The Worst Film Ever

Brilliant and touching

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

What a great 80s treasure MANIAC COP is & so much fun!!! This was one i owned on old vhs & watched it tons of times it's so rewatchable & exciting, It's a very dark & gritty New York mystery Horror Thriller all in one & works perfectly. Cult Horror icon TOM ATKINS is fantastic as the tough & gritty detective Frank Mcrae a perfect performance by Atkins he's born to play these rugged hero types especially cops!!!! & Bruce Campbell is good in this as the other hero who takes over in the second half of the film & he's good not great like Atkins but just good as he doesn't have the screen presence that Atkins does but all in all this is a BRILLIANT brutal slasher Thriller set in the very scary darkness of 80s very gritty New York City a place full of creepy atmosphere & plays like another character in this film!!! Also Matt Cordell the Maniac Cop is a great Villain who should be up there with Jason Voohees & Michael Myers!!! Robert z'dar is another great screen presence as this big scary violent Cop turned Maniac after the system screws him over & puts him in a tough prison surrounded by criminals he's put away, a really great 80s film & a really great Cop Thriller & Horror Slasher combined. Tom Atkins is great in this probably my favourite role & performance by the King of cool!!! MANIAC COP truly is one of those 80s gems & so much more!!! Thank you TOM ATKINS you make these movies even better.

A tile like 'Maniac Cop' should be an indicator of low quality but this film even though low budget is surprisingly good. A disgruntled ex-cop thought deceased is killing people in New York but it is not as simple as that. Who he is and why he is killing are eventually explained which involves the justice system, the penal system and ideas of trust and betrayal. There is a lot in the film and it moves along briskly with good character scenes and exciting action scenes. The last stunt is amazing. When the city realises there is a killing cop the paranoia of the population is well portrayed.The cast acquit themselves excellently, particularly Tom Atkins as policeman Frank McCrae, William Smith as Captain Ripley and Sheree North as Sally Noland. Robert Z'Dar as the titular cop is frightening, even in silhouette standing still. Bruce Campbell plays an adulterous cop who is accused of the crimes. Apparently the actor disliked the film but what does he know? He is fine in it.It's not really a slasher film, it's not a monster film, it's not a police procedural film. The laudable direction by William Lustig and script by Larry Cohen makes it rather a good drama and more engrossing than many a bigger budgeted thriller. There were sequels but was definitely the best one.

UGH, this movie. Look, I wanted to like it, I really did. It's got the perfect 80's vibe going' on, it's a RIDICULOUS and awesome plot, and it's got both Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins. You'd think this would be a no brainer. But this movie just wasn't good, and is certainly not worthy of any kind of cult status. Like, really, a bad movie from the 80's should not be automatically escalated to "cult movie" status. That is a title that should only go to movies truly deserving due to the perfect balance of entertainment, ridiculousness, and quotability… not just ANY movie that bombs.Anyways, from the opening credits — complete with SO MANY freeze frame shots of the titular "Maniac Cop" putting his uniform on — I knew I was in for SOME kind of ride. The basic plot is that there's a man in New York City dressed as a cop, but rather than protecting and serving he's slashing and killing. Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell, who is one of very few things that make this movie watchable), a cop himself, sets out to solve the mystery after his wife (Victoria Catlin) suspects that HE is the killer (shortly before being murdered herself). He pairs up with his girlfriend-on-the-side, Theresa (Laurene Landon), to figure it out and clear his own name. It's eventually discovered that the killer is Matt Cordell (played by uber villain Robert Z'Dar), an officer that was legendary among the police force but was jailed for brutality and killed by fellow inmates. He's now back to exact revenge (I think? Except he's just killing random people?). Horror classic Tom Atkins is there alongside Campbell and plays Lieutenant Frank McCrae, good guy cop who is doing his best to help. Cool, right? YOU WOULD THINK SO, WOULDN'T YOU.I don't mind it not having much substance. I don't even mind it being straight up brainless at times. I'm alllll about a mindless gore fest. But THE KILLINGS WEREN'T EVEN FUN. At best they provided a moment of "oh, neat" and at worst they were straight up laughable — and I don't mean I'm laughing because it's so over-the-top ridiculous, I'm just laughing because it's sad. The paddy wagon flying off the pier was pretty neat, I'll give it that. And I'll watch literally anything with a shirtless Bruce Campbell. But those were, sadly, the only highlights of this movie.

After a strange rash of local killings, a police detective finds that the reports of a cop committing the crimes aren't leading to the forces' scapegoat and rather to a former member though dead and tries to help him clear his name against the true killer.Overall this one here was quite the fun and exciting offering with a lot to like about it. What really gives this one a lot of its main enjoyment here is the fact that this one does so much of taking the reason for trusting the police-force out on duty and warps it into something to be feared, with the main gimmick of the undead policeman still wearing his old uniform bringing in the unlucky victims only to turn the tables on them. The kind of fear and panic this generates is quite fun and impressive here, as the early stalking scenes out on the city streets showing this off makes for quite a fun time here as this manages to keep the suspense going of whether or not it's possible to trust the police in uniform here with the identity behind him being quite mysterious and hidden so there's a lot to like here. Even furthering this is the slow- building angle of this one getting the framed-innocent-officer storyline as part of this one as there's a much bigger amount of deception required here to pull that off and manages to make this quite fun going about this. Not only does that play into the slasher angle here as this makes for a perfect foil to keep the killings going despite being held prisoner the entire time, there's plenty of action in here as these lead into the truly startling and wholly enjoyable mid-section here where he goes to town on the police force and launches a massive attack at the officers there after he's held for questioning, and the rampage is packed with brutal, bloody highlights and tons of fine action in the brawling and stalking to stop him, then gets quite fun as they have to maneuver through the corpses left behind only to make the mistake of being there to take the fall again. That makes the action even better in the later half, with the appearance at the police headquarters leading to the suspenseful stalking of the policewoman despite being handcuffed to a dead partner, the escape from the trapped supply room in front of the other officers and finally the out-of-control car chase through the streets leading back to the docks where the great shoot-out occurs and leads into the thrilling resolution here. There's enough fun here in the back-story for what happened here to keep this going along nicely with a fine series of flashbacks to his true identity and what happened that there's some fine motivation for his actions while making sure that the supernatural aspects throughout here are given some rather nicely-appointed reasoning as the early scenes of the inhuman killer seem appropriate given the later revelations given. As the make-up for the undead killer looks great and the kills are certainly gruesome and bloody enough, these here are more than enough to make this a highly enjoyable effort which holds out over its few flaws nicely. The only area that holds this down is the length it goes to keep the false-accusation thread going, blatantly ignoring tons of witness testimony and their own officers' accounts merely to keep his neck on the line and enabling the rampage to continue when it makes no sense to continue it. Otherwise, this one here is a pretty enjoyable and entertaining slasher.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.