William Lustig's incredibly grim tale of a psychopathic loner, Frank Zito, whose main purpose in life is to go around NYC killing people. He scalps his female victims, and adorns the mannequins strewn around his seedy efficiency apartment with their farmed follicles. Frank, cleaned up and pimpin' in his double breasted polyester suit and extra-large shaded aviators, eventually meets, and begins courting a fashion photographer named Anna. But his darker side won't allow a healthy relationship to develop, and soon she is also falling prey to the MANIAC.
Super simple, but incredibly effective, MANIAC is one of the great examples of so-called "Grindhouse cinema". Lurid, disgusting, and better than it should be, this was the litmus test every gorehound (which I was as a pre-teen in 1980) subjected themselves to. This was a dangerous movie, raising the bar on cruelty about 30 levels above the other slashers of the day.
Starring, and co-written by, character actor extraordinaire Joe Spinell (THE GODFATHER pt II, CRUISING, TAXI DRIVER, and pretty much every other movie shot in NYC), who was also quite eccentric himself, and genre quees Caroline Munro STARCRASH, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD). keep an eye peeled for Golden era porn queen Sharon Mitchell as well. You know you've seen some of her movies, don't lie!
Factor in FX (and a cameo) by the Picasso of latex, Tom Savini, and you have a prime slab of meat for horror fanatics. An unflinchingly brutal classic.
WARNING! This trailer is graphic, obscene, sick, and perverse...which means RUN. DON'T WALK and WATCH NOW! Order the bluray HERE. And look out behind you, there's a MANIC coming your way!
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