Maniac is a truly fascinating film. It's unceasingly grim, brutal and sick. It relies a lot on some very cliched set-ups. But at the same timke is completely original and I don't believe I've seen another film like it. Joe Spinell is very creepy and his monologues are perfect studies in dementia. He sounds and looks like Berkowitz.(Although the killer's psychological quirks are much more like Dahmer than Berkowitz.) But it's not perfect though. The ending is rteally derivative and cheesy and I was personally annoyed by the lack of consistency in how the killer killed his victims and the ridiculous explanatory part.
