Maniac (1980) Review:

Horror films, no matter what the focus can be scary. Perhaps what makes people more frightened is when they realize what they're watching is more likely to happen in real life. Supernatural entities, other worldly creatures or scientific abominations are all monstrous by design, but the likelihood of coming across something like that is slim to none. Maybe the person who just walked by is your average citizen. They also could very well not be the average citizen one would expect them to be. Sometimes people have alternative activities when no one's looking. This is the feeling a viewer can have after watching this flick, because it does feel very grounded. One never knows what another person does behind closed doors.

The story is about what seems to be an ordinary person by the name of Frank Zito (Joe Spinell). From the outside, he's not the classiest looking person, but he's not a slob. That is until viewers see what he does for a hobby, which is murdering random women and scalping them after. Written by C.A. Rosenberg and Joe Spinell himself, the script gives its viewers a twisted look at a disturbed person. This feature would also be what director William Lustig was best known for until he created the Maniac Cop (1988) franchise. While that horror film was unique its own way, it is completely unrealistic. However, the possibility of this scenario happening is much higher.

Think of it this way. What's more popular for the execution of horror films? Most of the set ups require a bunch of random characters that don't receive proper development and end up becoming fodder to the villain. This feature though, focuses on the villain as the main character. This allows the viewers to see Frank Zito when he's the killer, when he's playing a regular guy other people and how he is when he’s by himself. It's definitely a different way of showing the audience the story and not blatantly exposition dumping everything at key plot points. That doesn't mean the script doesn't have its problems. One thing that's missed is explaining why Frank scalps his victims. What's the purpose? What does it represent?

Then there's also the supporting cast which is very small but understandable since it is a low budget flick. Unfortunately there, one of the characters that begins to get development is abruptly dropped. But that's where the issues end. The supporting cast has very few recognizable names but they all act decently. Spinell gives a creepy performance as Frank, considering he also played Rocky Balboa's boss Gazzo in Sylvester Stallone's franchise. There's also Anna (Caroline Munro), a professional photographer. Munro was also in Dracula A.D. (1972) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Even Dawn of the Dead (1974) makeup effects artist Tom Savini has a brief role to play.

Visually speaking, the film has a very raw feeling to it. This is most likely due to the film equipment at the time but it's because of that realistic feel to the movie that helps make the story that much more frightening. Shooting for this feature was Robert Lindsay as cinematographer. Prior to this Lindsay had worked on adult films, which is as far as I'm going to go there. Special effects were also handled by Tom Savini so the violence is definitely credible. As for the film score, this would be the first debut for Jay Chattaway who would also later be known for his compositions to Maniac Cop (1988) and Maniac Cop 2 (1990). Here, Chattaway's music is just as creepy and provides interesting cues using synthesizers.

Something this horror film does right is changing the focus of the story to the villain. This allows the viewers to get a better understanding of who they are. While the cast is bare bones and a true reason as to why the killer kills the way he does goes unexplained, the music is appropriately unsettling, the acting is good and the gore effects are noteworthy for the time.

Points Earned --> 7:10