Maniac (2012)What would you see if you viewed the world through the eyes of a murderous psychopath? Maniac (2012) is a slasher film about a mentally disturbed young man named Frank Zito (Elijah Wood), who stalks the Los Angeles streets at night for pretty young women, murdering them and adding their scalps to his collection of antique mannequins. One morning, Frank spies Anna (Nora Arnezeder) taking photographs of the mannequins on display in his storefront turned home, and she asks to use them in her art gallery exhibit. Aroused by Anna, Frank looks for ways to see her more and more, in between his episodes of horrific nocturnal savagery.
|
|
Maniac is predominantly shot from a first person point-of-view, which forces the audience into Frank's warped perception, becoming an unwilling accomplice to his terrible acts of brutality. There are rare exceptions where the camera pulls away as Frank is killing a woman, suggesting that Frank has disassociated himself from the murderous part of his personality, watching someone else do these atrocities. When Frank talks to himself, he sounds like he is arguing with himself; his impulses come from compulsion rather than inherent evil. There is a faint echo in his voice during these arguments--like after he has killed Lucie (Megan M. Duffy)--as if there were actual "voices in his head". Frank experiences a crisis of conscience that is tearing him apart--a metaphor made literal in the ending. His murder weapon of choice is his hunting knife, used to separate what he wants to keep from what he does not. The scalps he claims are less trophies of his killings than they are tokens that recall brief moments of happiness from his childhood with mother, Angela (America Olivo), a negligent guardian who left the mannequin shop bearing her name to Frank after her death. Maniac deliberately avoids specifics about Angela's cause of death, but implies that it was the impetus for Frank's complete psychological breakdown. Because of Frank's confused understanding of sexuality, hair represents the most erotic aspect of a woman to him. Frank hunts the women he kills for the rush of power at dominating a woman, after being controlled by his mother since childhood. Frank suffers guilt after his killings, represented in his obsessive-compulsive need to clean his hands with steel wool, which along with the occasional shattering of mirrors, accounts for their persistent, scabrous state. The women Frank hunts are young, pretty, fashionable, vapid, but most of all, attractive. His upbringing was traumatic; Angela supplemented her income as a prostitute, while allowing Frank to watch. This trauma becomes the foundation for Frank's compulsion in targeting pretty women that arouse him--a mixture of incestuous nostalgia and revenge against his mother. Anna represents a potential escape from his mother's posthumous clutches; when they discuss their mutual interests in art or go out to the movies, Frank seems to be "himself" instead of a manic killer lurking in the shadows. Frank hallucinates when he is turned on, taking pills to subdue his headaches and his psychotic lapses. (It's clear, however, that Frank should be taking more.) Mirrors are a key motif in Maniac, representing self-reflection in the midst of his identity crisis, alongside the technical component of showing Frank in the scene.
Maniac is a remake of the 1980 film by the same name, and wears its inspiration on its sleeve, sharing stylistic themes with slasher films of the era. The synth-heavy musical score by Robin Coudert brings early John Carpenter films to mind, while making the protagonist a taciturn and unassuming psycho killer recalls Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Maniac is also inspired by some of the film adaptations adapted from thrillers written by Thomas Harris, like when Frank is invited back to Lucie's apartment, and she dances (almost) naked for him while Q Lazzarus' "Goodbye Horses" plays--a nod to The Silence of the Lambs. Even Frank's psychotic jealousy of Anna--masked under his mild-mannered "nice guy" persona--recalls Tom Noonan's performance as the psychotic Francis Dollarhyde in Manhunter. Like Chronicle or Hardcore Henry, Maniac adopts the first person point-of-view to cement the audience in the action; but Maniac exploits this to heighten the audience's discomfort--after all, no one really wants to identify with a serial killer. The sexual component to Frank's killings--augmented by the voyeuristic point-of-view--shares a lot in common with another psychological horror film from 1960, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. Because of the first person perspective, much of the killing looks like it's being performed by a pair of disembodied hands. (Coincidentally, giallo filmmaker Dario Argento--whose works no doubt inspired the stylized violence in Maniac--claims that whenever someone gets killed in his films, it is his hands that the audience sees on screen.) Like its protagonist, Maniac is a film that is guided by memories of the past that shape it into its gruesome visage.
Recommended for: Fans of a shocking and violent slasher film inspired by several vivid horror films from the Eighties. Maniac is highly graphic and disturbing, and best suited for audiences accustomed to the genre.
Maniac is a remake of the 1980 film by the same name, and wears its inspiration on its sleeve, sharing stylistic themes with slasher films of the era. The synth-heavy musical score by Robin Coudert brings early John Carpenter films to mind, while making the protagonist a taciturn and unassuming psycho killer recalls Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Maniac is also inspired by some of the film adaptations adapted from thrillers written by Thomas Harris, like when Frank is invited back to Lucie's apartment, and she dances (almost) naked for him while Q Lazzarus' "Goodbye Horses" plays--a nod to The Silence of the Lambs. Even Frank's psychotic jealousy of Anna--masked under his mild-mannered "nice guy" persona--recalls Tom Noonan's performance as the psychotic Francis Dollarhyde in Manhunter. Like Chronicle or Hardcore Henry, Maniac adopts the first person point-of-view to cement the audience in the action; but Maniac exploits this to heighten the audience's discomfort--after all, no one really wants to identify with a serial killer. The sexual component to Frank's killings--augmented by the voyeuristic point-of-view--shares a lot in common with another psychological horror film from 1960, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. Because of the first person perspective, much of the killing looks like it's being performed by a pair of disembodied hands. (Coincidentally, giallo filmmaker Dario Argento--whose works no doubt inspired the stylized violence in Maniac--claims that whenever someone gets killed in his films, it is his hands that the audience sees on screen.) Like its protagonist, Maniac is a film that is guided by memories of the past that shape it into its gruesome visage.
Recommended for: Fans of a shocking and violent slasher film inspired by several vivid horror films from the Eighties. Maniac is highly graphic and disturbing, and best suited for audiences accustomed to the genre.