Maniac

Maniac (1980)

Joe Vito had a difficult childhood. His mother was a prostitute who locked him in the closet when she left him for her “dates”. When he misbehaved she burnt his arms with cigarettes. So as you would expect this left him with some mommy issues that effect his relationships with women. But instead of getting some therapy he goes out stalks and kills women, only to skin them of their hair. He takes the hair and the clothing they were wearing home to put on manikins so that they will never leave him. Things are going along well for him until he meets a beautiful young photographer and breaks his pattern by not immediately killing her. Eventually she sees thru his mommy issues and all hell breaks loose.

This is a pretty controversial movie. When it came out there was a huge uproar about the realism of the violence towards the female characters (more about that later). I think that this is a tribute to how well made the movie is. The story is very simple and pulls no punches in showing the brutality of it’s killer, Frank Zito. This is what the audiences that condemned the movie were reacting to, and it is also why the movie stands out from other similar stalk and kill movies from the early 80s. Instead of a polished film with attractive young people being killed off by a mysterious killer we get to see inside the head of a disturbed man. Then we watch him stalk his victims thru the gritty streets of NYC until he kills. But where other movies just move onto the next victim we get to spend time with Zito as he goes thru his ritual of bringing them home with him. And back to the setting of the movie. I have grown to love flicks set in and around NYC. The city is almost like another character and in the hands of a talented filmmaker (this time Bill Lustig) it adds a lot to the movie.

Now to be honest this isn’t the sort of movie that interests me at all. I’ve never gotten into watching a killer work, especially in such a realistic and gut wrenching movie like this. I really lose interest fast. This is how I felt the first time I watched Maniac, but I have to tell you after watching it again (and multiple times after that) my opinion has changed a bit. Joe Spinell’s performance is so amazing that on the second time thru I really started just watching him. The nuances and little touches that he created are amazing and disturbing. This is why I always go back and spend the time revisiting those movies that are popular with other fans, which I didn’t like. You never know when a movie will click for you and I’m happy to say that Maniac clicked for me.

Maniac was made in the early 80s and had the maestro himself, Tom Savini, doing makeup effects. So of course that means there are some killer special effects, including an exploding head, several throat slashes, a brutally slow knifing, and an up close scalping that will have many in the audience squirming in their seats. Toss in the demise of the killer, which feels like a warm-up for his later gag in Day of the Dead, and you have an awesome bit of practical makeup effects work. I’m also really impressed with first time director William Lustig’s work with the camera. He keeps it moving around the locations, like in the subway stalking scenes. This makes for a very interesting sequence. Also there are some innovative and different camera angles, like from the floor of the car in the infamous shotgun scene. I’m not sure that Lustig ever gets his due for being a really good director and his eye for setting up a scene.

For this review I watched the soon to be released Blu-Ray release of the movie. This is a 2-disc set that celebrates the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie. Included on the set is an amazing 51-minute long documentary about the star of the movie called the Joe Spinell Story. His friends and family are interviewed as the documentary takes a look at the man’s life, his amazing career, and his far too early death. It contains interviews with such notables as William Lustig (director of Maniac) and Robert Forster. This is one of my favorite documentaries that I’ve ever seen as an extra. Also included is a pair of commentary tracks with the best being the one featuring director Lustig and effects man Tom Savini.

But this is the 20th anniversary release so they have added so much more. I’m not going to talk about all of the other special features, but I will mention my favorites. They are split on the disc into two different categories. First is called Maniac Publicity. Here we have a nifty Q and A recorded at the Grindhouse Film Festival. Lustig is joined by producer Andrew W. Garroni and one of the actresses from the film. There are some great stories about the making of the movie. There is also an appearance that Joe Spinell made on the Joe Franklin Show when Maniac was released back in 1980. This is a bit dry, but it was cool to see Spinell chilling out on the couch. My favorite thing from the Publicity stuff has to be Movie Madness. This was a cable access show from Manhattan and this time around we get to see Lustig on the show talking about Maniac and all things exploitation. This is a must watch.

The other section of features is called Maniac Controversy. Here we get to see news reports talking about how terrible Maniac is and how it is going to cause men to run from the theater and kill innocent women (I suppose killing the guilty ones is okay…). We have reports from L.A., Chicago (Gene Siskel was a bit of a douche), and Philadelphia. I found it very amusing how they were predicting either the end of society or the eventual end of these terrible movies. Yeah 30 years later and we are still celebrating them in our somewhat orderly society. There is also what I think was a program called News Beat that is a 20 minute long look at the state of horror movies circa 1980 or 1981. This contains much of the hand wringing from “experts” like the news reports, but also includes interviews with Joe Dante and Bill Lustig. The program also mentions the advancements in special effects and how that might influence the audience to do bad things. I found it interesting and again worth watching. But my favorite bit from this are 2 short segments from Midnight Blue. This is the program from Al Goldstein that aired on Manhattan cable. His rants that you can chop people up on screen, but not show naked bits and sex acts is a trip. If you dig the adult/exploitation scene then you will want to watch this feature.

Blue Underground certainly knows how to put a special edition Blu-Ray together. Not only is this a great movie that looks killer in high def, but as you now know there are tons of special features on the release. If you haven’t seen Maniac before I can’t recommend the movie enough. And if you already have seen and own an earilier release of Maniac on DVD then I can assure you that this one is worth double dipping on. You won’t be disappointed, trust me. For more information on how to get yourself a copy of Maniac and their other great titles check out the Blue Underground website at http://www.blue-underground.com/

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer