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Maniac
(1980) |
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Utterly dire film that has a very seedy slimy feel to it. Maniac is a total downer from start to end, violent and horribly gruesome it is just relentlessly awful. The film follows the grisly escapades of the sicko played rather convincingly by Spinell! He spends much of his time lying around his filthy abode with mannequins and the occasional corpse as well.
Necrophilia is strongly suggested. Now and then his bloodlust needs to be satisfied and so he prowls the streets of Manhattan seeking his prey. His rather unfortunate state is explained away by the usual mother son relationship gone awry a la Psycho. This sicko has a penchant for scalping his victims, a sight we are treated to courtesy of splatter effects king Tom Savini. Most of his Savini's work was removed by the censors, though the unedited version maintains the great head-being-blown-off shots in their full gruesome detail. There is a quite laughable climax borrowed shamelessly from Carrie. The whole movie is a rather lame effort, yet it has a sort of seedy, desperate sort of charm, if that makes any sense at all. The poster of this film is an undying memory and the remarkable memory.......truly tasteless and totally to the point. It doesn't mess around getting to the point as to what sort of film Maniac is. The film itself is for hardcore horror fans only, most others will drop off to sleep or be too repulsed by what they see to watch it beyond the first scalping at best! Spinell, it has to be said, looks about as seedy, degenerate and psychotic as a person could.........bless his soul.
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