Review – Maniac

Here’s a real cinema rarity: an interesting slasher movie. For the first half or so, this is as plotless and episodic as a porn movie. Indeed, it resembles cheap, low budget pornography a lot, except that the women are being murdered rather than screwed. The killer (Joe Spinnell in a fine performance) is a strong base of the Son of Sam (doubtless still fresh in the minds of most New Yorkers in 1980) mixed in with a cup of Ed Gein (the whole scalp-taking thing) and a dash of Zodiac (the desire to preserve victims as slaves). When the production starts sprouting a story, it’s almost a bit of a let-down. However, the end was genuinely impressive. Even all these years later, it’s still amazing what creativity can do for a low budget production. Worth seeing