So I finally watched this one. Maniac. Not the cool one from 1980, the one banned in New Zealand because they were afraid the first-person point of view would inspire people to become serial killers (whatever, this has been a horror movie thing since the 50’s, friggin’ nutsos in politics), this is the new one with Frodo Hobbit Baggins, otherwise known as “Not The Harry Potter One, The Other One, The One With Talent.” People have been recommending this one to me, and Frodo Wizard Goblin has some serious skills, so sure. Okay. Let’s do it.
First, I had to download Plex to my tablet (I watch movies on the tablet when I’m away from the Lounge of Despair. I hate Plex. It’s better than Pluto but the volume of commercials pushed onto you is still truly punishing. Whatever, I’ll live. It’s only a 90-minute movie, which amounts to 4 hours and 20 minutes with commercials. 90 minutes, by the way, is the sweet spot for horror. Anything less is more appropriate for artsyfartsy horror-like endeavors, or something that is really just a couple gimmicks but not enough to fill 90 minutes without losing your audience. Anything more is Citizen Kane. You’re not Citizen fucking Kane.
Also, I’m not going to religiously compare-contrast this with the original. Horror nerds live for that level of minutia. “It’s nothing like the original because these 28 really hair-splitting reasons and let me spend endless time going over those and I’ll use the biggest words I know so you’ll feel I’m wicked smart and therefore in a position of authority over you Philistines.” Settle down, Roger Ebert, it’s a slasher – we’re here for blood and boobs.
What I AM going to do is say that halfway through I’m wishing I just rented this on Amazon or Vudu or something because Plex will force-feed you commercials every eight to ten minutes. More than two minutes of commercials every eight to ten minutes. 10 or so commercial breaks. Almost a full half hour of commercials.
The scene is a seedy quasi-retro New York City at night, the pavement is always shiny from, one would assume, is a recent rain, and the filter leans blue with some red saturation here and there, because that’s how they make movies with any sort of action in them. Or robots. Robots also get the blue filters with sporadic red highlights. And I guess anything with an “urban” feel. Hollywood basically makes one movie, cinematically, just with different posters.
It does actually become daytime at some point, by the way, I just enjoy making fun of cliche.
No robots in this one, though, just mannequins. Mannequins that Frank comes home to and yells at. Yells and throws things at. In a New York City apartment. Somehow no one in the fleabag apartment next door does yell through the walls “Hey shut da fuck up some people gotta WORK in the morning! You know, psycho, a friggin’ job? Try it sometime!” then calls for Chinese delivery.
Then he meets a French (well Quebecois if you go by the accent, but she’s wearing a beret so we’ll forgive the oversight) lady with an Olympus camera (love) and a kink for mannequins. Dude! It’s kismet! I wonder if she also likes strangling and scalping chicks she meets online. How crazy would that be?
Interestingly enough, no, she doesn’t. Just the mannequin thing. I can’t imagine it’s something they couldn’t work around, just so long as they’re the same religion… but one hour into the movie it doesn’t matter anyway.
Elijah Wood brings a lot to this movie, which is pretty amazing considering he has very little actual screen time, but he creates a very compelling Maniac even so. The movie is shot nicely, too, the full-bore “crazy” is felt acutely throughout the movie. It serves as a great reminder for women not to walk home alone at night in the city.