{"id":70662,"date":"2021-03-19T11:57:44","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T18:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70662"},"modified":"2021-03-19T11:57:44","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T18:57:44","slug":"maniac-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70662","title":{"rendered":"Maniac (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;This has got to stop! It&#8217;s silly &#8212; and it&#8217;s not getting us anywhere.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster-194x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-70663\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster-194x300.png 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster-662x1024.png 662w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster-83x128.png 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster-175x270.png 175w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Poster.png 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA deeply disturbed and traumatized man (Joe Spinell) goes on a psychotic killing and scalping spree across New York City, eventually dating a photographer (Caroline Munro) who may (or may not) be able to break through to him.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Horror Films<\/li>\n<li>Psychopaths<\/li>\n<li>Serial Killers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that that this &#8220;indefensible slice-and-dice film&#8221; &#8212; which &#8220;has found a cult among fans of the master of gore special effects, Tom Savini&#8221; &#8212; features Spinell (&#8220;a supporting player in many more respectable urban dramas&#8221;) playing a &#8220;sicko&#8221; who &#8220;kills a prostitute, a nurse who he chases through a deserted subway station, a young woman and her boyfriend (Savini)&#8230;, and a model.&#8221; Meanwhile, &#8220;in a weird sequence in which Spinell seems to impersonate Robert De Niro, he courts [a] beautiful photographer (Caroline Munro), who for some reason responds to this fat, ugly man.&#8221; Peary points out that &#8220;the acting is bad, the script hasn&#8217;t one clever moment, and the murders are repulsive &#8212; but what is most objectionable is how director William Lustig prolongs the death scenes of the nurse and the model so that they are killed long after Spinell could have done away with them.&#8221; Peary presumably included this title in <em>GFTFF<\/em> given its cult following (ew!), as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081114\/trivia?item=tr2481785\">controversy<\/a> surrounding its release, but there&#8217;s no need at all to check this one out.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Effectively creepy sets<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-1024x560.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"350\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-70664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-1024x560.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-128x70.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-768x420.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-1536x839.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still-494x270.png 494w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maniac-Still.png 1843w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; skip this one. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081114\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/review\/4268\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moriareviews.com\/horror\/maniac-1980.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/reviews\/44813\/maniac-30th-anniversary-edition\/\">DVD Talk Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This has got to stop! It&#8217;s silly &#8212; and it&#8217;s not getting us anywhere.&#8221; Synopsis: A deeply disturbed and traumatized man (Joe Spinell) goes on a psychotic killing and scalping spree across New York City, eventually dating a photographer (Caroline Munro) who may (or may not) be able to break through to him. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Horror Films Psychopaths Serial Killers Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary writes that that this &#8220;indefensible slice-and-dice film&#8221; &#8212; which &#8220;has found a&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70662\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70662"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70668,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70662\/revisions\/70668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}