Friday 17 March 2017

Maniac (2012)



Frodo's a weirdo loner who's also a serial killer.  And we see a lot of the film as if we were him, with the camera as his eyes.

That's pretty much the whole pitch - and whole content - of this film.  Elijah Wood is Frank Zito, a guy who restores mannequins for a job and who murders and scalps women for a sexual thrill.  I mean yes, we get some backstory about why he (believes he) has this compulsion - in a not exactly stunning display of originality, it's Oedipal - but that doesn't exactly do a lot to extend the formula of the film.  It's pretty much stalk a woman, kill and scalp her, dress up a mannequin to "be" her, have a flashback about mommy, and then repeat.

Even the arrival of Annie - a vivacious photographer with whom Frank is immediately infatuated - doesn't do much to change things up.  Frank still stalks and kills other women, even if he manages to act something approximating normal while in Annie's presence.  The only real evolution therefore is that we now switch to waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Annie to become the movie's Final Girl.

I wish I could say that things get more interesting when that shoe does drop, but frankly they just get sillier.

One for gore hounds only.

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