First released in 1980, Maniac stars Joe Spinell as Frank Zito.

Frank lives in a run-down New York apartment.  The grimy walls are covered with pictures that appear to have been cut out of magazines.  The sheets on the bed look like they haven’t been washed in over a year and, for that matter, the sweaty and greasy Frank Zito looks like he could definitely use a shower as well.  Frank lives alone but he has several blood-stained mannequins.  He talks to the mannequins, cooing about how he just wants them to be nice to him and to stop abusing him.  Just looking at the apartment, one can imagine the nauseating odor of sweet, blood, and who knows what else that seeps out whenever Frank Zito opens his door.

Frank Zito is also a murderer.  The majority of the film is taken up with scenes of him stalking his victims.  One extended sequences features him stalking a nurse through a subway station.  Another scene features a rather nightmarish moment in which Frank, in slow motion, jumps on the hood of a car and shoots a man point blank with a shotgun.  (The man is played by Tom Savini, who was also responsible for the film’s gore effects.)  An innocent model is killed after Frank breaks into her apartment.  “I just want to talk to you,” he says and maybe he actually believes that at first.

Frank has a chance meeting with a glamorous and beautiful photographer named Anna (Caroline Munro, playing a role that was rejected by Daria Nicolodi).  Somewhat improbably, Anna is charmed by the socially awkward Frank and even agrees to go out with him.  She’s touched when Frank shows up at the funeral of the model that he killed.  “She didn’t have many friends,” Anna tells Frank.

Meanwhile, at the cemetery, Frank’s fate awaits….

Maniac is one of the most infamous and controversial grindhouse films ever made.  The film’s atmosphere and the bleak visuals are the equivalent of being forced to look at New York while wearing glasses that somebody found floating in the sewer.  The deaths are drawn out and Savini’s gore effects are disturbingly convincing.  It’s a nearly plotless film about a man who hates women and what makes it scary as opposed to just exploitive is the fact that there are men like Frank Zito out there.  Joe Spinell, who was one of the great character actors of the 70s, appeared in everything from The Godfather to Taxi Driver to Rocky but, in the end, it’s his performance as Frank Zito that he seems to be destined to be most-remembered for.  Spinell is frightening, convincing, and disturbing as Frank Zito.  Spinell was planning on doing a sequel before his untimely death, at the age of 52, in 1989.

(Spinell was a hemophiliac who bled to death after slipping in the shower.  According to Maniac director William Lustig, when the police entered Spinell’s apartment, the first thing they saw was a huge amount of blood.  The second thing they saw was a life-like replica of Spinell’s head sitting on top of the television.  The head was a prop from Maniac and so convincing that the police originally assumed someone had broken into the apartment and decapitated him.  Spinell’s death not only prevented him from playing Frank Zito for a second time but also kept him from reprising his role as Willie Cicci in The Godfather Part III.)

Maniac is not an easy film to defend but, if I had to, I would point out that Frank Zito is portrayed as being an unsympathetic loser throughout the entire film.  He’s not some evil genius like Hannibal Lecter.  He’s not a nonstop quip machine like Freddy Krueger.  He’s not even enigmatic or superhuman like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees.  Instead, he’s a pathetic loser who can’t even win an argument with the voices in his head.  Horror films all too often glorify or make excuses for serial killers.  (Just look at all of the Ted Bundy films.)  Maniac does not present Frank Zito as being anything other than a pathetic and twisted man and, as such, it’s probably one of the most realistic portrayals of a serial killer to be found on film.  Frank Zito is not meant to be glorified, though I’m sure that went over the heads of more than a few people who saw this film when it first opened.  It’s an ugly film but it’s about an ugly subject.  It’s exploitive but ultimately it’s on the side of Zito’s victims.

The film was an early directorial credit of William Lustig, who worked as a production assistant on Dario Argento’s Inferno in order to see how Argento deal with shooting on location in New York.  It was while working on Inferno that Lustig met Daria Nicolodi and offered her the part of Anna in Maniac.  (Anna’s last name is D’Antoni, a clear nod to Nicolodi’s Italian roots.)  Nicolodi was disgusted by the script and turned it down.  (Caroline Munro accepted the role and was reunited with her Starcrash co-star, Joe Spinnell.  Interestingly enough, even after all of the controversy created by Maniac, Munro and Spinell went on to co-star in The Last Horror Movie.)  Lustig based his serial killer on David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz and named him after director Joe Zito, who would go on to direct Friday the 13th — The Final Chapter.

For all the controversy that has dogged Maniac over the years, it’s easy to forget that the film itself is surprisingly well-directed and acted.  Caroline Munro bring some much needed class to the proceedings, even if the script requires her character to make some truly dumb decisions.  And Joe Spinell was simply horrifying as Frank Zito.  It’s not a pleasant film and if you ever find yourself in a home where the owner has a Maniac poster on the wall, I would suggest leaving immediately.  It is, however, a landmark of grindhouse filmmaking.

(Be sure to read Arleigh’s thoughts on Maniac here!)