Maniac

A remake from the 1980 original.

The owner of a mannequin shop leads an unstable life at night as he preys for young women. Elijah Wood is a psychopath serial killer that has the modus operandi of collecting beautiful hair from his victims and then putting them up as mannequins.

The scenes are diverse but all involve stalking the next woman. Either that, or it’s Elijah having a migraine attack and some scary hallucinations involving mannequins turning into his victims. He also suffers from unpleasant memories from his mother who turned out to be a prostitute but of course he did not understand this as a kid.

At one point, Elijah meets an artist who has the ambition of opening an exhibition. She is captivated by his mannequins and they start working together on the exhibition. His twisted desires continue to absorb him, and eventually, the shit hits all over the fan in a nasty way.

Maniac is filmed from a first person perspective, and it’s most of all interesting to see the moments of eye contact when we can see the emotions playing from the others. Obviously, this character is the polar opposite from Frodo of The Lord of the Rings fame.

He slashes and kills women with precise aim, and the gory kill scenes have their own beauty in them, thus making this remake actually a better film with an exception given perhaps towards the shotgun blast in the original.

Add to all that the fact that he continues to talk towards his deceased mother when either alone or with his victims in an enraged way, and this is one horror movie to remember. Maniac will surely creep up on you, in one way or another.

 

Rating: 7.0