Friday, May 10, 2019

Review: Maniac: Limited Edition 3 Blu-ray/CD disc set

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet


Maniac
Directed by William Lustig
Magnum Motion Pictures / Blue Underground / Red Shirt Pictures / MVD Visual
87 minutes, 1981 /2010 / 2018
There are certain people who just look like their signature roles, whether it fits their personality or not. Sly Stallone was so popular in Rocky because he looked and sounded the part, even though he is quite intelligent. Vincent Schiavelli (d. 2005), the angry subway car spirit in Ghost (1990) similarly was so memorable because his face fit that role. For Maniac, we get the underrated Joe Spinell (d. 1989) in the portrayal of his lifetime that will always be associated with him as a badge of honor.
Spinell plays Frank Zito, an artist who grew up with an abusive mother, and now has issues with women in that he feels compelled to do them brutal harm. Being schizophrenic a la Norman Bates, he hears his mother’s voice even though she’s passed on, but normally his bicameral mind as far as we the audience hear it, it’s his own. He argues with himself that he doesn’t want to be doing these gruesome murders, but he comprehends it as being obliged, or to be punished.
As for the kills, well they are so beautifully done by Tom Savini, and so severe that Savini himself believes he went a bit too far. Perhaps that may be somewhat true in the American market by 1981 standards, but not today’s world of torture and body mutilation releases. Savini, who was a medic in a war zone, was familiar with how the body works in bloodletting situations, and used that to become the top of his field of blood and gore at that time.
A chunk of the money that was used to make the film came from the director, who made some pretty pesos in the adult industry, giving him the opportunity to cast extras from that genre. Some are easily recognizable to those of that generation, such as Sharon Mitchell and Abigail Clayton (billed as Gail Lawrence).
There are actually three stars in the film. Of course, there’s Spinell; as the female lead is the beautiful British actress Caroline Munro who plays a photographer, having gotten the role through her producer husband at the time that came up with the largest chunk of backing cash. While Munro is totally fine in the role and lovely to look at, it’s hard to imagine her photographer character being attracted to Brooklynite and shlubby Frank. She is so beyond his league. Of course, the discussion is whether she is actually gay or bi-, and theirs is only a friendship to her.
The third star of the film is the city of New York at that time, when subways were graffiti bound, the street lights were dimmer, and the skyline was as beautiful as ever. Like Taxi Driver (1976) and They Might Be Giants (1971), the simmering city is intricately connected to the actions and becomes its own character.
The film has pretty much aged okay, though in moments it feels kind of hackney as far as the story goes. The kills, however, are as stunning today as they were back then, and for that alone is worth the watch, especially in this restored 4K presentation, taken from a recently uncovered 16mm original camera negative. Lustig is known for making crime films that were on the odd side of the B-film scale, such as Vigilante (1982) and the Maniac Cop trilogy (1988-93), but this may be his finest work, overall. He was 24 years old at the time.
This three-disc set is just loaded with extras, which I will get to now. It is a mixture of new material and some from a previous, non-HD re-release from 2010. The first thing I want to talk about is the languages and captions. There are multiple languages available: English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. Captions can be in English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai, but as I only speak one (not counting Brooklynese, in which much of the film is dripping wet), I went for the English.
For the first Blu-ray disc, there are two audio commentaries. The first is with producer/director William Lustig and producer Andrew W. Garroni. It’s actually nearly perfect in that they tell stories about the production, the actors, the distribution, the guerilla filmmaking, and how it was a joint contribution between everyone. There is no idle banter, it’s all relevant to the making of the film, and they keep it going. For the second Audio Commentary, again with Producer/Director Lustig, we get to hear Special Make-Up Effects Artist Tom Savini, Editor Lorenzo Marinelli, and Joe Spinell's Assistant (friend) Luke Walter. There is a little bit of repetition from the first commentary, but enough new stuff to keep it nearly as interesting, though there are some gaps of quiet here and there. Most importantly, though, they almost never talk over each other, giving us a chance to hear what everyone is saying. The voices are so different (i.e., level of New York accents) that it’s easy to identify who is who, a problem I often have with multiple person commentaries. Besides, it was enjoyable watching Savini talk about his head blowing up real good.
Disc one finished with seven theatrical trailers, nine TV spots and four radio spots. Disc two is broken down into three categories starting with Featurettes, most of which are from the 2010 rerelease, though some are brand new. It begins with the 19 minute “Maniac Outtakes.” The footage is not only of interest, but is overdubbed by a commentary by director Lustig. I like seeing the old footage of New York, such as 42nd Street. Following is “Returning to the Scene of the Crime with William Lustig.” For 8 minutes, Lustig discusses the differences between the shoot locations in 1979 and now. The videos comparing of then and now shots is fascinating.
“Anna and the Killer with Caroline Munro,” covers her career from before Maniac and into the film in 13 minutes. “The Death Dealer with Tom Savini,” is an interview with the Special Make-Up Effects Artist, who has always been a great conversationalist, so his stories are fun for the entire 12 minutes. “Dark Notes with Jay Chattaway” discusses composing of the eerie, yet beautiful background music for 12 minutes.
I was looking forward to the 11 minute “Maniac Men - Interview with Songwriters Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky,” who are questioned by Lustig. The rumor had been going around that the song “Maniac” from Flashdance was originally supposed to be in Maniac, with different lyrics {“He’s a maniac… / And he’ll nail your cat to the door”), as Sembello was a horror fan. This lively interview clears it up once and for all. The star of Maniac, Spinell (d. 1989), was known as a party animal, even being married to a porn star for a while, appearing in major films like The Godfather and Rocky, but he was also a horror fan. Naturally, there should be a featurette documentary on his life, as there is here with “The Joe Spinell Story.” This is a special production from 2001 that covers Spinelli’s life and has lots of good stories told by some heavy hitters, such as Jason Miller (d. 2001), Robert Forester, and of course the director of Maniac, Lustig. For 49 minutes, we are regaled on what it was like to know Spinell, and depending on the period of his too brief life and how inebriated he was as the time, it could be heaven or hell.
The last featurette in this section is an 8-minute “Mr. Robbie: Maniac 2 Promo Reel.” This was supposed to be a sequel to the first Maniac with a different director, but was not completed due to Spinell’s death at age 52. It’s grainy but looks a bit wack, though the gore looks good.
In the publicity section, there’s “Paul Wunder,” an 18 minute radio interview with Lustig, Spinell and Munro on WBAI-NY. The sound quality varies widely, but still interesting. Then “William Lustig on ‘Movie Madness,’” a cable access show in black and white that’s a bit more interesting as various people phone in and ask some wild questions for 47 minutes. I miss Manhattan Cable Access, and this is a good reason why. Lasting about 1 minute we see a brief interview with “Joe Spinell at Cannes.” What’s more fun is the 13-minute “Joe Spinell on ‘The Joe Franklin Show’,” in 1981. If you grew up in New York and watched Franklin, you know what you’re dealing with. Franklin (d. 2015) is a cult figure that bands like the Ramones and the Dictators hung out with as well as Broadway actors, ventriloquists and psychics.
“Caroline Munro TV Interview” is with NBC New York’s Chuck Scarborough and the awful Katie Kelly (worst film reviewer ever; d. 2018) in New York at 3 minutes. Of course, next up is “Barf Bag Review Policy,” Kelly’s on-air review of Maniac. Man, this woman is terrible at her job, and not just because she pans the film. She generally had really bad taste, and in 2 minutes she disses the film and says absolutely nothing. The 23 minute “Grindhouse Film Festival Q&A,” which was shot recently enough to mention the Elliot Spitzer scandal, features Lustig, producer Garroni and actress/doctor Sharon Mitchell. They discuss the film (duh) and working with Spinell. Good stuff. This section ends with a 120+ Still and Poster Gallery of film shots, behind the scenes, and, well, posters.
Next section is “Controversy.” I knew this was going to be fun and shrill, and I will comment more on that near the end of the review. It is broken down into sections, the first being “Los Angeles,” where we see newscasts against the film in 1981 on “Channel 7 News” (Ann Martin), “Channel 11 News” (Judi Bloom), and “NBC Tomorrow Coast to Coast” (Rona Barrett).
For “Chicago,” we see a newscast by Gene Siskel (d. 1999) on CBS News. He hated the movie, so what he says is no surprise, referring to it as part of a “women in danger films.” In “Philadelphia,” there are reports from Channel 10 News, two from Channel 3 News, and Channel 6 Action News. Under the banner of the “Newsbeat” television show, we have “Violent Movies” (13 minutes) and “Movie Violence” (21 minutes; the titles made me laugh), which discusses the “effect” of violence in films on its audience.
The next two actually took me by surprise as we watch Al Goldstein (d. 2013) rant and rave against violent films and mutilates a sex doll on his cable access show, “Midnight Blue.” I thought he was a First Amendment proponent, and the fact that Maniac has porn actresses throughout should have been a positive for him, considering the nature of the show. Last in this section is titled “Gallery of Outrage,” which shows pull-out quotes from reviews that are, well let’s say unfavorable. This includes a letter from the film board of the Philippines, turning it down for distribution.
The last two bonuses are big ones. First there is a full CD of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Jay Chattaway. Lastly, there is a nicely written and designed thick booklet with a new essay by Michael Gingold, former Editor-in-Chief of Fangoria Magazine.
There have been a lot of charges of sexism against Maniac, as Zito is what is now called an incel, and strikes back at women who he identifies with his malevolent deceased mother. But some of the most violent kills in the film, which include garrotting and a shot gun shooting, are done to men, as well.
Either way, the film was considered quite successful for an indie release. Its budget was estimated at $350,000, and earned more than $6 million in the US, alone. The fact that it’s still being rereleased almost 40 years later shows its power. And with literally hours of extras, this one is of particular interest; yes, I sat through all of it; it took about a week.

No comments:

Post a Comment