GL84 Still affected by his mother's death, a psychotic serial killer begins stalking the streets of New York for potential targets only to find a potential romance that might quell his vicious streak and struggles to control his murderous urges before they return to affect his quest.This here was one of the more overrated slasher efforts of the time. The main problem here is the fact that the movie focuses on the killer more than the victims he goes after, being a character study rather than a truly enjoyable body count hacking. This is the real crime of the movie since he isn't one of the more fascinating serial killers in cinema history, so it can become boring if you're not in the right mind-frame. There are long stretches between kill scenes where you are just begging for something to happen, and all we get is watching him wander around looking for nothing or simply focusing on some old guy who keeps a part of his victims around and talks to them. That really loses the dread in the killer, since it either looks ridiculous and we laugh at him now or it's a trait that isn't very accurately represented throughout the whole movie. Here, it doesn't really invoke terror when a man scalps women to use their hair to dress up mannequins, then he begins talking to then while he's administering the hair to the mannequin. That looks silly instead of terrifying and when it comes into play as often as it does here with the utterly clichéd and wholly overused motive of childhood abuse from his parents as the catalyst for the rampage just making the whole thing even more problematic. There's also the utterly ridiculous romance angle that comes into play here that's incredibly difficult to rationalize why that occurs as it does here since there's very little about it that's believable why someone in her position would fall for an overweight, grimy person like him in the condition she does and it simply reeks of being there for envious purposes only. These here are really damaging and hold this back so much that the few positives here aren't that worthwhile. For the most part, nearly everything enjoyable with this one involves the gory killings which makes out nearly every single wound is like cutting through an important artery in the body. We get a slew of graphic kills here, mutilating the body with a series of intense work full of incredible effects work that gets featured. From the early random attacks, including the rather chilling stalking scene in the subway station to the attack in the friends' apartment to the gruesomeness of the utterly savage finale that ends this on a strikingly vicious moment, these here are quite good. Still, there's way too many flaws here to really mean anything here.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Brief frontal-full Nudity, and Language.

a_baron This low budget romp through the American nightmare is not really a slasher film, though it does see a maniac running around murdering people for no apparent, or perhaps that should be no rational, motive. This guy is eclectic if nothing else: he murders men as well as women, and he uses both weapons and his hands. "Maniac" is set in New York, and as crime buffs may know, a few years earlier a bloke name Berkowitz was running around doing essentially the same thing, though the Son of Sam was positively normal compared with this guy. So what is his problem?It appears to be something to do with his late mother, that and the fact that eventually he attacks the wrong damsel, who gives as good as she gets and then some. It is likely this film was intended as a quasi-serious exploration of madness, but with gore for the sake of it and absent a proper plot, it is nothing more nor less than yet more outpourings of a sick mind, most probably that of its New York born director William Lustig.

callanvass Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) has mommy issues from child abuse, kills beautiful young woman, and scalps them as a result of his childhood trauma. In all honesty I don't think this is as disturbing as others make it out to be. It is very nihilistic, and it's not a pleasant film, but I've seen a hell of a lot worse, and I've seen TONS of horror movies. The gritty atmosphere in New York City definitely serves this movie well. I also thought the stalk sequences were very good. It has three really memorable ones. One involves a fairly lengthy cemetery chase between Frank & Anna (Caroline Munro) and another is a great chase through the subway as Frank follows a nurse. I did question as to why the nurse turns down a ride from her friend when she knows perfectly well a serial killer is on the loose. It seemed rather moronic to me, but that's a minor carp. My favorite might just be the well shot opening. It takes place on a beach in a dream sequence from Frank. I don't know why I liked it so much, but it was extremely creepy to me. The suspense is here in spades, and you're never fully comfortable while viewing this movie. The first half is better than the second half. The first half gives us a chance to get into the mind of how twisted Frank is. The second half plummets a little bit. The romance between Spinell & Caroline Munro is rather mundane to say the least, and it felt a bit otiose to me. How am I supposed to believe that a gorgeous beauty like Caroline Munro would fall in love with an overweight guy like Joe Spinell? It felt quite artificial to me, and they lacked chemistry. The gore delivers in a huge way. We get slit throats, women are scalped in graphic detail, stabbings. Tom Savini gets his head blown off from a shotgun. (One of the best head explosions you'll ever see. It's disturbingly realistic) A head is ripped off, and more. This baby is pretty harsh with some great effects. Joe Spinell is chilling here. He's essentially the whole film. He's in almost every scene, and his character of Frank is vividly depicted. He's completely unhinged, and he creeped me right out. He's just a nut-case with mommy issues, and you can't help but fear him. The way he taunts his victims for a few seconds before commencing a killing, and just the little things made him that effective. What's scarier is despite that the romance between him & Munro fell flat there is nothing abnormal about him in the romance scenes. He seems like a genuine person with charm to spare, major credit to Spinell for showing a bit of a human side in those scenes. I did feel his inner monologue got to be a bit much at times, and the fact that he wipes a kiss from Munro away from his cheek had me baffled. Why would you do that with such a gorgeous woman like her? I digress. This is Spinell's movie, and he gives a performance you won't forget. Caroline Munro is rather wooden in scenes, but she has a bit of a natural, English charm I couldn't help but like. It's not a great performance, but when you look as good as her, it doesn't really matter. Tom Savini has a cameo, and it's actually quite a hoot. He has a classic mustache as well. The acting is actually a strong point, aside from Munro. Everyone is quite competent. The ending bothered me a little bit. It's clearly there to set up the purported sequel, which never commenced. I felt they should have done a bit of a chase sequence, with authorities flagging down Spinell. They chose an anti-climatic ending, and it's definitely disappointing. Final Thoughts: I've seen this quite a few times, and it always manages to be an effective film. It's not perfect, and not for everybody, but I like it quite a bit. Well worth a watch 7/10

nick-sultana With the remake due for release soon here in Australia, I took the opportunity to see the original classic as I have had never seen it myself. Seeing the trailers and reading some really positive reviews on IMDb, I knew what I could be expecting for an 80's Slasher flick... and surprisingly it delivered more than I expected!Manaic tells the story of Frank Zito (a nod to director Joseph Zito, as he had worked with Tom Savini in his films) an overweight, lonesome, psychopathic but clam at times serial killer that stalks women in New York, scalping their hair for his collection of mannequins. I won't say too much to spoil it but the plot is actually good, suspenseful and full-on graphic.The acting is great, the music is chilling but its Tom Savini's Visual gore effects that's worth the watch, this is by far the best 80's gore I've seen since The Prowler (I've only seen recently for the first time) and Cannibal Holocaust. Savini's appearance in Maniac is a favorite of mine and his character's death is well-worth a golden moment in horror.Overall, its a dark, gritty slasher ride with brains and a great leading character. I am certainly now looking forward to see if the 'remake' will serve justice to this classic.