Maniac
William
Lustig
Umbrella
Entertainment
Single
DVD or as part of the
Video
Nasties Set Release
Maniac is the tale of Frank Zito (Joe Spinell), a clearly
disturbed dude. He was severely mentally and physically abused as a child by
his prostitute mother and now lives alone in a desolate part of
Frank is confused about what he wants, he
hates his mother for leaving him, both alone at night as a child as she worked
the streets and through her death in a car accident, yet also loves her and
cannot let go. His view of women hence matches his delusion, he wants woman to
mother him and yet when he sees them as “sexual” beings he has the
incontrollable urge to kill them. To preserve the “ideal” image he has of women
he recreates them in forms he can control and manipulate, he does this by
collecting items from them and creating mannequins with their hair to represent
them.
His killings are brutal and intense, this
is not a film for the faint of heart, since he kills on impulse and cannot
control his urges, the killings are explosive, violent
and explicit. There are some incredible chase sequences which will bring your
heart right up into your throat, the scene in the graveyard is impressive, but
nothing compares to the “hunt” through the railway underground. You experience
the scene through the eyes of the victim and feel ever move she takes to evade
the killer, the end to the chase is equally terrifying.
One of the stranger juxtapositions is
when Frank meets a fashion photographer Anna D'Antoni
(Caroline Munro). At first it seems he is more fascinated with her photography
and the way it “freezes” a person beyond time (hence beyond them leaving or
dying) then her. He then begins to date her yet in a very staid
and nearly platonic manner. At the same time he kills one of her models and continuing
his violent rampage.
On one level, his relationship with Anna D'Antoni looks as though it is his attempt to develop
a more “sane” aspect of himself, but of course, this all comes crashing down
when they visit his mother’s grave and his insanity intrudes once again. He
loses control, violently attacking her but for the first time in the film, the
woman escapes and this
ultimately leads to a final scene of madness in which he stabs himself and is
discovered by the police.
Throughout the film we switch between the
perspectives of the victims and Frank himself. We constantly hear his heavy, laboured breathing and in various hallucinations, ranging
from his mother returning from the grave and a graphic depiction of his victims
dismembering him, we see the world the way he does. While this is certainly a
splatter film and was denounced as a “video nasty” at the time of its release,
it does attempt to explore the psychological mindset of a man who is both a
killer and a tormented child locked with him struggling with the scars of
abuse.
The special effects are confronting and
frighteningly real, Tom Savini did an incredible job
and some of the killings, such as the rifle blasts in the car are hard to watch
without flinching. It is quite a tribute to Savini
that some 28 years later the killings in Maniac still have a visceral effect on
those who see it.
For some years this was a key film caught
up within the Video Nasty controversy, it was banned in many countries and
heavily edited in others, it was denounced by misogynist by some and is still
subject to much controversy. In
Umbrella has released a nice package
including lots of extras. There is an interesting audio commentary with William
Lustig, Tom Savini, Lorenzo
Marinelli and Luke Walter, a radio Interview with
William Lustig, a documentary called “The Joe Spinell Story”, TV Spots, a gallery of outrage, still and
poster gallery and trailers.
It is available as a single DVD release
or as part of Umbrella’s great value Video Nasties
set which also includes such other notable shockers as The Last House on the
Left and Basket Case.