MANIAC
Directed by William Lustig
USA 1980
PLOT
Frank Zito is a middle-aged man of large stature who hides behind solitude and silence a troubled past marked by a stormy and violent relationship with his mother.
This repressed issue will ignite his homicidal rage, turning him into a serial killer, primarily targeting women.
His victims, once killed, suffer the scalping of their hair, which the killer uses to decorate the mannequins kept locked in his home.
THOUGHTS
*Maniac* is one of the most ferocious slashers ever made, and the film’s genius and power are expressed right from the start: William Lustig relies on the devious, disgusting, brutal, filthy, overweight face and physique of Joe Spinell, and tells the everyday life of a rapist/serial killer through his gaze.
At times, this becomes literal, with first-person shots that destabilize and perfectly convey the mental deviation afflicting our protagonist, Frank Zito, portrayed by Joe Spinell in a stellar performance that carries the film on his shoulders.
Lustig, for his part, directs with an almost documentary-like approach, often in a single “take,” through the streets of New York, giving us a rarely beautiful and credible urban portrait.
Frank prowls the streets at night, hunting prey, attacking them, and once killed, he scalps them and, dripping with blood, returns home.
The moments of domestic madness, where the serial killer’s portrait is vividly outlined, remain etched in the eyes: monologues with mannequins, the processing of scalps, the stares, the paranoias, etc. All deeply touching and disturbing moments capable of narrating the man’s psyche.
Maniac has a very high level of gore, with murders depicted in detail (from strangulation to dismemberment), scalps shown up close, blood flowing in torrents, and heads exploding.
Much credit goes to the meticulous and high-quality work of Tom Savini, a well-known special effects artist who also appears here in a small but visually impactful role.
Lustig’s first horror film and a solid success: a low budget that conveys tension, grime, and violence from start to finish, things that “A-list” films rarely achieve.
The killer, in an era when masked killers were dominating, is phenomenal and convincing precisely because of his facial expressions, nervous tics, stares, and psychology.
A mentally ill person who pours all his frustrations onto his victims, frustrations caused by the extremely difficult relationship with his mother, marked by abuse that was never overcome.
Even the encounter with the beautiful photographer Anna, with whom Frank forms a finally “human” intimate relationship, will not save him from the explosive catharsis in the final delirium.
Chronicles recount that Spinell was working on the screenplay for the sequel, Maniac 2, at the time of his death.
In 2012, a remake was released, starring Elijah Wood, written by Aja, and directed by Franck Khalfoun.
PANDEMONIC MOMENT
Returning home after a struggle with Anna at the cemetery on his mother’s grave, Frank, wounded, lies down in bed and is attacked by mannequins that take on the appearance of his victims.
In a dreamlike yet highly impactful scene, they take their revenge by decapitating him.
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