Maniac
Director: William Lustig
Writer: Joe Spinell, C. A. Rosenberg
Cast: Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
Frank (Joe Spinell) is a psychopathic killer. He hunts down beautiful women and collects their scalps because he was abused by his own mother. The movie is basically a psychogram of Frank’s craziness.

Don’t make the mistake to believe that this movie is in any way, shape or form good. But it is fun because Joe Spinell was an amazing overactor. Saying his performance was hammy is like saying Superman is a little stronger than your average human.

Maniac is pretty much a vanity project. Joe Spinell wanted to play a crazy killer, so he wrote a screenplay and looked for financial backers. And once he found them, he went batshit. Seriously, 50% of the film is Spinell looking crazy and rolling his eyes and generally being subtle while we get voice-overs from the voices inside Frank’s head. It is pretty awesome to behold.

The other 50% of the film is gore. The murders are pretty graphic, the special effects for so little budget pretty good (although they can’t really keep up with more expensice productions). In any case they spare no detail.

William Lustig is the kind of director where you can all but hear his directions while you watch the scenes. He is about as subtle as Joe Spinell.

Since the movie doesn’t have much going for itself apart from the total hilarity that lies in so much overacting and overdirecting, it could have been a little shorter. But it’s an entertaining film and a classic for a reason.

And to top it all off, the Flashdance Maniac song was originally written about this film.

Summarising: B-movie classic.