I cannot really believe that I found this one as it was banned in Britain, and is still banned in Germany.  Put bluntly this is a HORROR movie!  It does what it set out to do: kill innocent people in ridiculous ways.  What sets it apart from others?  Read on.

Maniac is not in anyway linked to "Madman", it is better in every way.  Storywise this film is passable, a deeply disturbed man who cannot control his insane urges to kill, scalp young women, and display their hair on his mannequins.  Why?  Because he believes his mother is the women he kills, and that by killing them, he can keep them forever.

Gorewise, this film is beyond compare.  Argento movies, ha!  Lucio Fulci, don't kid yourself.  This has Tom Savini, who choreographs the makeup and death scenes.  Highlights?  Two foot blade through chest?  Nah!  A guy throttled by thin wire which slices into him?  Bah!  Best highlight?  Try Savini himself having his whole head blown into small pieces at close range with a double barrelled shotgun.  Argento....who?

The filming in itself is excellent and is staged so well it is scary.  One scene cuts to a park in a child's perspective on a swing and this sudden change actually frightens you.  Don't ask why, but the whole movie leaks a kind of depressing look on life, and towards the end you kind of feel like the guy could be you.  A scary thought.

On the whole, if I were to give "Maniac" a score it would be the same as the score that I gave to The Burning, but that is not right because this movie ranks up there with "Psycho" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."  It is not a "wow" movie or a "popcorn" movie with mates, it is a cynical outlook on life that set out to horrify....

... and it did.