This one's a sick flick. If Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer and The New York Ripper chugged beer till they were sick(er), they would probably puke up Maniac. Mmmm, nice image, huh? Well, get used to it, cause if you're watching Maniac, you'll be seeing plenty of sick sh*t. You might wanna even skip the Suds & Buds. This one will kill your buzz and if you watch it with friends, they might expect an apology afterwards.
So, Frank Zito (an absolutely nutty Joe Spinell) has Mommy issues. A lot of guys do... they just don't handle them the way Frank does. He destroys women (and a couple guy who were unfortunate to be involved with the women Frank had his eye on). He's a creepy dude alright. You see, he has this thing for scalps. And as most girls are rather attached to theirs (chortle), he's gotta take them. So he stalks young ladies till he finds a window of opportunity and then gets down to business.
This is pretty much what Frank does with his life, till one day he meets a photographer named Anna. For some reason, Frank tries to play it normal with her (2 guesses how this turns out). He wines and dines her, all the while letting her keep possession of her scalp like a perfect gentleman. Things go swimmingly till Frank decides it would be nice to take Anna to pay his Mother's grave a visit. Frank kinda loses his grip and tries to get familiar with Anna's scalp. Anna thinks the date is over and flees accordingly, leaving Frank to stumble home to his rat-hole apartment and have a total psychotic breakdown and a happy ending is enjoyed by none.... except Anna's scalp.
OK, so Maniac is not a date movie. This is that special kind of horror movie that exists to make you regret watching it, in the sense the it leaves one feeling kinda depressed and dirty afterwards (like the other 2 movies I mentioned at the start). Let me state right now that I don't think it's "wicked cool" that Frank has it in for women. I have nothing but love and respect for women (my Mom is a woman). But this isn't a nice movie.
Actually, it's a very ugly and mean spirited movie. So why the good rating? Cause I can appreciate ugly, mean spirited movies. I mean, this IS a horror movie, right? This isn't mainstream Hollywood horror, like The Grudge or Final Destenation, where the idea is to put pretty people in precarious positions. This is low budget '80s sleaze. This is from an era when horror movies wanted to make you uncomfortable. And it does just that.
The Good: Joe Spinell (who also wrote the screenplay) is, uhhh, very convincing. As are the effects, handled by the one and only Tom Savini. Speaking of Tom, he has a cameo in one scene as a disco dude taking a lady down to the docks for a little rub and tug... till Frank shows up and blows his head off (one of my all-time fave gore effects, really, ya gotta see it). Some of the other effects are almost too much to bear.... which is a good thing? Seriously, if you're looking for a "fun" horror movie to watch, don't even bother with this. But, if you know what you're in for and you're still down, Maniac is nasty and truly horrifying.
The Not So Good: See: ugly, mean spirited, nasty. Some people (about 99.9%) will wonder how and why this ever got made. As I mentioned above, some of the effects are really harsh. The first time we see Frank scalp a girl, it's really quite unsettling, to the point where if you don't dig stuff like this, you might feel sick. It could be labeled misogynistic and irresponsible but, I'm of the mind that if you watch this and think it's OK to scalp women, your screws were loosening already. Don't blame movies, music or books for f'd up people.
So, Frank Zito (an absolutely nutty Joe Spinell) has Mommy issues. A lot of guys do... they just don't handle them the way Frank does. He destroys women (and a couple guy who were unfortunate to be involved with the women Frank had his eye on). He's a creepy dude alright. You see, he has this thing for scalps. And as most girls are rather attached to theirs (chortle), he's gotta take them. So he stalks young ladies till he finds a window of opportunity and then gets down to business.
This is pretty much what Frank does with his life, till one day he meets a photographer named Anna. For some reason, Frank tries to play it normal with her (2 guesses how this turns out). He wines and dines her, all the while letting her keep possession of her scalp like a perfect gentleman. Things go swimmingly till Frank decides it would be nice to take Anna to pay his Mother's grave a visit. Frank kinda loses his grip and tries to get familiar with Anna's scalp. Anna thinks the date is over and flees accordingly, leaving Frank to stumble home to his rat-hole apartment and have a total psychotic breakdown and a happy ending is enjoyed by none.... except Anna's scalp.
OK, so Maniac is not a date movie. This is that special kind of horror movie that exists to make you regret watching it, in the sense the it leaves one feeling kinda depressed and dirty afterwards (like the other 2 movies I mentioned at the start). Let me state right now that I don't think it's "wicked cool" that Frank has it in for women. I have nothing but love and respect for women (my Mom is a woman). But this isn't a nice movie.
Actually, it's a very ugly and mean spirited movie. So why the good rating? Cause I can appreciate ugly, mean spirited movies. I mean, this IS a horror movie, right? This isn't mainstream Hollywood horror, like The Grudge or Final Destenation, where the idea is to put pretty people in precarious positions. This is low budget '80s sleaze. This is from an era when horror movies wanted to make you uncomfortable. And it does just that.
The Good: Joe Spinell (who also wrote the screenplay) is, uhhh, very convincing. As are the effects, handled by the one and only Tom Savini. Speaking of Tom, he has a cameo in one scene as a disco dude taking a lady down to the docks for a little rub and tug... till Frank shows up and blows his head off (one of my all-time fave gore effects, really, ya gotta see it). Some of the other effects are almost too much to bear.... which is a good thing? Seriously, if you're looking for a "fun" horror movie to watch, don't even bother with this. But, if you know what you're in for and you're still down, Maniac is nasty and truly horrifying.
The Not So Good: See: ugly, mean spirited, nasty. Some people (about 99.9%) will wonder how and why this ever got made. As I mentioned above, some of the effects are really harsh. The first time we see Frank scalp a girl, it's really quite unsettling, to the point where if you don't dig stuff like this, you might feel sick. It could be labeled misogynistic and irresponsible but, I'm of the mind that if you watch this and think it's OK to scalp women, your screws were loosening already. Don't blame movies, music or books for f'd up people.