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Plot Summary
A man who was previously abused by his mother takes out his frustrations on innocent women. He scalps them and uses their hair to make wigs for his mannequins. Upon its release in 1980 this film was accused by critics of taking the slasher film and its accompanying gore effects to new, unpleasantly graphic levels. Special effects were orchestrated by Tom Savini.
Customer Reviews
The Total Package
This is a truly awesome horror flick in the slasher sub genre. One of the uncontested greats, but sadly undervalued by the public at large.
If you love the good old fashioned stylings of an Argento film, with good character development, coupled with the unflinching grit of a slasher/chase film then you will love this. And if you can forgive how dated this is, although that seems to be one of the movies most endearing qualities, I think you will appreciate and be entertained.
Joe Spinell turns in a super performance, and at that time he was rewriting the "Pyscho" esque character, with a lot of Ed Gein, Ice Man, Son of Sam type psychopathic tendencies thrown in the mix.
Maniac does encompass a lot of what made NYC a scary and shady place in the 1970's and early 80's. At a time when many crimes went unpunished and a lot of people, especially women, felt scared to walk at night in the city. This movie really did capture that feeling, and gave me a nasty taste in my mouth for days afterwards.
I first watched this film when I was around 20 years old back in 1998, and even then after watching countless horror and gore films, this one really affected me. Just like "Day of the Woman" ( the original also known as "I Spit on Your Grave") the gritty reality of the subject matter and the way it was filmed made this a movie that stuck to your ribs.
That's my two cents, and I guess I thought that Maniac just deserved more than a 2 sentence review on iTunes. Thanks!
maniac finally
man its about time they brought this to itunes.this is one of the scariest movies i have ever seen.till today this is one of the most brutul films ever made.a horror classic.
Gritty perfection
Just like NYC in the early 1980's this slasher gem is gritty and uncompromising sleaze. A tortured, top notch performance by Joe Spinell and effects by Tom Savini make this a true classic.
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