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.
