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Showing posts from October 25, 2015

Maniac (1980) - William Lustig

I wanted to watch a gritty, brutal slasher and I think I found just what I was looking for with Maniac. You have guaranteed gore factor with Tom Savini providing the color for the more grotesque scenes. I had reviewed the remake with Elijah Wood previously and been pretty impressed with the realism. It's seriously stomach churning. This movie is no different. It still creates that pit in your stomach.  Frank Rizo is a troubled man with issues stemming from his mother's death. He misses her and it drives him over the edge. We watch his insanity eat him alive as he tries to cope while doing some really terrible things. His victims are a number of women in New York. He always retrieves the scalp of the victim and nails them to mannequins in his apartment. But he has attracted the attention of the police and now things are getting a bit too heated. You can relate this to a modern day telling of the old Jack the Ripper tales.  Rizo is a demented, tormented figu