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ManiacRating:
Release Date: 21 August, 2001 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
Maniac Reviews
Underestimated, yet powerful
In Maniac, Joe Spinell plays Frank Zito, a man haunted by abuse by his mother and by the murderous actions he takes primarilly against women (though two of the movie's victims are men).
The plot is simple, but for its time (1980), groundbreaking. It pushed the bounds of "decency" in that it potrayed not only a vicious killer, but that the killer was the subject of analysis. This is a departure from films such as Friday the 13th and Halloween in that those films revolved around the lead ladies who had to combat merciless killers.
I felt deeply disturbed after watching Maniac, but I felt that the grim picture it painted of mental illness and homicidal psychosis where true to the world in which we live.
Another aspect that contributes to the power of the film is that the violence is neither glorified or "cool." In recent films, such as the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, gore is meant to be looked at with a sense of amusement. Maniac never does this. The blood and death potrayed are ugly and depraved.
The DVD features are excellent. My favorites were the "Gallery of Outrage" and "The Joe Spinell Story."
Though not a film for the young or impressionable, Maniac is worth the time.
Don't Let Its Reputation Precede It
Controversy has a habit of driving the right audience away from a film while attracting the wrong one. Such is the case with Maniac, which had the potential to teach young women a great lesson about the dangers of trusting strange men, but ended up leaving a legion of mindless slasher flick fans with an un-satiated hunger for gore. Gore does find its way into the movie, but it's nothing spectacular by today's standards. What is spectacular is Joe's Spinell's wonderful portrayal of a psychologically disturbed murderer, and the excellent raw movie making talent of a young Bill Lustig.
Why was this movie controversial and thereby misleading? There's the cover art for the movie- a nasty almost cartoon-like rendition of the killer's hands clutching a knife and the scalp of one of his victims. One glimpse of the psychotic poster art sent feminists and uptight old ladies out in droves to protest a film that they probably never even bothered to watch. Of course, the word misogyny was thrown about to make critics feel important, sheik, and appropriately liberal among their wine and cheese eating acquaintances, but misogyny isn't the point of the film. Social ills rarely find their root in the victimization of adults, but almost always sprout from the evils that disturbed adults endured as children. Films do not cause misogyny, but abuse and the inability to cope with it does. It is the latter point that Maniac wishes to drive home, while the former remains a fantasy of the liberal limousine set and religious right.
Frank Zito, the villain, is somewhat of a novelty in modern horror in that he has a history. The physical scars on his chest give tangible evidence of his emotional ones. We learn through his solitary babbling of insanity that his mother wasn't the June Cleaver type. She burned him with cigarettes, locked him in the closet, and prostituted herself for money. With that type of occupation, the viewer can only imagine what kind of male role models she brought home for the little boy Frank. All the viewer really knows is that the abuse has turned Zito into a monster. This is all the viewer needs to know, because this is more of a horror film than a psychological thriller, even though your everyday teenage gore-hound might leave somewhat disappointed.
In defense of gore-hounds, everyone who enjoys horror expects a certain amount of blood. Maniac delivers the gore albeit not nearly to the level that its reputation leads everyone to believe. Zito scalps one victim in full view of the camera while impaling a few others. Use of a piano wire and a shotgun dispatches a few hapless men who do nothing to protect their dates. Yes it's disgusting but no more disgusting than the ending of the mainstream film Taxi Driver. There is no mutilation of female genitalia, gutting of completely nude women, or brutal depictions of rape. In fact, the most offensive scenes in this movie occur when Spinell removes his shirt or we get a good close up of his nasty dentures. Spinell was an ugly man, but his appearance only added to his demented fits of spittle and rage. No normal person would leave this film hating women, but normal women should leave with a hatred of weird dudes with man boobs. Good horror films are modern day fairy tales meant to scare us into being careful. If a fat greasy guy with heaving breathing doesn't already scare a young lady away from a life of prostitution, then maybe one that strangles her after the fact will.
Once prepared for the story behind the controversy, be prepared for how awful this film looks on DVD. It was shot on 16mm stock with natural lighting and blown up to 35 mm. The result is that many scenes on DVD have that "painted" look. The extras include a decent commentary wherein Lustig reveals some of the more amusing and ingenious ways to produce a good low budget film, and a Joe Spinell biographical documentary to educate the public of a very eccentric character actor who lived with his mother.
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