Review of Maniac (2012) by Andrew D — 02 Dec 2013
2013 seems to be the year for horror remakes as Maniac joins the list. The story follows Frank, a serial killer who hunts down women and uses their hair for his mannequins. When he meets Anna, a French photographer/artist, he feels something that he never felt before, love.
However, he still continues to hunt and kill, risking his friendship with Anna and giving in to his psychopathic tendencies. I've never seen the original Maniac, so I don't really have anything to compare here.
So, I'm going to judge it as a film itself. First off, Elijah Wood does great with what he's given. This role seemed extremely challenging because he's barely on-screen during the entire film.
His line deliveries and tones perfectly captures how the audience is supposed to perceive the character. What I really liked about the film though is that 95% of it is shot in the POV of Frank himself.
It's an interesting technique and it works extremely well. In doing so, the audience is able to get an exclusive look at Frank's mind and it really helps to move the story along. The major problem I had with this film though is that it started to get repetitive after awhile.
Everything with Frank and Anna was great, but when he's about to kill another person, it's the same formula every time and it gets annoying. Pretty much, he hides in the shadows, follows his victim, makes himself known in tiny increments until he eventually gets her.
Sure the way he killed each victim was different, but it just wasn't interesting leading up to it. I also didn't really like the final 5-10 minutes because it dips into strange surreal territory that left me extremely confused by the time the credits rolled.
If the film had improved upon this, I would have been more impressed. Maniac is a very interesting psychological horror film with a tremendous performance by Elijah Wood. However, it gets repetitive after awhile and the ending gives very little payoff.
It's worth a one time watch, but don't expect anything super special.
This review of Maniac (2012) was written by Andrew D on 02 Dec 2013.
Maniac has generally received mixed reviews.
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