Maniac (1980)

A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, loose in NYC, kills young women and takes their scalps as trophies. Will he find the perfect woman in photographer Anna, and end his killing spree?

Director:

William Lustig

Writers:

C.A. Rosenberg (screenplay), Joe Spinell (screenplay),

Stars:

Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Abigail Clayton

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joe Spinell	...	Frank Zito
Caroline Munro	...	Anna D'Antoni
Abigail Clayton	...	Rita (as Gail Lawrence)
Kelly Piper	...	Nurse
Rita Montone	...	Hooker
Tom Savini	...	Disco Boy
Hyla Marrow	...	Disco Girl
James L. Brewster	...	Beach Boy (as James Brewster)
Linda Lee Walter	...	Beach Girl
Tracie Evans	...	Street Hooker
Sharon Mitchell	...	Second Nurse
Carol Henry	...	Deadbeat
Nelia Bacmeister	...	Carmen Zito
Louis Jawitz	...	Art Director
Denise Spagnuolo	...	Denise

Storyline

Frank misses his mother, who was killed in a car accident years before. She was abusive to him, and made money selling her body, but Frank still misses her. He tries to keep her from leaving him, and reform her evil ways, by killing young women and putting their scalps on mannequins which he displays around his apartment. Photographer Anna takes a picture of him in the park, and he pursues and befriends her. Is she the one he's been looking for or just another mommy wanna be?

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Plot Keywords:

photographer | killing spree | mannequin | park | car accident | 

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Taglines:

Run from this man!

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Genres:

Crime | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 January 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Maníaco

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$350,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Magnum Motion Pictures Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Body count: 7.(not counting Frank Zito)

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Goofs

When Frank slits the woman's throat on the beach, the knife makes no contact with the throat, even though blood spurts forth from the wound.

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Quotes

Frank Zito: [voice-over] This has got to stop. It's silly, and it's not getting us anywhere. You think they don't know. They do. I heard it and I know. They all know, and I don't like it anymore. But you don't listen do you. It's got to stop. Oh, you're right about them, all of them. They're all the same. I know what they're like. Just because I can't do the things you do doesn't mean I don't see it all the same. "Fancy shmansy," and what are we supposed to do? Sit and smile and say "yes Miss, no miss, not ...

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Connections

Referenced in Anna and the Killer with Caroline Munro (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Winter Love"
(Don Armando)
Performed by Don Armando's 2nd Avenue Rhumba Band
Produced by Coati Mundi (uncredited)
Courtesy of ZE Records

User Reviews

An interesting Flick

Maniac is one of those hard to define flicks. Although, it would seem easy to lump this into one category because of the subject matter, this is actually a hard movie to categorize. It is not really a horror film and not really a slasher. Sure, it has its typical slasher suspense scenes with the random girl running and hiding from the killer and the gory moments are all there, but, there is something about this movie that separates itself from most of the others of its genre. This, in my opinion, is typical of Tom Savini special effects flicks from the early 80's. The grittiness, disturbing nature of most of those films will never be duplicated. And I am not talking about flicks like "Creepshow" or "Day of the Dead" (although, that one is disturbing), I am talking about films like "Friday the 13th", "The Prowler", "The Burning", and "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain" (even though Savini said he never worked on that flick it certainly looks like his style).

Maniac is simply about a man named Frank (played very well by actor Joe Spinell) who was tormented by his mother when he was very young. As a result of this, he grew up to be a sick person who murders woman, scalps them, and uses their hair to nail on to a collection of mannequins. He ends up falling in love with a woman named Anna (Caroline Munro), and when he sees her he seems to be a normal fellow. This all leads up to an interesting climax.

Now, the storyline is rather simple but the movie is suspenseful enough to hold your interest. I will admit, the first 40 minutes were a bit slow, but once when the story starts going more into Franks behavior when he is by himself and then when he acts towards Anna, things start picking up.

Of course, Savini's gore scenes are excellent just like the rest of his stuff. We get to see Savini in the movie himself in a rather famous scene where he gets his brains splattered all over the inside of a car. Though, as a gore fan myself, this is definitely not the goriest flick I have seen. But after listening to the cast and director talk about the movie, I don't think it was meant to be. Joe Spinell himself said that the flick wasn't as violent as a Hershell Gordan Lewis film but was meant to be more realistic and shocking. So, when watching this movie it is important to know this instead of going into the movie expecting a real gore-fest.

I enjoyed this movie, but that is just me. Many people don't like this movie, but if you haven't seen it yet this is for you to decide. I just hope this review helps out. 7/10