Review of Maniac Cop (1988) by Steve E — 01 Mar 2009

SPOILERS AHEAD! Maniac Cop I find better than Lustig's similarly titled film called 'Maniac', which he directed seven years earlier. Maniac Cop is kind of a Halloween in NYC but instead of Michael Myers we have a cop, you'll figure out who it is, I'm not giving it away.

But that's where I was deceived, I expected this film to be more realistic, since Lustig's Maniac tries to be realistic. It doesn't start too well, considering a young woman is attacked by two muggers that look pretty tough, and instead of doing the right thing, and giving her money to them, she fights them with her purse and she escapes, NOT very realistic, not in this situation anyway, had she had a gun in her purse, ok maybe.

The first Kill is the best kill of the whole movie, and creepy. We are left to wonder not long after in the movie whether McRae, Ripley, or Forrest is the killer ? And this makes the film intriguing. We keep seeing the killer's gloved hands, his uniformed body, his police cap, but his face is never seen, only in the dark do we see his large head with his cap on, against the artificial light of a dark place at night, but you can't make him out, it's too dark, and this mystery really thrilled me.

But he is eventually revealed to us, but I think too early in the movie. I would have kept the secret and either never revealed him until the sequel, or at least just at the end of this movie, it would have been more effective.

The first half of the movie is a solid 3 stars, but after that it goes downhill, the make-up effect in the killer's face is pretty amateur looking. The maniac also gets his way wherever he goes, just like Michael Myers would.

He enters the police station without any difficulty even with large scars across his face, and kills every cop inside. Another scene that bugged me was when Theresa Mallory is cuffed and accompanied by another cop and this cop gets stabbed by Maniac Cop, and she doesn't even go for his gun to protect herself from Maniac Cop, she was cuffed in front not in the back, she could have reached for his gun, and shot the maniac at point blank, but she did not even try, she goes away silly dragging with her the stabbed cop which is also cuffed to her.

The Maniac Cop could have gotten to her and dispatch her real easy, but that doesn't happen. I guess realism was not an important factor to the director and producers. I mean this maniac is also shot 2 times in the head, and countless times in the stomach, and just like a Michael Myers clone he stands there and takes it like a boogeyman, but unlike Micheal who is stopped and falls down after many shots, this killer is unscathed.

Most slashers of the 80's are like this ; UNREAL, JUST HORROR FANTASY, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But this movie deceived me because I thought it would have a different kind of treatment.

Two of the stunts are outstanding, but stunts 'ALONE' never make a movie great in my book. The acting is good. The cast is a great cast. But even with all these good points, the biggest problem with this movie in my opinion, is the screenplay, and the lack of realism.