Gore-hounds…….get ready to treat
yourself this Halloween to Maniac,
which is an effective remake of the sleazy, 1980’s cult exploitation classic.
The film is not only bloody disgusting, but also creepy as all hell. Elijah
Wood commands the title role as Frank, a vicious NYC killer who scalps his
victims to use in his dungeon of mannequins. The opening shot, in which Frank impales a knife through the jaw of his first
victim, is seen through his point-of-view, referring to the perspective of
the tortured cameraman in Michael Powell’s Peeping
Tom(1960). Elijah Wood’s killer, similar to Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, (there’s even a musical
reference in which the killer's prey dances to Q Lazzarus's Goodbye Horses) objectifies women, hoping to
find relief from his traumatic upbringing.
The entire film is seen through Frank’s eyes, which holds some resemblance to
Travis Bickle’s unique point-of-view in Taxi
Driver (1976). The audience is literally stuck inside the killer’s perspective,
and we only get snippets of Elijah Wood’s bluish, yet deviously creepy eyes
through reflections and dream states. The camera work and cinematography are, ironically, a thing of beauty; the isolated areas of the city, including the long and empty
alleyways and subway station, exude a surreal dread. The audience submerges into
the killer’s point-of-view without any nauseating sensations. The tracking shots
stumble a bit, expressing a human-like balance, but the framing and composition is impeccable. The director wants us to experience the terror of these extreme
killings; slasher films have never been this arty since Peeping Tom.
The
primary reason why Maniac is such a fresh outing in the horror genre is that
studio filmmakers are churning one supernatural thriller after another. How
many rehashes of The Haunting (1963)
can one watch without yawning at every door creak and obtrusive sound effect? I
felt a sigh of relief to sit through a good-ole fashion, borderline -exploitation
slasher film, which also bares strong psychological undertones.
Due to the graphic nature of the
film—both gruesome and sexual—Maniac slipped
under the radar. Mainstream audiences will find Maniac truly sickening, but look beyond the bloody massacre and seek
out the psychological aspects of Elijah Wood’s antihero. The film runs a lean-and-mean 89 minutes, but it’s a enough time to revel in the killer’s demented
mind-frame. Maniac is a bloody disgusting treat that is also terrifying. Too
bad I missed this one on the big screen.
*** (out of four stars)
