Review of Maniac Cop (1988) by Tim S — 25 Dec 2013

Maniac Cop is a surprisingly well-made horror movie about a psychotic ex-cop who goes around killing people on the streets with little to no motive, and it's up to a detective, a cop and a cop framed for the murders to find him and stop him.

The movie decides to play detective for the better part of the movie, even though we as the audience know right from the beginning that it's a cop. We just don't know everything about him yet.

It's very much in the vein of a giallo, without all of the overbearing style. It sounds like it could spell disaster for the movie itself, but it doesn't. It works fairly well, and they keep the killer's identity a secret for as long as possible, making him that much more menacing and frightening.

But the movie isn't about the scares. It's about the horror and the action, and William Lustig does a great job in directing a terrific bunch of actors including exploitation genre veterans Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell and Richard Roundtree (with a nice cameo by Sam Raimi, as well).

I really enjoyed the film and thought it had a terrific pace, and horror fans would very much be doing themselves a disservice by not checking it out.