maniac

Frank Zito operates a mannequin store by day, moonlighting as a stalking serial killer at night, taking off their scalps, attaching them to mannequins in a room in the back of his residence. He becomes fixated with a photographer who could "be the one"...will she be another scalp in his collection?
*****

The slasher film can be a disturbingly intimate experience because we spend a lot of time with the killer. Maniac with Joe Spinel or Nicholas Worth in Don’t Answer the Phone!, spending time with these psychopaths allows us to see them as they prepare to kill, going about the stalking and the eventual bloodshed committed by them. The slasher film and POV technique have been fundamental bedfellows for as long as it has existed. The new Maniac with Elijah Wood (I’m still surprised he was in this film as the star; his agreeing to do this says he’s willing to go out on a limb and go to dark places (he did so in Sin City, and it is no different here)) incorporates both the POV technique and intimate time spent with him. Not only that but we hear his thoughts and listen to him. When he follows an attractive woman after she leaves a club, knowing where she lives, cutting the lights in her apartment complex, waiting for just the right time to surprise her at her door, quickly plunging the knife through her lower jaw into her brain (with a slight appearance of the metal when her attempted scream is muffled while mouth is agape), and eventually scalping her as the blood drains from her eyes, Maniac (2012) has prepared us for exactly how the killer goes about his routine, and establishes that he is one depraved individual free to roam the urban streets.

Mannequin restorer by day, psycho by night. I think Elijah Wood is actually brilliant casting because of his height and non-intimidating looks; sure his eyes (damn your eyes!!!!) are creepy, but his size isn’t exactly all that scary…it is what lurks within that is truly terrifying, warped, twisted, and unhinged (when that “dark passenger”, as taken from Dexter, provokes his mania into action).

I can read it already on the imdb horror board when Maniac (2012) is destined to take off, “This movie is so overrated.” Anyone that reads this, mark my words. I will say this myself, Maniac is one of the best slasher films ever made. There I said it, so I’m expecting the cynicism that comes with such a statement. I guess I’ve been waiting for a film like this in the horror genre for quite some time. This isn’t fun; it’s downright unsettling. It’s visceral, inventive, creepy, and beautifully made. The POV work on this film is exceptional. I mean, they literally have the killer of the film hit by a car at full speed and it is as if we are impacted and thrown to the asphalt! 

These filmmakers have taken the concept of the first person perspective and have crafted an incredible experience that has to be seen to be fully realized. Elijah Wood’s performance (we see him in small doses, mainly through reflections in mirrors (the way the director/cinematographer accomplish this should be applauded; this is really imaginative, yet not just gimmicky because we see through his eyes, hear his thoughts, listen from his lips to others, knowing what darkness lies within this tortured, disturbed psyche)) is deserved of the accolades that will not come his way due to the horrid nature of his handiwork and delusions.

 He gains the trust and affection of a gorgeous photographic artist (with a penchant for mannequins; hence, how they meet.) with an interest for his mannequins, having past by his deceased mother’s mannequin restoration store (he has taken up the art and is astute at maintaining their allure). Her name is Anna (Nora Amezeder), a real beauty with a thoroughly engaging personality, an intoxicating smile, and a real appeal that Wood’s Frank Zito responds to immediately. If anything, the casting was just superb in the role of Anna. Amezeder has the type of beauty that can sweep you up and hold you under its spell. Couple that with her immense likability and sweet soul, and it is easy to see that Frank would become enwrapped by her. She has a boyfriend, though, and Frank is unable to secure her as a mate. Not that this psycho could ever have an authentic, pure relationship with any woman due to his inner demons.

Like slashers immemorial, the backstory is told through the eyes and memory of Frank, and it is a gaze into exactly what has scarred him for life. His mother was sexually promiscuous, and it is indicated that perhaps she was a prostitute. She would even knowingly have sex (sometimes with more than one partner) in front of his young, child eyes, telling him, “Shhh…mommy loves you”. While it is hard to find a sympathetic heart for someone who uses a deer-skinning knife to peel scalps from innocent female victims’ heads he then staples to mannequins (that favor the victims he murders!), at least we have an understanding as to what instigates these homicidal actions.

When remaking a film as notorious as Maniac (1980) it would be so easy to copycat what made it so infamous scene for scene, director Franck Khalfoun, and screenwriters Aja and Levasseur, decide to maintain the head scalping, even paying tribute to the controversial poster of the original (lower half of the killer holding a scalp in one hand, murdering knife in the other) film, but utilizing a different visual aesthetic--even removing the grime, ugliness, and grit of the New York City setting so important to the power of the 1980 slasher film. There is a slight homage to the subway chase (that resulted in a restroom entrapment/kill, in the 2012, however, taken outside where Frank hides under a car, capitalizing on locked fences holing her in), and the use of mannequins (with scalps inserted on them) remains vital to the film’s importance in detailing Frank’s obsessions and insanity.

What I think is crucial to those who made this version of Maniac is preserving that skin-crawling feeling you get remaining with Frank over the period of the film. Do those who made this film truly capture that feeling of unease that comes when a human monster drives around in his vehicle (in this case a van always toting around “mannequin limbs”) following women he might just scalp? I thought so. I was surprised the film was actually shot in Los Angeles specifically. This film’s cityscape reminded me of lovely, eye candy cities in Canada that typically sub for American cities. There are plenty of POV scenes where Frank drives around in his van, looking at citizens, buildings, and the social activities/lives of others in a busy city during both days and nights. Riding around with him, any female walking the streets and sidewalks could be his next scalp victim. There’s the occasional pull away from the POV to show Wood’s handiwork as he commits it and sitting next to Anna (the director shows both his seeing Anna through the POV and beside her) at the end (both near the pond and in the theater watching Dr. Caligari) is important in that we are allowed to see this young man from a different viewpoint besides experiencing her beauty through his eyes.

The scalping is explicit and grisly. I have to admit that the scalps have a tendency to slide off the head, perhaps questioning their authenticity, but when he does so as his victims are still alive, these chilling acts of violence can be more than a bit unpleasant. Particularly effective is seeing violence committed by him and to him from the POV perspective; look for the scene at the end when he hits a male victim into the face with a hatchet and is stabbed in the stomach with the pointy edge of a mannequin hand! Oh, and when he throws that hatchet-to-the-mouth victim through a door to get at Anna…now that is impressive!

The film especially emphasizes the voyeuristic behavior of Frank as he stalks, hides (in closets, in his van, around corners, etc.), peeps, and soon kills women who match a specific criteria that provokes his impulse to actively pursue them for scalping purposes. Sexually impotent and perhaps motivated to kill when under desire and lust, due to his mommy’s naughty appetites, Frank responds with violence, as serial killers often do. He even sees his victims alive at times through his nightmarish delusions, talking to his mannequins who resemble them (he has a skill of making them in the likeness of his victims; it is downright eerie, I thought). 

The end of the film stays close to the vest in regards to how Maniac (1980) “finished off” the killer. The psychopath is overcome by his delusions, the victims collaborating in unison to rip him apart. This is done in both POV and finally showing them peeling his face off (the POV has the girls pulling off a leg and arm as Frank screams in agony!) in the remake. It is intense and ghoulish. As it should be.

The tragic climax didn’t surprise me, but Anna’s unfortunate fate left me deeply saddened. I loved this character and performance, but Frank destroys those he comes in close contact so Anna could be considered collateral damage. She sentences herself the moment she commits to a friendship with someone she thinks is an okay guy. He’s not. He’s anything but an okay guy. The film shows her comfortable and relaxed with Frank. God, we are so blessed to look directly into her face, soak her beauty up as Frank does, and she is the one example of a woman he doesn’t feel compelled to scalp…not until she makes it clear he’s a madman she wants to either escape from or kill to be rid of. Herein lies the ultimate tragedy of her fate. In trying to run him over, the car plunges into a wall, hurling her unseatbelted body from the vehicle passenger side window. Suffocating and perishing slowly from the glass fragment wounds in her throat and face, her body punished extremely from the car crash, Frank (bleeding like a stuck pig from the mannequin hand stab and car impact) rushes her, sorely (it seems) emotionally wrought by her attempts to harm him, eventually (gasp) taking her scalp, making her his “bride”.

This visual of Anna in a wedding dress, soon “leaving him”, covering her face with the veil as the girls take turns pulling him apart, is quite symbolic of abandonment; the love he wanted leaves him as his mother did. All of this delusion worked to me because it makes perfect sense that, along with his wounds suffered at Anna’s hands, that his madness would eventually overtake him. It was only a matter of time before his psychosis would result in his demise.

Maxime Alexandre, the director of photography for such films as Haute Tension (and other Aja films, such as Mirrors and The Hills Have Eyes) and The Crazies, really outdid himself here. This is visually arresting as anything he’s yet done. He has quite a talent for capturing “the moment” in all its frenzied, manic glory. He’s crazy good in Maniac, and Woods’ “delicate ballet” with his camera is impeccable. Without both Alexandre and Woods being in total synchronicity, the impact of this POV dependent film couldn’t have been so successful. The camera must feel like some creep's eyes are spying on a ballerina/performer in a studio practicing (hiding in a closet peering at her nakedness from behind open shutters), an agent for Anna (he later follows to her posh LA apartment, seeing her as mommy, with her tied up like a pig ready for the slaughterhouse), and the previously mentioned club girl, as well as, taking in an uninhibited, internet dating site red-headed chick (short skirt, knee high socks, tattooed chest and neck, lip ring) willing to be up for anything, especially sex, first getting to know her at a restaurant, later invited to her crib for a little "this and that" (involving her getting into bra and panties, soon removing her top, giving him fellatio as he stares at her mirror over the bed!). The difficulties that obviously come with experimenting with the POV technique as a narrative device all the way were not in vain; this film is all the more powerful because of it. Go out of your way to see this one if you are a slasher fan. It's damn good.