Maniac (1980)

Directed by William Lustig.  Written by Joe Spinell and C. A. Rosenberg.  Starring Spinell, Caroline Munro, Kelly Piper and Tom Savini (for a very brief time).

Plot: a psychotic man kills young woman and takes their scalps as trophies.

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A man whose mother was an abusive prostitute murders women and then takes their scalps and clothes and puts them on his manequins.  Then, he talks to said manequins.  Kinda treats them like they were his mother.  He’s quite sadistic though.  Shoots people in the faces, strangles them as they scream (not sure how realistic that is, but whatever), slices necks open, etc. etc.  And that’s the gist.

We feel that any sane individual will see this movie – at the very least – as a little over-the-top.  DJ said it was shocking for shock’s sake.  There were no rules.  The story wasn’t that great and the abusive mom bit’s been done before.  (Psycho anyone?)  Plus, although Tom Savini did well with the exploding heads, a lot of the other specials sucked.

Our score: 26.

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