Maniac(1980).Frank misses his mother, who was killed in a car accident years before. She was abusive to him, and made money selling her body, but Frank still misses her. He tries to keep her from leaving him, and reform her evil ways, by killing young women and putting their scalps on mannequins which he displays around his apartment. Photographer Anna takes a picture of him in the park, and he pursues and befriends her. Is she the one he's been looking for or just another mommy wanna be? Written byEd Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>... Synopsis Maniac(1980)
Movie Title: Maniac(1980)
Run Time: 87 min
Rating: 6.3 / 10
Genres: Drama |Horror |Thriller
Release Date: 1 January 1981 (USA)
Director: William Lustig
Writer: C.A. Rosenberg ,Joe Spinell , more credit ... and other credits
Actor: Joe Spinell,Caroline Munro,Abigail Clayton
MANIAC
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Sound format: Dolby Stereo
William Lustig's urban horror film doesn't offer much of a plot, and not much of anything else, either. It's more of a character study than a narrative, focusing on a deeply disturbed apartment superintendent (Joe Spinell at his sweatiest) who murders people - mostly women - in an attempt to exorcise the demons of his unhappy childhood when he was tortured and abused by his mother. Lustig casts pseudonymous female porn stars as victims and then proceeds to wallow in sleaze and misogyny until the film becomes almost too much to bear. In one of the most disturbing scenes in the picture, Spinell ties a terrified woman to her bed and runs a knife blade down her chest before stabbing her, and the victim's dying expression is almost orgasmic. Elsewhere, the beautiful Caroline Munro is wasted as a fashion photographer who dates Spinell during his more lucid moments, while Spinell himself makes for a very uninteresting psycho. Tom Savini's celebrated gore effects are gruesome but unconvincing, and though the storyline seems torn from recent headlines (it was partially inspired by the 'Son of Sam' killings which rocked New York in the 1970s), there doesn't seem to be any discernible point to the proceedings.
