So, um, Maniac huh? Another infamous supposedly shocking slasher
pic. I’ve always preferred slasher movies to monster/sci-fi stuff,
so I was anxious to dig into this one, especially because it was right
smack in the middle of the worst lineup in movie night history (Buried
Alive, The Terror Within, *cough* The House That Vanished, and Cthulhu
Mansion had previously abused us that night). Sadly, this movie was
pretty much boring and disappointing. That’s not to say there were no
redeeming qualities. Here’s what happens:
Our story begins with some pervert watching a couple kids in love on
a beach. The man leaves for a minute, and our mysterious voyeur, most
likely sensing her loneliness and need for male companionship, makes his
move. He proceeds to cut her throat with a straight razor. Her guy
friend returns and is taken out with a chain.
AAAAAH! A sweaty guy wakes up screaming (from the look of things,
he must have come down with a bad case of Richard Kielitis). He looks
around his room, which is cluttered with a bunch of mannequins, one of
which is bloody. Our hero, let’s call him Maniac, then goes out for a
night on the town (or you could say he’s going to paint the town red).
He finds two prostitutes standing outside. Maniac purchases the services
of one, and they get a hotel room. She begins to pleasure him, and he
seems to be having a good time. But alas, things turn ugly (and the
relationship had so much potential) and he strangles her till she dies.
Then, he gets all sad on us, pukes into the sink, and begins to weep.
This new sensitive side is short-lived, however, and he regains his
composure and scalps her. It’s pretty graphic, too. He takes his prize
back to the reservation. Once he returns, things get really weird on us.
He begins to think some pretty odd thoughts about his mannequins. This
is our first hint that this guy may be off his nut a little.
Later, he grabs a large gun and goes out once again, but not without
taking precious time to offer a doll a peanut. The next thing I know,
there’s movie makeup guru Tom Savini in a car with a girl. Not unlike
you’d suspect, they begin to engage in filthy un-Christian sex. Maniac
sees this and gets out of his car and approaches the car, shotgun in hand.
He makes it around the car a few times, when Mrs. Savini sees him. She
tells Tom, who gets out to investigate. He finds nothing and returns to
finish the job. As he does, Maniac springs onto the hood, and proceeds
to blow his fucking head off in one of Mr. Savini’s greatest FX moments.
I challenge you to find a more realistic exploding head. He then shoots
her (it’s left to our imagination, though.) Back at the house, Maniac is
listening to a police report about the killings. He begins to talk to his
mannequins again.
Cut to a playground. Two ladies are watching their kids swinging.
One takes off on his bike, and runs into, guess who out on an afternoon
stroll. He notices a woman taking photographs in the park. He finds
her camera bag on the ground and reads the address. Later, he peers
into a store window with lots of mannequins. Cut to a hospital (huh?),
where two nurses are just finishing their shifts. Maniac is across the
street watching. One walks home, he follows. She descends to the subway,
he follows. Soon, she realizes she’s being followed by a lumpy sweaty
guy and begins to run. Unfortunately for her, she misses her train, and
is left alone with Maniac. She decides to hide in a stall (if she was
looking for the script that was probably the best place to start). He
comes in, and checks all the other stalls. She then assumes he’s given
up and left for good, just like you or I would, and goes back out into
the open. Maniac kills her with a knife in the back. Back at the pad,
Maniac is talking to a mannequin about a bloody scalp (it must be their
4th anniversary, that’s the bloody scalp anniversary). Meanwhile, in
a dark room, photographer lady is developing pictures. Someone is at
the door, who could it be? It’s Maniac, and he’s returning the lost
camera bag. They talk for a spell, and later they go out to dinner.
Later, at a photo shoot, we find Maniac’s new love interest taking
some pictures of a model. Maniac appears, and lifts a necklace from the
model. Next, we find ourselves at the model’s home, where she’s
preparing to take a bath. *Knock Knock* It’s Speedy Delivery Guy,
and he’s got a package. Maniac returns the lost necklace and then
leaves. She gets into the bathtub. Somehow, she makes it through the
bath without getting abducted or killed, I guess this movie isn’t as
stupid and predictable as I though. She gets some tea, but Maniac
returns and takes her in a sack, a to go order if you will.
Now we’re back at Maniac’s humble abode, where he’s talking to her as
though she’s one of his mannequins. She isn’t dead, though. He kills
her, and tells her he loves her. SSSCALP! After a little target practice,
Maniac calls his photographer girlfriend, and they decide to go to a
show. He picks her up, but they make a detour to a cemetery to pay
respects to Maniac’s deceases mother. Did I mention this movie’s a
little weird? He snaps, strangles her, and repeats “Rita, no!” She
gets away from him, though. After sneaking up behind him, she hits
him with a shovel and runs away. Maniac begins to cry for his mom, and
after a little while of that, he begins to hear her voice. He flashes
back to some traumatic incidents, therefore establishing the basis of
his psychosis, if you care about that sort of thing. He crawls to her
grave and hallucinates her grabbing him from under. This movie should
have quit when it was ahead about twenty minutes ago.
Now he’s home. As he lays in bed, his mannequins become animate and
butcher him, eventually tearing his head off. That’s pretty cool.
Daylight. The police bust into the Maniac Mansion (remember that show?)
He’s bloody. They assume he’s dead, so they leave (?) His eye opens.
Thankfully, there was no sequel.
This may sound pretty cool, but that’s only if you grade it Cliff’s
Notes. The exploding head scene stands out as a highlight, as does yet
another “A” job by Savini in the makeup department. There are also a
few genuinely creepy moments. As for me, I’ve always enjoyed sadism in
my killer, as I’ve always thought sadistic psychos are far more
terrifying than any mutant Hell creature. On the down side, there’s way
too much tedious exposition which really bogs the movie down. A lot of
it’s pretty boneheaded and predictable, as well. In hindsight, Maniac
would have been a lot better had it been viewed without any hype or high
expectations. As it is, however, Maniac is a disappointing yawn fest
that would have been really good had it been fifty minutes long.
Well, it came in all hyped up to be something
great, and it sure as hell didn't come through. It did, however,
have a pretty good look at the life of a psycho killer, and had
a good head explosion.
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