ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - December 26th
"MANIAC" released in 1980
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Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) is a deranged man that due to his suffering from his abusive mother when he was a child, he becomes a serial killer that murders young women and scalps them to add towards his mannequin collection. After he awakens in his bed from having a nightmare about killing a couple on a beach, he dresses himself and leaves his resided one-room apartment - consisted of paintings, a framed picture of his mother, and a collection of mannequins - towards downtown Manhattan. When Frank is randomly invited inside a hotel by a prostitute (Rita Montone), she kisses with him before he abruptly strangles the woman, then scalps her with a utility razor while on a range of disturbance. He then returns home and adds the hooker to his mannequin collection by placing her clothing and nailing the scalp onto the mannequin; he tells himself in his mind that beauty is a crime punishable by death.
Sometime later, he dresses again and takes a collection of weaponry with him, including a double-barreled shotgun, before leaving. He drives around Brooklyn and the Queens area, where he finds a couple exiting a local disco and parking near the side of the Verrazano Bridge. When the boyfriend (Tom Savini) starts up the vehicle after his date sees Frank spying on them, Frank kills the couple with his shotgun and then adds the murdered woman to his mannequin collection back at his apartment. After seeing his recent crime committed on television, he begins to talk to himself and the mannequins and sobs himself to sleep.
During the next day in Central Park, Frank follows a photographer named Anna (Caroline Munro) after she takes a photo of him and a little girl riding on a bicycle in the distance. At night, Frank sees a nurse (Kelly Piper) leaving the Roosevelt Hospital, where he then stalks her inside a subway station and murders her with a bayonet before adding her to his mannequin collection. Days later, Frank heads to Anna's apartment and is invited inside by Anna after she recognizes him from the photo she took earlier. While on a dinner date, he shows her a photo of his mother who died in a car crash years before. A few days later, Frank is invited by Anna to a studio where she is taking photos of models at a photography session, and she introduces one of her models Rita (Abigail Clayton) to him. After seeing the two talking and holding hands, he steals Rita's necklace left aside and leaves. Later that same night, he arrives at Rita's apartment to give her the necklace, and then later sneaks in and attacks her. With Frank's madness escalating, Anna invites him to a show, but make a stop at the cemetery first to visit Frank's mother's grave. Amid a flurry of hallucinations, Frank finally snaps and Anna is forced to defend herself after a long, harrowing chase through the cemetery!
Sometime later, he dresses again and takes a collection of weaponry with him, including a double-barreled shotgun, before leaving. He drives around Brooklyn and the Queens area, where he finds a couple exiting a local disco and parking near the side of the Verrazano Bridge. When the boyfriend (Tom Savini) starts up the vehicle after his date sees Frank spying on them, Frank kills the couple with his shotgun and then adds the murdered woman to his mannequin collection back at his apartment. After seeing his recent crime committed on television, he begins to talk to himself and the mannequins and sobs himself to sleep.
During the next day in Central Park, Frank follows a photographer named Anna (Caroline Munro) after she takes a photo of him and a little girl riding on a bicycle in the distance. At night, Frank sees a nurse (Kelly Piper) leaving the Roosevelt Hospital, where he then stalks her inside a subway station and murders her with a bayonet before adding her to his mannequin collection. Days later, Frank heads to Anna's apartment and is invited inside by Anna after she recognizes him from the photo she took earlier. While on a dinner date, he shows her a photo of his mother who died in a car crash years before. A few days later, Frank is invited by Anna to a studio where she is taking photos of models at a photography session, and she introduces one of her models Rita (Abigail Clayton) to him. After seeing the two talking and holding hands, he steals Rita's necklace left aside and leaves. Later that same night, he arrives at Rita's apartment to give her the necklace, and then later sneaks in and attacks her. With Frank's madness escalating, Anna invites him to a show, but make a stop at the cemetery first to visit Frank's mother's grave. Amid a flurry of hallucinations, Frank finally snaps and Anna is forced to defend herself after a long, harrowing chase through the cemetery!
TRIVIA: In order to keep costs down, several porn actresses, such as Abigail Clayton and Sharon Mitchell, were hired to play the victims and other minor female roles.
Top: Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) nails the scalp of one of his victims to a mannequin!;
Above: Photographer Anna (Caroline Munro) becomes friends with Frank, unaware of his true nature.
Director William Lustig stated that co-writer and star Joe Spinell had to prepare for the lead villain role of New York serial killer Frank Zito by doing research on real life serial killers such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, David 'Son of Sam' Berkowitz, and others as well as he went to strange excite places to really get into the role. Also, Lustig stated that there was even a real murder of a prostitute in the same hotel (the Hotel St. James) where they were filming Joe as Frank's scene killing a prostitute around the same time and the real life killer was never caught. People dressed up fake mannequins with the victims clothes to see if they can identify them as well what the character Frank does in the movie with his victims.
According to Lustig, Italian horror director Dario Argento was supposed to be involved as co-producer because his wife, Daria Nicolodi, at the time was originally offered the protagonist role but was unavailable (she was unable to go to New York for filming because she was still filming her scenes for Argento's own movie Inferno (1980) in Italy). Joe Spinell was also working in between the filming of Maniac (1980) with other movie projects, one of them being Nighthawks (1981) which began filming before production on Maniac ended, in which Spinell cut his hair short and shaved off his mustache to play a clean-cut, high-ranking New York police official for Nighthawks. In a few scenes (most of them being where Frank Zito is driving his car), Spinell is wearing a fake mustache with a long-haired wig under his cap.
Maniac's original budget of $48,000 was raised through $6,000 from Spinell - which was part of his $10,000 salary from the movie Cruising (1980) that he recently completed before filming began - $12,000 came from Andrew W. Garroni and the rest ($30,000) came from Lustig, which was from their profits in the adult film business. The three of them put all that money into a stock market account and the amount grew to $135,000 as production continued. It was British producer Judd Hamilton who came up with the rest of the money (around $200,000) to complete the movie as part of a condition that his then-wife, Caroline Munro, would be cast as the heroine.
According to Lustig, Italian horror director Dario Argento was supposed to be involved as co-producer because his wife, Daria Nicolodi, at the time was originally offered the protagonist role but was unavailable (she was unable to go to New York for filming because she was still filming her scenes for Argento's own movie Inferno (1980) in Italy). Joe Spinell was also working in between the filming of Maniac (1980) with other movie projects, one of them being Nighthawks (1981) which began filming before production on Maniac ended, in which Spinell cut his hair short and shaved off his mustache to play a clean-cut, high-ranking New York police official for Nighthawks. In a few scenes (most of them being where Frank Zito is driving his car), Spinell is wearing a fake mustache with a long-haired wig under his cap.
Maniac's original budget of $48,000 was raised through $6,000 from Spinell - which was part of his $10,000 salary from the movie Cruising (1980) that he recently completed before filming began - $12,000 came from Andrew W. Garroni and the rest ($30,000) came from Lustig, which was from their profits in the adult film business. The three of them put all that money into a stock market account and the amount grew to $135,000 as production continued. It was British producer Judd Hamilton who came up with the rest of the money (around $200,000) to complete the movie as part of a condition that his then-wife, Caroline Munro, would be cast as the heroine.
Above: In a brutal finale, Frank hallucinates he is being torn apart by the mannequins of his victims!
Principal photography began on October 21, 1979, in New York, where many scenes had to be filmed guerrilla-style because the production could not afford city permits and had to have been filmed quickly and afterwards the crew had to run away before the cops arrived. One such scene was the Disco-boy car scene, which was filmed in it's entirity in just over one hour! Loosely inspired by the 'Son of Sam' killings of serial killer David Berkowitz (who shot people in parked cars with a .44 Special revolver) the scene, which was filmed in slow motion from three different camera angles and lit entirely by the reflected headlights of the car, is extremely graphic and realistic in its depiction of the damage caused by the head being shot at point blank range by 12-gauge buckshot. Savini was a Vietnam War veteran and used his firsthand knowledge of the carnage he saw on the battlefield to create the effect.
The dummy used for the exploding head scene had been used extensively by Savini for effects in Dawn of the Dead (1978). Because they would only have one chance to film the scene where Tom Savini's character gets shot, Savini decided that he should be the one to pull the trigger. He said it felt a little weird shooting the dummy he had created of himself in the face. After its use in this film, it was so saturated in fake blood and gore that it was decided to retire the dummy (which Tom had named "Boris"). According to Savini, the dummy was locked in the trunk of the car used in the shotgun scene and sunk in the East River.
The 1970s dark blue Buick Electra car that is driven by the killer was owned at the time by director William Lustig which was purchased from a used car lot for $200. The car was permanently damaged late in filming when a camera mount set up by the crew to film a scene with Frank and Anna in the car inadvertently damaged the steering wheel mechanism wire which forced Lustig to get rid of the car which became impossible to steer afterwords.
The dummy used for the exploding head scene had been used extensively by Savini for effects in Dawn of the Dead (1978). Because they would only have one chance to film the scene where Tom Savini's character gets shot, Savini decided that he should be the one to pull the trigger. He said it felt a little weird shooting the dummy he had created of himself in the face. After its use in this film, it was so saturated in fake blood and gore that it was decided to retire the dummy (which Tom had named "Boris"). According to Savini, the dummy was locked in the trunk of the car used in the shotgun scene and sunk in the East River.
The 1970s dark blue Buick Electra car that is driven by the killer was owned at the time by director William Lustig which was purchased from a used car lot for $200. The car was permanently damaged late in filming when a camera mount set up by the crew to film a scene with Frank and Anna in the car inadvertently damaged the steering wheel mechanism wire which forced Lustig to get rid of the car which became impossible to steer afterwords.
[looks down at his latest victim]
Frank Zito: Now you tell me what I should do. I heard about it, I always do. I can't go out for a minute. It's impossible. Fancy girls, in their fancy dresses and lipstick, laughing and dancing. Should you stop them? I can't stop them. But you do, don't you? And they can't laugh and they can't dance anymore. You've got to stop, or they'll take you away from me. I will never, ever, let them take you away from me. You're mine now forever. And, I'm so happy.
Top: Co-producer and star Joe Spinell with effects maestro Tom Savini;
Above: Elijah Woods as Frank Zito in the 2012 remake
Maniac was never given a rating by the MPAA, as the filmmakers knew it would receive the dreaded X rating for the violence and gore contained and simply refused to submit it for any review, because at the time it was easier for unrated films to be shown in theatres than X-rated ones due to the latter always being seen (even if, as in this case, inaccurately) as pornographic. To offset the lack of classification, the film's distributor, Analysis Film Releasing Corporation, had a unique campaign to support its release in New York: mini-screen kiosks were set up in front of theatres that were showing the film in 1980 that had several minutes of uncut footage, including gory murders. However, the campaign backfired when movie critic Gene Siskel - who was so disgusted by the infamous "shotgun head explosion" scene that he walked out of the movie, saying on his television show with Roger Ebert that the film "could not redeem itself after the ultra-violence" that he had seen - condemned it on both his regular TV reporting and "At The Movies", leading to a backlash against the film's violence and the cancellation of plans to have the kiosks used in such major markets as Chicago and Los Angeles.
A majority of reviews at the time of Maniac's release were similar to Siskel's, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing, "Good sense, if not heaven, should protect anyone who thinks he likes horror films from wasting a price of admission on Maniac, a movie that shows how an aging, pot-bellied maniac slices up young women of no great intelligence." Contemporary reviews have been a little more receptive, with Stuart Galbraith IV (DVD Talk) saying of the film "Despite some good direction and a sincere, even daring performance by character actor Joe Spinell (Rocky), who also co-produced and co-wrote its screenplay, Maniac (1980) is alternately repellent and boring, despite the obvious intelligence that went into its making. A low-budget slasher film notable for its extremely graphic splatter effects by Tom Savini - who also appears in the picture - Maniac is mostly a character study, anticipating the much superior (if no less unpleasant) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)." Tom Becker of DVD Verdict said "That the film is so effective is due in no small part to the performance of Joe Spinell as Frank, the schlubby-looking guy whose darkness overwhelms him. This is not the standard, amateurish, paint-by-numbers horror villain turn. Spinell creates a fully formed portrait of this monster that goes far beyond the surface. He mutters to himself, talks to mannequins, growls like an animal when stalking his prey—yet he can be charming as well, and while the pairing of Spinell and Munro as lovers has a definite Beauty and the Beast quality to it, it's not entirely unbelievable. Had Maniac been more of a mainstream film, Spinell might have been remembered as one of the great horror heavies."
Spinell planned to make a sequel to Manic, entitled Mr. Robbie, a remake of the 1973 film The Psychopath, about a children's television host who murders the abusive parents of his fans. A short promotion film was made in 1986 which was filmed, produced and directed by Buddy Giovinazzo and written by Spinell and Joe Cirillo, but Spinell was unable to find financial backers. After nearly three years, financing was indeed raised and it was scheduled to go into production in March 1989, but the sudden death of Spinell two months prior cancelled all plans for the sequel.
A majority of reviews at the time of Maniac's release were similar to Siskel's, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing, "Good sense, if not heaven, should protect anyone who thinks he likes horror films from wasting a price of admission on Maniac, a movie that shows how an aging, pot-bellied maniac slices up young women of no great intelligence." Contemporary reviews have been a little more receptive, with Stuart Galbraith IV (DVD Talk) saying of the film "Despite some good direction and a sincere, even daring performance by character actor Joe Spinell (Rocky), who also co-produced and co-wrote its screenplay, Maniac (1980) is alternately repellent and boring, despite the obvious intelligence that went into its making. A low-budget slasher film notable for its extremely graphic splatter effects by Tom Savini - who also appears in the picture - Maniac is mostly a character study, anticipating the much superior (if no less unpleasant) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)." Tom Becker of DVD Verdict said "That the film is so effective is due in no small part to the performance of Joe Spinell as Frank, the schlubby-looking guy whose darkness overwhelms him. This is not the standard, amateurish, paint-by-numbers horror villain turn. Spinell creates a fully formed portrait of this monster that goes far beyond the surface. He mutters to himself, talks to mannequins, growls like an animal when stalking his prey—yet he can be charming as well, and while the pairing of Spinell and Munro as lovers has a definite Beauty and the Beast quality to it, it's not entirely unbelievable. Had Maniac been more of a mainstream film, Spinell might have been remembered as one of the great horror heavies."
Spinell planned to make a sequel to Manic, entitled Mr. Robbie, a remake of the 1973 film The Psychopath, about a children's television host who murders the abusive parents of his fans. A short promotion film was made in 1986 which was filmed, produced and directed by Buddy Giovinazzo and written by Spinell and Joe Cirillo, but Spinell was unable to find financial backers. After nearly three years, financing was indeed raised and it was scheduled to go into production in March 1989, but the sudden death of Spinell two months prior cancelled all plans for the sequel.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 43%
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