Plot
The owner of a mannequin shop develops a dangerous obsession with a young artist.
Release Year: 2012
Rating: 6.2/10 (6,745 voted)
Director:Franck Khalfoun
Storyline
Just when the streets seemed safe, a serial killer with a fetish for scalps is back and on the hunt. Frank is the withdrawn owner of a mannequin store, but his life changes when young artist Anna appears asking for his help with her new exhibition. As their friendship develops and Frank's obsession escalates, it becomes clear that she has unleashed a long-repressed compulsion to stalk and kill.
Trivia:
The movie features the song "Good-bye Horses," by Q. Lazzarus. The song was also featured in The Silence of the Lambs, another movie about a serial killer who skinned people and had issues with his mother. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 9/10
The world wasn't exactly crying out for a remake of 1980's "Maniac".
Starring Joe Spinnel and directed by William Lustig, it was one of the
most intense, jarring, violent and in your face horror films of the
entire decade. Surprisingly, someone got the idea to remake it. The
results are surprisingly close to the original in its refusal to
compromise and the highly disturbing and troubling psychological
terrain it traverses.
Not so much powered by anything resembling a conventional story, the
film is very much in the tradition of character based cinema very much
in the vein of 1970's New Hollywood cinema-films such as "Midnight
Cowboy" and, of course, "Taxi Driver", which it wears its influence
loudly and proudly.
Elijah Wood absolutely stuns in this remake-he truly is the glue that
holds it all together. Frank (Wood) is very much torn between something
resembling a normal life and his more psychotic tendencies. The film
really gets you in this character's highly disturbed and disturbing
frame of mind and psychology.
Apart from a truly astounding and fearless performance from Wood, where
this remake really excels is in its visual and sound design and look
and sound. When Frank is plagued by constant migraine headaches, the
frame starts to blur around the edges, accompanied by a high pitched
sound. Also, with a few exceptions, the film is very much told visually
in a first perspective, point of view manner. We only see Frank via
reflection in something like a mirror or a window, illustrating
beautifully the man's fractured and shattered mind.
Be warned, though. Although not constantly violent, when it is, this
film, like the original, takes absolutely no prisoners whatsoever!
This, coupled with the unnerving, dark terrain it covers, will, like
the original, make it something of an acquired taste. If you've got the
nerves and stomach for it, prepare to be shocked and stunned. A true
exception to the rule about all remakes being watered down, compromised
and awful.
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