Maniac Review

 

Maniac

Director: Franck Khalfoun

Stars: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, America Olivio, Megan Duffy, Jan Broberg, and Sammi Rotibi

Running Time: 89 Mins

Release: 15^th March 2013

A remake of the 1980's slasher of the name. This film is about Frank (Wood) a young single man who restores mannequins in his mother's (Olivio) mannequin store, as a child Frank was neglected by his mother who was loose with men and he did not like it so he stalks the streets of LA in the dead of night preying on women that remind him of his mother, brutally killing them ans scalping them for his mannequins, he then meets a french photography student Anna (Arnezeder) who forms an unlikely friendship with and whom he hopes can help suppress his psychotic tendencies as well as have a normal relationship with her, but being with her it only makes it stronger.

At it's heart Maniac is a love story, an unlikely one between Frank and Anna, to go into this further I'll talk about the acting.

Granted I have not seen Elijah Wood in much aside the Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey and Sin City. I know that Wood get's a lot of flack for his acting but personally I have no problem with him and find him to be a great actor who seems to be moving into the genre of Horror with this and Cooties which I hope is coming out soon. Anyway back to Wood in this.

I think he's perfect as Frank a seemingly ordinary man who's a psychopathic serial killer whom has relationship issues with women whom wants to be respected, loved, noticed and appreciated and have a relationship with a woman and it's these qualities that make him human, that makes you sympathise and relate too him. Also in the fact that we see Maniac from his perspective which i'll go into later on. Frank's not really given a back story to his neglect as a child but it is hinted at in the few flash back scenes in the film as his mother was constantly with men, not raising him right. Though in the first flashback we learn as to why he scalps the women, he's fascinated with women's hair he loves combing it and touching it and by putting the hair on the mannequins and dressing them similar to his victims he then 'owns them'.

He hunts and kills the women that remind him of his mother be it in there sexual openness or appearance, he gets sexually excited by the women and killing them(well aside one, you'll see what I mean when you see it) as it fulfils his need. Curiously in the opening scene of the film we see Frank stalking a young woman that's come out of a club and he see's a young man touch her sexually and he says angrily 'Leave Her Alone', well to himself and it hints at that in some part he wants to protect her, like she is his.

He also suffers from migraines when he feels stressed, or well when his darker side tries to claw out , the medication suppresses it for a time being. Wood's delivery is perfect,he acts and talks exactly as if he was a psychopath it's very natural and it really surprised me and in some parts Frank reminds me of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. This is the first film wherever I have encountered a sympathetic serial killer, so kudos to that.

This film is a two hander as there is really only two main characters Frank and his love interest Anna.

I have never seen Arnezeder in a film before this is the first thing I have seen her in and she's brilliant in the role. She is pivotal to the film as she gives Frank that hope, that inkling that he can be normal as she likes being with Frank and they share the same interests and outlook and she is fascinated by mannequins and to Frank she's not like the other women he see's or kills she gives him hope that he can be normal, they first meet when Frank see's her outside his shop taking pictures of the mannequins and there friendship develops from there and the scenes between them are brilliant it gives you a real sense that it could work between them.

Most of the film is shot in PoV (Point of View) of Frank so we see everything he does from his eyes which adds sympathy to him, this means we don't see Frank for the most of the film, but we see a lot of his hands which are bruised from the cleaning pad he uses to clean the blood off his hands. And it's shots brilliantly from his perspective. Khalfoun has done a spectacular job and the killing scenes of when we see from Frank's eyes stabbing, slice and scalping his victims are particularly nasty especially the scalping's they made me wince, the sound helped in that and the effects were very visceral throughout and I am used to gore and when he slices a woman's ankle my jaw was on the floor !.

I love the scene where Frank is watching the dancer in the window, I was encapsulated it was beautiful. From PoV we see Frank's state of mind when we see the mannequins covered in blood when they should not be and when they appear in public and when he see's himself as a mannequins the last hallucination is incredibly nasty I was not expecting that at all.

The scenes that I absolutely loved from Frank's perspective was his date with Anna that was perfectly executed especially towards the end of it without giving it away. Also the exhibition scene were Frank goes to the Exhibit to see his mannequins on display and the incredibly beautiful photo's that Anna took, you really sympathise with him in this scene as he mingles with the patrons of the exhibit, the curator Rita (Broberg) especially she treats him like he was nothing, having no respect for what he does and she get's his name wrong and when she finally seems to take an interest in what he's saying she moves and (Minor Spoiler) when Frank meets Anna's boyfriend Jason (Rotibi) in the bathroom he completely disrespects him by saying he's just another gay friend Anna is friends with and wipes his hands on Franks's jacket, you could tell he was arrogant and chauvinistic.

I love how LA looks in the film, well how Maniac depicts it a vibrant, beautiful,faceless, neon nightmare this is really shown in the scenes where Frank is driving in the van and in the subway scene.

There's references to other films throughout including The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Psycho, Young Frankenstein and even the original Maniac and one shot which duplicates the poster of the original film, and one major one which i'll discuss in a second.

The soundtrack is nothing short of spectacular it's absolutely spellbinding and suits the film and atmosphere to a tee and it's mostly synth,when you think of Maniac you'll immediately think this soundtrack if you have seen the film, it marries the film perfectly and every track suits the film I especially love Juno which is done by Rob who scores the film featuring vocalist Chloe Alper it sums up the film perfectly. I am most definitely getting the soundtrack.

It also features “Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazzarus which was famously used in a iconic scene of The Silence of The Lambs and of course comparisons could be made between Buffalo Bill and Frank and it's used in a equally iconic scene in Maniac when Frank kills his date Lucie (Duffy) he goes back to hers and she wants to have sex with him and she puts this song on as it's her favourite song and it plays throughout and forever it'll be seared into my brain it's a tense, memorable, brutal scene and how it was shot was perfect it was seamless.

There's themes in this horror film including, loneliness, relationships, sex,obsession and love and I was surprised how deep it is for a horror film, now after viewing this film I can see the comparisons between this and Taxi Driver personally in the characters and the depiction of LA. This film exhumes style and substance and is incredibly visceral with a beautiful tragic love story buried beneath a horror film ,with a superb soundtrack. I highly recommend this film if you have a strong stomach and like a bit more to your horror.