Maniac 4K 1980 Ultra HD 2160p

A maniac hunts down women, brutally kills them, scalps them, and “trophies” nails to the heads of mannequins, with which his den abounds.

Maniac 4K Review
The cult thriller hails from the "golden" era of slashers - the first half of the eighties from the author of the famous genre trilogy "Maniac-Policeman" by William Lasting. This rather unusual film is often not quite correctly called a slasher, however, despite the presence in it of some elements familiar to this genre, this is not entirely true. There is no detective intrigue in the film, the identity of the killer has been known to the viewer since the opening credits of the film. There will not be here a traditional slasher scheme with obsessed sex and alcohol, young people who are successively exterminated by a killer, whose death will certainly come from the hand of the last surviving girl. Instead of all this, Lasting, along with the screenwriter and leading actor, Joe Spinnel, invites the viewer to participate in the everyday and everyday activities of the brutal serial killer Frank Zito. The picture plunges the audience into the gray-red everyday life of a monster in human guise, brutally killing beautiful young girls and then ripping off their scalps into his monstrous collection, with which the madman has the habit of talking continuously. The film has a very unusual style and is absolutely atypical for a slasher, directing. On the one hand, Lasting doesn’t even try to surprise and intimidate with classical tricks, he won’t be in the “Maniac” and the usual BU-effects and suspense.

On the other hand, the picture abounds with a huge number of bloody and cruel naturalistic death scenes, the creation of which was made by the legendary Tom Savini, who did not even hesitate to play a small role as one of Frank's victims. Lusting also does not hesitate to use tricks borrowed from the classic Italian djallo: here are several murders shown by the eyes of a maniac, and an unusual manner of editing (for example, the scene of the pursuit in the subway) and a kind of “slow” camera work, in the style of Andrei Tarkovsky. In addition to this, "Maniac" is shot in very specific gray tones, which only once again confirms the authors' desire to show the everyday life of a sadist as something completely ordinary and familiar.

In general, the genre of "Maniac" is still a psychological thriller, where the slasher serves only as a visual background, although it is he who ultimately prevails over the thriller. And actually, the acting work of Joe Spinnel, who perfectly played the cruel madman Frank, is really good. The killer truly gives the impression of the real abnormal, whose rotten turnip was eaten by mice a long time ago. The manner of talking either with oneself, with agonizing victims, or with their peeled scalps pinned to mannequins creates a fantastic contrast in the demonstration of a really crazy criminal, whose worldview and mindset are extremely far from understanding a mentally healthy person. Either Spinnel, who wrote dialogues for himself, studied criminal psychology properly, or whether he actually has mental problems, but you trust his hero 100%. The ending with the attack on the villain of a mob of disfigured zombies, in which the killer’s madness reaches its climax, at first glance, may seem silly and royal because of the presence of fantastic lotions in it, however, Lasting managed to get out with such dexterity so that there was no misunderstanding and the viewer will not be perplexed when viewing. On the contrary, everything is very logical and plot justified.

Of course, there are also drawbacks that do not allow to evaluate the "Maniac" as high as possible. To begin with, the movie is very tight. There are quite few murders in the Maniac and their frank brutality, you run the risk of getting bored due to some protraction, for example, an unreasonably long scene of persecution in the subway. And in between the "attacks" of the killer, the viewer will observe extremely long and meaningless conversations of Frank with his victims. On the one hand, this seems to reveal the psychopath himself quite well, but on the other hand, it creates a somewhat boring and monotonous background, because of which the viewer’s interest in what is happening risks decreasing somewhat. In addition, "Maniac" lacks a more elegant directing. Perhaps that is why almost all episodes of the madness of the protagonist look a little monotonous and unforgettable. If the slasher elements of Lasting succeed very well, then the rest of the genre components were shot very mediocre and I think that’s why, in fact, “Maniac” was never recognized as a classic of the genre, remaining only a cult thriller in small circles. I believe that the authors should have better focus on the killer’s inner psychology and his worldview, as he did in his time with another thriller very similar to Maniac - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which, unlike this film, managed to enter the Golden Fund genre movie. Here, despite all the director’s aspirations to get as far away from the slasher component as possible, they eventually reduced Maniac to this limited genre.

As a result, the film is recommended primarily for brutal and uncompromisingly brutal criminal films. He will not leave indifferent those who value slashers, although I cannot guarantee that he will satisfy every single slasherman, due to his non-standard character. But those who pray for subtle and elegant psychological thrillers, in the spirit of “Silence of the Lambs” or “Games”, “Maniac” will most likely not like it.