The Worst Film Ever

Sorry, this movie sucks

A different way of telling a story

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

So you're telling a ravishingly beautiful woman like Caroline Munro within a few minutes would be itching and desperate to go out on a date with a random, exceptionally ordinary looking man like Joe Spinell after he turns up on her doorstep? Yeah ... right.I'm not saying the film doesn't have a few well setup and directed moments which are impressive, but in an overall sense, 'Maniac' doesn't really transcend its trashy, exploitation film roots even though it tries to do so.

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.

With its off the charts creep factor and brutal violence, the low budget 1980 slasher "Maniac" was an early classic in a decade of memorable horror films. What makes this film so utterly disturbing is the performance by Joe Spinell as Frank aka the Maniac. His homely look and doughy physique gives him a very relatable everyman kind of quality. He walks besides you on the street and is unnoticeable in a crowd, but he is completely and utterly insane.Frank Zito lives in a small apartment with a bunch of female mannequins which he dresses up with his victims clothes. As a final touch he scalps his victims and nails the bloody matted hair to the bald mannequins. The creepiest element of the movie is its use of sound. We constantly hear Franks heavy breathing like some obscene phone call. His rambling thoughts are played as a voice-over on a number of scenes. You are literally in the mind of a killer.Like a lot of movie madmen Frank has serious mommy issues. His mother was a prostitute who brought numerous men into there apartment to conduct her business. Frank was also beaten and abused as a child. When is mother dies suddenly in a car accident, it sends Frank over the edge into a madness he will never come back from. His victims are primarily prostitutes who he gleefully strangles and scalps. One day in the park he meets Anna, a fashion photographer, who shows and interest in him. He sees Ana as his one last shot at a normal life. He is a perfect charming gentleman around her, but how long can this last? Apparently not for long as he dispatches one of her models while she's taking a bath in her unlocked apartment. Talk about making it easy for him.The special effects were done by the legendary Tom Savini who has the bizarre job of making his own head explode. He has a small acting part in the film credited as "Disco Boy" along with "Disco Girl" are making out in a parked car when the Maniac starts peeping. He eventually hops on to the hood and shoots him point blank in the face with a shotgun. Savini's head explodes in a gruesome slow motion scene that foreshadows a scene to come in Cronenberg's film "Scanners". Unable the control the crazy beast within Frank loses Anna and falls into a sort of death spiral."Maniac" is truly a carnival of insanity all the up to the gory end.