Just the Ticket #178: Maniac (1980)

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The TicketManiac,

TicketManiac

On the Web,

Blogging like I've never Blogged before.

I'm not crazy, Ticketholders!

I mean, it's not like I'm trying to invade a neutral country or prove that Fort Knox is empty or circumvent the Constitution by running for a third term or letting dead golfers influence foreign policy or finding sense in the ramblings of a...man?...who would do such things.

And it's not like I think I can fill a studio apartment with mannequins covered in blood without anyone noticing.

I'm just overcaffeinated after a long, hard day at work so that I can crank out the copy of this review and devote tomorrow (I'm writing this on Wednesday) to yard work and setting up my new phone that finally arrived almost two weeks after my birthday with almost no correspondence and hundreds of hours of financial and time-related anxiety to fill my brain.

So, while I'm super-happy to have a new phone and not be stressed out about it anymore, it would make me even happier if you please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't yet, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you like, help out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to resort to scalping (tickets) as a side-hustle, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my crazy-good content.

At large on the streets of New York in 1980, Maniac is William Lustig's (Maniac Cop) non-adult directorial debut, and follows Italian serial killer Frank Zito (Rocky and The Godfather supporting actor Joe Spinell) as he romances, stalks, and kills random women (and collateral men).

I don't find Frank that interesting as a character, to be brutally honest. Between his schlubby Ron Jeremy appearance (minus the famous anatomy, of course), soft-spoken demeanor, and the same, "abused child grows up with the voice of his mother in his head and becomes a serial killer to take revenge on her by proxy" backstory we've heard ad nauseum since Psycho made it famous twenty years before this movie came out, I struggled to watch Maniac all the way through in one sitting, based strongly on my lack of engagement with the character I was supposed to be following. Spinell's performance was amazing (the creepy grunting and mouth-breathing, talking to himself, the hammy, dramatic line delivery when Frank's public face begins to crack, etc.), but the character he was playing and the mostly repetitive structure of the film (kill after kill after...) bored me.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention how little sense the ADR makes. Even when characters were being strangled or having their throats cut or their bodies otherwise seriously injured beyond the ability to make coherent sounds, the audio would have them continue to scream, loudly and uninterrupted by coughs or gurgles, and it really bugged me. It made me laugh for how stupid it was, but it bugged me.

There is a pretty suspenseful sequence around the forty minute mark where he stalks a nurse (Kelly Piper, Rawhead Rex) through a subway station, and another couple near the end where he seduces a photographer (Caroline Munro, who co-starred with Spinell in next week's The Last Horror Film) and kills her and one of her models (adult film star Gail Lawrence—a few other extras and supporting cast members were also trying to follow the X/MaXXXine route out of the industry). These sequences and the sensational gore effects by Tom Savini (who also plays one of Frank's male victims here) are the only real highlights of Maniac's runtime, particularly the scalping scenes and the exploding head.

But as with The Psychopath last week, Maniac is a mostly lackluster thriller that almost redeems itself with an emotional, cerebral shock ending.

Unlike its fellow Psycho-alike, where the police investigation was the focus, Maniac is the Frank Zito show all the way, even giving us a brief illusion of hope for him in his relationship with the photographer...until he starts the heavy breathing and we realize (as he later does in the bonkers finale) that Frank Zito is a man scarred beyond salvation who would rather let his urges and the ghosts of his traumatic past literally destroy him than attempt to live a normal life.

And speaking of normal, the ending makes sense of the idea that although Frank is the focal character (with flashes of news headlines hinting at a police investigation in the background) and given what we come to understand about him, he is just some guy; not a supernatural killer (there is bait for a sequel that never actually happened because Lustig didn't want to do one and Spinell died before it could be fully funded) or a hulk in a mask, just a physically normal guy in a city of millions who dies spectacularly but alone in a roomful of blood-encrusted mannequins that are wearing the clothing and scalps of his female victims.

And yeah, as much as I didn't like the tone and pacing of it all, I have to admit that it works.

C+

Next week, more Spinell and Munro in The Last Horror Film, more Sela and Druanna in Limbo, and an Anime Spotlight that shows artists can be heroes, too, so Stay Tuned, and

TicketManiac,

Out.