Maniac 1997 Horror Movie Review

I actually saw this film in a theater when it came out in 1980.

The local “word of mouth” spread like wild-fire.

Only one theater was showing it, one showing, at night!

You had to be at least 18 to get in, and in those days, they werent

kidding.

All I knew about it at the time was, nothing like it had ever been done

before, it was over the top violent and graphic.


Well, that was an understatment!

When the “maniac” title character jumped on the hood of the car and

aimed a shotgun at the driver (played by Tom Savini), I fully expected

the camera to cut! It didnt!!! Not only did the camera not cut away, we

see all the action in slow motion!! Even then, after the shotgun blast,

the camera dwells on the carnage for several seconds as we see blood and flesh drip from the car’s front seat.


I knew I was in for a ride.


I think this film is shocking enough today on DVD, but back in 1980, it

was totally unpresidented. It had gotten such a negative reputation, I

had to be careful who I told I had seen it, and worse, loved it!


I was sure this one was destined for the garbage incinerator!!


Ya know, as a film buff, and having studied film in college, I can sit

and debate Antonioni, or Bresson, or whoever with the best film snob,

but this movie is one of my personal favorites.


For it’s own, it works for me as cineama. It shocks and disturbs like

nothing I have seen. It possitivly suspends the viewer in utter dispare,

loathing, and fear.

By the end, I feel drained and dirty.


There is no actual story here, just a few days spent inside the head of

a very sick person. It’s all from his point of view.


Unlike some of it’s contemporaries like Friday the 13th, there is absolutly no snickering and giggling when a abnoxious horny teenage is

dispatched. The killings here have a gritty, dirty reality that is very

disturbing. The entire film is humorless and unrelenting to the graphic

end.


This is one of those movies, like In a Glass Cage or Salo, or Cannibal

that pushes the envelope, and puts you in a world where even your darkest

dreams never go.