I had this pencilled in for late Friday night but when they shifted the Tuesday night session to 8:30pm I decided to bring it forward to free up the Friday night schedule. So glad I did, because now I can tell you how cool this movie is and now you can go see it on Friday night too!
Maniac is a remake of a 1980 slasher movie, one that I think is probably pretty low profile since my friend M, a horror movie buff from way back, had only seen the cover and not the movie. Sorry I can't tell you whether this is actually a faithful or different remake, but I can tell you that it's a super fun little movie with a twist. Not a twist ending, the twist is that the movie is told from the point of view of the killer. Most horror movies show the victim's point of view, creating fear for the viewer as they put themselves in the victim's shoes and see the killer stalking them. This movie chooses to show a large majority of the scenes literally from what the killer is seeing, apart from a few scenes which pull back and show the whole thing or when he is looking in the mirror. This aspect means that the usual fear element is watered down but it definitely does create something different and interesting.
Elijah Wood is the only name actor in this movie, playing Frank who by day is a creepy guy living alone in a warehouse where he restores antique mannequins to their former glory and doen't have a lot of friends. By night he is a creepy guy cruising for chicks with good hair who he kills, scalps and uses the hair to create very realistic wigs for the mannequins, who he then treats like they are real women. He meets a girl, Anna, who photographs mannequins for her art portfolio and is the first person to treat the mannequins and Frank with any respect. But what will happen when Frank finds out that Anna has a boyfriend?
The good thing about this movie is that it doesn't try to complicate things, the reason for his insanity is fairly obvious, there is no twist ending and it provides some really gory, gooey stuff for gorehounds. And it's not filmed in shaky cam so you can watch it pretty easily. It does have some limitations stemming from the 80s roots e.g. a girl who realises she's being followed runs into a pretty lonely neighbourhood instead of just getting out her mobile and calling for help as you would think anyone would in this day and age. That's just nitpicking really though.
In summary, a strong slasher movie with strong violence and gore but one that is super cool and has a point of difference to hold your interest.
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