a review of 疯子

Maniac is one of those horror classics I used to frequently notice as a youngster in the video rental store back in the 1980s, when I frequently rented multiple horror films. But somehow Maniac escaped me in those years. I expected Maniac to be a regular slasher movie, set in the streets of New York. But it turned out to be somewhat different. The almost documentary-like atmosphere made it extra uncanny, slightly similar to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). Among other things I liked were the odd camera angles and some interesting, original touches, such as the bloody mannequins the serial killer keeps in his room. Joe Spinell, the charismatic lead actor, established an intriguing, unsettling character. Maniac's killer is named Frank and has an Oedipus complex. It wouldn't surprise me if the twisted character formed an inspiration for Blue Velvet's classic villain Frank Booth, played by Dennis Hopper. It's a loss that Joe Spinell died at the age of 52, when he was about to start working on a sequel to Maniac.