Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE best film about serial killing, 1 Jul 2008
People seem to miss the point of this film (by miles judging by the other reviews). It's a classic study of the suffering, mental self-torture and delusions that drive people to become killers.
As Frank Zito, a powerhouse performance from the late Joe Spinell is central to the plot as we see him agonise over his actions and his feelings toward his victims. His hatred of women stems for his childhood treatment at the hands of an abusive mother, so although he desires women, he turns violent the moment they challenge him.
He falls for beautiful Anna D'Antoni (Caroline Munroe), and adopts a surprisingly urbane persona to attract her, all the while continuing with his nightly 'hobbies', decorating the female mannequins in his room with the scalps of his victims (although years before Jeffrey Dahmer, this always puts me in mind of his apartment and the 'shrine' he wanted to build).
If you've ever read anything about killers like Dahmer, Peter Kurten & Dennis Nielsen, who all lived with the bodies/body parts of their victims, and wondered how they could do that - this is the film to watch.
FX guru Tom Savini has in a small role as a guy in the car with his girl, as well as handling the effects for the film (Savini literally blew his own head off, as he wielded the rifle for the gag!)
Although executive producer of many films, it's a shame Bill Lustig doesn't still direct, but at least he's making sure we all get to see great cult horror with his DVD distribution label, Blue Underground - go Bill!!
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OVERRATED TO ME, 3 Nov 2007
The women of New York are being slaughtered viciously, and it is the handiwork of Frank Zito, (Joe Spinell) who has a favorite towards prostitutes. After killing several and then scalping them to use for his mannequins, which he collects, he dresses them with the hair of women after he's scalped them. After several more killings get the cops on his trail, Frank decides to cool off for awhile. While waiting around, he bumps into Anna D'Antoni, (Caroline Munroe) a lovely model who he makes a quick connection with. After becoming friends with her pretty quickly, he finds that her friends have the perfect hair for his new mannequins, and begins stalking them around New York City while keeping his relationship with Anna.
The Good News: When this one came out, it was during the time when the horror films were getting very violent. "Zombie 2," "Dawn of the Dead" and "Friday the 13th" was all released very rapidly in succession of each other, and this one belongs in that gore-filled category. We don't get a lot of gore, since this falls in the sub-category that Hellraiser belongs in: every single wound is like cutting through an important artery in the body. We get a slit throat, a knife through the chest, a brutal strangulation, one hell of a decapitation and the infamous head-explosion that I think beats out the similar scene from "Dawn" quite easily. Such a mess was created that I'm shocked the scene wasn't ever removed from prints here in the US, as the MPAA rarely lets scenes like that go out to the public. Savini did a truly wonderful job on the effects here, and they rate with his finest work. The decapitation is quite easily the highlight, as it comes out of nowhere and becomes a feast on the eyes to behold. It is long as well, which only adds to the gruesome-ness of the scene. That may sound strange, but believe me; the scene will make sense when you see it. Even the stalking scenes are quite good. The attack in the subway station comes as a great example. He sees his intended victim get off the train, waits for her to be alone, and then comes after her, letting her know what he wants and lets her get away, then begins chasing after her in the subway system. She locks herself in the bathroom, and she hears him wander through, then leave. Relieved, she goes out and checks herself before leaving, and he strikes when she's looking at herself in the mirror.
The Bad News: This movie focuses on the killer more than the victims he goes after, so it can become a pain if you like it the other way around. Frank also 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. This is the real crime of the movie. There are long stretches between kill scenes where you are just begging for something to happen, and all we get is watching Frank wander around looking for nothing. I really don't like watching too many movies where the main focuses is 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 looks ridiculous and we laugh at him now, or it's a trait that isn't very accurately represented throughout the whole movie and leads to many inconsistencies. Here, it is the former. 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 to me, but it could've been terrifying back then. I never even really fancy these types of films, so that's another strike against it, but keep this in mind: it doesn't have a cult following for nothing.
The Final Verdict: It focuses more on the killer than the targets, which is a tough job to do. Every new and then, though, I wanted to shift focus and get onto someone else because there are parts that can become a chore to sit through. It might be hard for gore-hounds to sit through this one because the gore comes in spurts, but there are worse films to waste your time with. Tough call.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Maniac(1980), 15 Oct 2007
If you like strange and slightly laughable horror films then this could be of interest to you. It stars Frank Zito as a derranged psychopath who scalps the heads of young girls and adorns them on his collection of manikins.
Firstly this is not a great film by any means, but I take positives out of most horror films, even if its just one certain special effect or one effective scene. There are a few nice touches in this film. But there are twice as many terrible points, the countless scenes where Frank is supposedly talking to himself in his head (apparent scitzophrenia brought on by childhood abuse) left me talking to myself- saying what am I wasting my time for! And I was tempted to ring trading standards because the tagline "one of the most relentlessly depraved and disturbing horror movies ever made" is probably the least accurate description possible!
Overall it's a pretty sloppy affair, with the occasional nice touch, the best part being the ending, but of course I wouldn't spoil that for potential viewers. Okay but not worth going out your way for.
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