Review of Maniac (1980) by Peter D — 19 Feb 2011

Before I review Maniac I must add the following caveat- this is NOT for everyone. Dripping with graphic violence and distinctly dodgy pre-PC misogony, the film makes you want to scrub your eyeballs clean after watching it- but as a study of a derranged serial killer it has few peers!

Frank Zito has none of the charm and intellect of Hannibal Lector, or the slick cunning of Saw's jigsaw- he's a sleazy, unattractive pervert who gets his sexual kicks cutting up and scalping young women. Aside from the criminally underrated Joe Spinell as Zito (make no mistake, this is one of the most queasily convincing portrayls of a psychotic I have ever seen!) the acting is average at best, and some of the plot twists verge on the ridiculous, but the film remains horribly compulsive viewing- and despite, or perhaps because of, the low budget director Bill Lustig really captures the grimy sleaze of early 80s New York.

Maniac was rejected by UK censors at the time of release due to its non-stop sexual violence, until a slightly cut dvd surfaced in 1998. Unfortunately, as a result the movie has been largely obscured by other serial killer flicks like Silence of The Lambs and Henry- but disreputable and grubby though it is, Maniac deserves its place on the list of such horror thrillers.