Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 01/30/2007
SubTitles: Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Italian
Sound: DTS-ESD/DD5.1/DD-EX
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Gore
Distributor/Studio: Blue Underground
Joe Spinell, who appeared in
Taxi Driver, stars in this unsavory horror film as Frank Zito, a character reminiscent of an even more disturbed Travis Bickle. Frank is an embittered loser who talks to himself and his dead mother, stalks a pretty model (
Caroline Munro), and spends his spare time brutally murdering women. He then scalps his victims and puts the trophies on mannequins which he takes to bed with him at night. An unpleasant film with a relentlessly downbeat tone,
Maniac! features graphic, bloody special-effects makeup by cult favorite
Tom Savini, who meets a gruesome end in a cameo as "Disco Boy." Highlights include a realistic scalping by Exacto knife and an exploding head. The ending takes an interesting twist as Spinell hallucinates his victims returning to life and tearing him limb from limb. Spinell and Munro reteamed in 1982 for
The Last Horror Film. Adult film star
Sharon Mitchell (whom director
William Lustig discovered in
The Violation of Claudia) appears briefly as a nurse.
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide