The greatest movie ever made..!

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Los Angeles. A young man named Frank Zito lurks through the streets at night to ambush and kill attractive women. He scalps them and staples their hair to the mannequins in his apartment. When he meets the beautiful fledgling artist Anna, for the first time in his life he feels something like love. But is a perverted psychopath like him even able to connect with a woman in a normal way?In 1980 William Lustig made a movie that dared to dive into the troubled mind of a mass murderer and shocked its audience with explicit, seemingly tasteless imagery: "Maniac". In 2012 the French horror expert Alexandre Aja ("Haute Tension", "The Hills Have Eyes") produces a remake of the controversial slasher classic. Director Franck Khalfoun focuses on one stylistic gimmick: He films (almost) everything from the psycho's perspective. We as an audience are forced to share Frank's demented vision. We become dirty stalkers ambuscading innocent women. That's very disturbing, especially because the moments before the actual murders are strangely suspenseful, entertaining even.But after the death of several women, the effect wears off and you begin to wonder: What's the point of this? Sure, Khalfoun tries to psychologize the killer, but these attempts remain crude and somewhat stereotypical. We aren't able to sympathize with the character anyway, so it might have been better to keep his motives a mystery. That would have made the experience even more unsettling. One theme of "Maniac" is the objectification of women from the subjective standpoint of a man. The women in this story are reduced to mere mannequins. That certainly makes you think, but the movie isn't meta enough to reflect its own objectification. It remains a slasher flick, after all - albeit a very effective and unconventional one.Elijah Wood ("Lord of the Rings") does a great job as Frank, who seems shy and charismatic, but really is a sicko. Nora Arnezeder as the French artist is much more than just a sweet love interest. It's a shame that the screenplay doesn't give these two characters the depth they deserve. The writers rely heavily on the expressive POV shots, but these alone don't explain much. They certainly don't replace profound writing, which is lacking here. The killing scenes are extremely graphic. But I wonder why the camera leaves Frank's POV when things get really disgusting. Is it because Khalfoun doesn't want to tax the audience too much? Or does the gore look better from a distance? I don't know, but either way this decision seems inconsistent with the premise of the movie."Maniac" is a thrilling experiment, but it's not as clever as it pretends to be. Still, as a stylish slasher movie it works pretty well. Give it a shot, but don't expect a genre-defining film.

Surprisingly visceral, this is a seriously violent and gory horror that is not a little worrying. A remake of the grubby 80s film of the same title, I had rather expected the ghastliness to be toned down here. I thought the days of US produced horror of this magnitude were well gone and would be left to the French or maybe Koreans. In fact, of course, screenwriters here, Aja and Levasseur were responsible for the earlier, sublime, Haute Tension, so perhaps we should not be surprised that we will be surprised at just how nasty things will get. The film opens in great style but perhaps aware this emphasis upon sparkling night lights and shop window reflections the director then begins to emphasise the grubbiness of the streets and the danger round the corner. As the film progresses it is clear that director, Frank Khalfoun is not quite able to merge the various views of the environment and indeed Elijah Wood's character. And it is the occasional jerkiness that prevents this from being a repeat of the sheer class of the French classic. Never let it be said, however, this is not a bloody and nasty affair. At one point I actually looked at the clock to see how much longer I had to endure but then things calmed down a little and I'm not sure the languorous, even if ghastly, ending was helpful. Maybe I was in a state of shock!

Having not seen the original film that this is a remake of, I have no frame of reference. Entering into it oblivious to any sort of bias or guideline, this Maniac proves to be a nifty shocker, one that is not without style even as it puts a churning in your stomach.It's the styling that I imagine have upset a lot of horror fans, the first person approach and avant-garde sheens strip the pic of genuine suspense. Yet it's a brave film in that respect, as is the casting of Elijah Wood as the titular maniac.Story is hardly original, boy had major mommy issues to deal with and has grown up disturbed. He has taken a career creating mannequins, but with real lady hair! Cue a bloody rampage of scalping - but wait! A pretty lady photographer has befriended him...So it is what it is, a film that's grotty in narrative thrusts, yet one that's plush of cityscape photography and POV daring. An odd blend for sure, so it goes without saying, all these things need to be of interest to the viewer for it to butter your bloody sandwich. 7/10

First of all my rate to this film is 9 out of 10 and i will explain why i rated this movie, higher.Accordin to people's review they're all saying one thing is missing,theme is bad,bad plot etc...For me this film is just masterpiece.Because its atmosphere , its soundtrack and acting are just freaked me out and editors really showed the bittersweet life of maniac and made us feel the world of psycho!!! I would say this film really showed us the act of a psychopath,their feeling ,their aspect of life and how they perceive society and how they see the world and i would say that this film helped me to see the world from their eyes and it's not just a thriller crime movie its a piece of scene how some hidden society see the world.And about Elijah Wood, he's the right person to take this role.I really wanna let know to other people who's not satisfied or not liked this film is that they don't feel deeply of its hidden beauty, of a psychopath mind like a beautiful mind.