Netflix And Chill: Maniac (2012)

It was surely a fool's errand to even try to remake the notorious Maniac (1980), the film directed by William Lustig that remains a disturbing and grimy modern horror classic to this day. And Elijah Wood being involved? I am one of many who generally guffawed at the idea. Guffaw, I say, and guffaw again.

And here we are, eight years later. This remake has been acclaimed as a great film by many horror fans, and Wood has made a lot of interesting choices over the course of his career that highlight what a big horror movie fan he is. I figured it was time to finally see if this would work for me.

It definitely did.

Wood plays Frank, the maniac of the title. He spends most of his evenings killing women, scalping them, and placing the scalps on mannequins that he views as being able to act like live women. He tries to keep his worst impulses under control when he meets a young actress, Anna (Nora Arnezeder). But a man like Frank cannot keep everything under control for long.

Written by Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, who have both worked previously with director Franck Khalfoun, this is a very smart updating of the original Joe Spinell screenplay, and also manages to side-step the big hurdle of trying to replace the irreplaceable Spinell in the lead role. They do this by showing most of the movie from the POV of Frank, which makes it fresh and also makes it easier to avoid direct comparisons. And yet the spirit of the thing remains the same. This is a nasty piece of work, the central character is a nasty piece of work, and the death depicted onscreen is disturbing and visceral.

Wood, although not shown all that often, is actually quite a revelation in this role. He makes the most of his usual reserved style, but layers it under something disturbing and almost pulsating with murderous instinct. Arnezeder does well in her role, the one female who gets time to show herself as more than just what Frank is projecting. And there are others who do well, even as they just appear long enough to set themselves up as victims a lot of the time. America Olivo is Frank's mother, while Genevieve Alexandra, Liane Balaban, Megan Duffy, and Jan Broberg have a number of memorable moments.

In much the same way as the original, it would be easy to dismiss this as a misogynistic film. There ARE male victims, but they're killed off in a way that feels more flippant than the treatment given to the women. But that is what the main character does. His mind views women a certain way, he wants to kill women, that is his main aim. It's misogyny because he is the misogynist, and the film shows him descending further and further into a quicksand hell of his own making. It's not comfort viewing for anyone, but it's very well done, and horror fans will want to check it out.

I delayed and delayed this viewing, and I really shouldn't have. Don't make the same mistake.

8/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews