the special make-up effects are better than perhaps the film deserves. Also to keep costs down several porn actresses were hired to play the female roles rather than proper actor's. The acting is pretty good actually, again maybe better than the film deserves. I think Caroline Munro was cast after her husband put some money into the film & adds a touch of English glamour I suppose.
Maniac is a film that doesn't sound too promising as it's merely a collection of women being killed by some fat guy but it has a certain compelling atmosphere & the memorable gore effects really are showstoppers at times. So, shall I give it a six or a seven? I'll tell you what I will sit on the fence & give it a six & a half. A planned sequel Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie (1989) had a ten minute promo reel shot but the film was never made after Joe Spinell's death.
This notorious 80's sleazy gore flick was directed by William Lustig (surely the man who has directed the most films with the word 'Maniac' in the title since he also directed all the Maniac Cop trilogy) who has a small cameo at the start as he plays the hotel manager & if we are all totally honest Maniac would be virtually unknown & almost certainly have disappeared into obscurity if it were not for the aforementioned gory & sometimes disturbing special make-up effects courtesy of the main man Tom Savini who also plays the dude who gets his head blown off to save having to mould another fake head presumably since Savini had a fake head of himself lying around anyway. Maniac was a difficult film for me to rate & judge & I am still not sure whether I should give it a six or seven out of ten, on the one hand you have one of the most threadbare films I have ever seen with virtually no plot whatsoever yet it's undeniably effective & those gore effects are just terrific if your into that sort of thing which I am. There are no character's beyond Frank & Anna who barely features anyway, Frank has the whole Psycho (1960) thing going on as he has been left mentally scared by his late abusive Mother just like Norman Bates & as such has a misogynistic attitude towards women & likes to kill & scalp them in his spare time. That's the whole plot. Seriously beyond a shallow relationship between Frank & Anna & his killing if women nothing else happens in Maniac, nothing. At just under 90 odd minutes the pace is alright, there's enough gore & horror to satisfy the exploitation crowd & it is oddly watchable but when all said & done there's just not enough to it to justify 90 minutes of most people's time.
The film definitely has a sleazy, seedy feel & atmosphere to it, those graffiti covered toilets in that New York subway are enough to give anyone nightmares. I wouldn't have liked to take a crap in one of those late at night that's for sure! The whole 80's New York feel is there too which adds a lot & it is generally well made although a bit basic. The one real stand-out feature of Maniac has to be the gore effects, from scalping's to slit throats, from sliced throats to stabbings, from chopped off arms to heads being pulled off & the infamous scene in which a guy has his head blown off from point blank range by a shotgun. Good stuff & the effects by Savini are up to his usual high standards. There's a tight, claustrophobic atmosphere to the film & it can be unsettling at times, the surprisingly suspenseful chase through the subway as Frank stalks the nurse is particularly well shot & put together in this regard.
Apparently shot on a low $350,000 budget the real life New York locations really help sell the film, the production values are alright if basic & the special make-up effects are better than perhaps the film deserves. Also to keep costs down several porn actresses were hired to play the female roles rather than proper actor's. The acting is pretty good actually, again maybe better than the film deserves. I think Caroline Munro was cast after her husband put some money into the film & adds a touch of English glamour I suppose.
Maniac is a film that doesn't sound too promising as it's merely a collection of women being killed by some fat guy but it has a certain compelling atmosphere & the memorable gore effects really are showstoppers at times. So, shall I give it a six or a seven? I'll tell you what I will sit on the fence & give it a six & a half. A planned sequel Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie (1989) had a ten minute promo reel shot but the film was never made after Joe Spinell's death.