Maniac

1980

Action / Crime / Drama / Horror / Thriller

20
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 40% · 20 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 58% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 20080 20.1K

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Plot summary

A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, loose in NYC, kills young women and local girl American models and takes their scalps as trophies.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 18, 2016 at 05:20 AM

Director

Top cast

Tom Savini as Disco Boy
Caroline Munro as Anna D'Antoni
Joe Spinell as Frank Zito
Frank Pesce as T.V. Reporter
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
638.76 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds 2
1.33 GB
1920*1040
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by drownsoda90 7 / 10

Maniacal For Sure.

"Maniac" is one of the few horror movies that I have seen that actually got under my skin a little. It made me feel uncomfortable while I watched what was happening on screen, and very few movies have ever done that to me. The movie follows a psychotic murderer as he wanders the streets of New York City, in cheap restaurants, rundown apartment complexes, and subway stations, searching for his next victims, each of them savagely murdered.

The plot for this movie may not seem very scary, but the way the movie is crafted is genuinely grisly and really made me feel uncomfortable. Rather than going from the victim's point of view as they are slashed to pieces (like most horror movies tend to do), this movie rather focuses on the actual killer himself. We learn about the abuse that he suffered as a small child at the hands of his domineering mother, which is presumably the reason he's become a murderer, taking out his own personal revenge on other people. The one thing about this movie that was so interesting was how the audience got to enter the mind of the killer, so to speak. Joe Spinell gave an excellent performance as the maniac in this movie, he portrayed a tormented human very well. There are some very grisly murders throughout the movie, all of which are fairly gruesome. But the most disturbing aspect to the film was the sense of psychosis that the killer is experiencing.

"Maniac" is surely similar to "Psycho", which makes me wonder whether or not the writers of this film were basing the plot on the real life serial killer Ed Gein, who also grew up with an abusive mother and suffered psychological problems later on as an adult, which ultimately drove him to grave-robbing and murder. There are some striking similarities between the story of this film and Ed Gein's life.

Overall, "Maniac" is one grisly, nasty movie. It displays the psychological torment that many real-life serial killers suffer from and does a good job at it, leaving it's audience uncomfortable in their seats. And from what I have seen, not many movies do that. 7/10.

Reviewed by AlsExGal 7 / 10

a very sleazy, graphic, uncomfortable psycho-killer flick

It's a showcase for sweaty character actor Joe Spinell, who appeared in a lot of major films (The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver) in small roles, and larger roles in more dubious fare (Starcrash). The story was inspired by the Son of Sam killings, with Spinell as the ranting, depraved killer. The film was notorious for its (at the time) very graphic killings, featuring the work of make up FX legend Tom Savini.

The movie's appeal will be limited, but if one enjoys that particular brand of late-70's/early-80's NYC grime and sleaze, it's a must-see. Director William Lustig made several other genre films (Vigilante, Maniac Cop) before starting the Blue Underground home video company, who are the prime source for Italian genre films on disc (horror, giallo, spaghetti westerns, crime thrillers, etc.).

Reviewed by Woodyanders 8 / 10

Super sleazy and disturbing portrait of a psycho

Vicious and unhinged misogynistic psychopath Frank Zito (superbly played with fierce and frightening intensity by late, great character actor Joe Spinell, who also came up with the story and co-wrote the bleak script) brutally butchers young women and collects their scalps so they can adorn the mannequins he keeps in his dingy apartment.

Director William Lustig ably crafts an unsparingly grim, sordid, and nihilistic claustrophobic atmosphere that permeates every last fetid frame like a huge and ominous storm cloud; the potently unsettling sense of total pain, despair, anguish, and squalor astutely captures the warped psyche of Frank Zito and firmly places the viewer in his lonely and unstable state of mind. Moreover, Spinell portrays the sick main character with startling sweaty conviction and even brings a surprising tortured'n'tormented pathos to the role that in turn gives this movie an extra jolting punch.

Tom Savini's notoriously gruesome make-up effects have lost none of their revolting persuasive impact. (Savini also has a small part as a victim.) The scenes with Zito stalking and killing his victims are extremely creepy and suspenseful, with the subway sequence in particular rating as a nerve-wracking stand-out. The use of seedy New York City locations further enhances the overall steaminess. Robert Lindsay's gritty cinematography provides an appropriately grungy look. Jay Chattaway's quivery score hits the flesh-crawling spot. Only the scenes with Frank wooing glamorous fashion photographer Anna D'Antoni (the gorgeous Caroline Munro) ring false; it just isn't credible that a weird dude like Frank would be capable of sweeping someone like Anna off of her feet. By no means a fun or pleasant film, but still a very powerful and upsetting one.

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