Maniac (1980)
 

Watched 'Maniac' again recently - and thought it really is a very good little film certainly bearing repeated views. Best bit for me has to be when Tom Savini gets his head blown up - much better than Scanners!

Joe Spinell vanity project it may well be, but this alongside 'New York Ripper' are amongst my favourite New York movies - over and above something more respected like 'Taxi Driver', I really feel these films capture the seedy filth of New York at that time.

Bought 'The Last Horror Film' (a.k.a 'The Fanatic') on Ebay for ?2 thinking it may be worthwhile, it wasn't. This was the rush follow up to Maniac starring Joe and Caroline Munro. I'm yet to see the official Maniac 2: Mr Robbie, but I'm a bit scared to now - anyone else seen it?

"Maniac 2" never got completed due to Spinell's untimely death.
There's only a promo reel featuring on some of the Maniac laserdisc and DVd releases. It looks like a vastly different type of movie, might have proven worthwhile...but sadly, we'll never know.:(

The Fanatic was a horrible experience for me. An absolute stinker of a film. Which releases have the Mr. Robbie promo reel? To my knowledge the only one in the UK or US to have it is the Elite disc. Thankfully I found that one for cheap earlier this year.

The ABUS DVD includes the Mr Robbie promo reel - it's part of the longer documentary and not as a standalone feature, but it's definitely on there. That's why I got shot of the Elite disc when I upgraded to the ABUS release.

Maniac is a definite favourite of mine - thoroughly and unapologetically nasty. It's a fascinating case study of a man going over the edge.

I 'm a fan of Manaic, though I also enjoyed The Last Horror Show.
Its been a good few years from i've seen it though so im not sure what i'd make of it now, but at the time I saw it , I liked it enough for a few repeat viewings.

It's featured as a standalone extra on the "Another World" SE DVD.

MANIAC 1980 William Lustig
 

hi all,me again!
i own maniac,think its the 2 disc version,will check!
what are your thoughts on this so called nasty?
i thought it was o.k,but was expecting a lot more!especially as i think it was banned!
now dont get me wrong,there is some good scenes in it,like savini getting his head blown off!class!great effects,but should have been shot in normal time then slow mo?
was part 2 ever made? think was called mr.robbie or something?
got some good extras though and a great cover,so good plottdigger used the same style cover on there gutterballs!:eek:

Mr Robbie is a short film made by Buddy Giovinazzo. I heard that it was supposed to be shown to investors to raise funds for a feature length Maniac 2 but Joe Spinell died before it could be made.

This along with all of Buddy G's ace short films are avaliable on the 2 disc anniversary edition of Combat Shock, which is one of my favourite films, if you havent seen it it's really worth a look.

Combat Shock is a real hoot alright!!!!Great film just one of the bleakest movies ever.


Maniac is brilliant. Spinell's is one of the great horror/sleaze performances ever and Savini comes up with the goods as usual.

One of the sleaziest films ever ever ever!
I freaking love this movie.

I've been craving a revisit for a long time, and this is the weekend to do it.

Im a big fan of both Maniac and Combat Shock.
Both films deserve good quality uncut UK releases .

Agreed, Vips. It's about time Maniac was presented to the BBFC again. I reckon it'd scrape through uncut this time. Maybe Arrow could look at licensing the HD master from Blue Underground and give us a Blu-ray..?

I suggested that in a different thread already, that would be really awesome if Arrow could make an uncut release of this film on Blu happen.

i have it on disc, i thought it was really good, cool fx by savini

Imo Maniac still boasts one of the best exploding heads ever. Shot in slo-mo from more than one angle. Old school FX brilliance.

I've got Bill Lustig's sleazy slasher on DVD and LD. The former from Elite and ABUS in the States and i also have the French and Danish double disc sets.

Nice cover on Elite's ancient LD, too.

I'm definitely buying the forthcoming BU DVD and BR upgraded editions of Maniac and i would also plump for a U.K. variant. But only if the movie was totally uncut. Otherwise count me out.:)

Great movie indeed, Savini's Fx once again steal the show but Spinnell is creepy as hell too, without his extreme performance this film simply wouldn't have the same impact. One hopes the BBFC wouldn't have a problem with it now days but actually, they might still have I reckon. The heavily cut Anchorbay UK DVD was not released all that long ago. The gore of course might not be problematic in light of what we've seen in modern films but a scene like the extended strangling scene is still undoubtedly extremely uncomfortable for anyone but the truly jaded (well for me it is). With this new Government, who knows what times we might fall back to.

i will deffo be getting the BU Blu of Maniac if its region free of course.
Hope it is.

I'm sure it will be.
Django,to my knowledge,is the only blu ray to be region coded to date.

Really looking forward to this 'bastard offspring' of the slasher on Hi def.:nod:

If it's anything like their New York Ripper Blu,then we're in for a treat!:)

:clap:

Not long now till the US BU blu is out :)
Wonder if Amazon will ship it early.

Not long bought the AWE 2 disc dvd, but I will definitely upgrade to the Blu when it comes out. I've got a multi region Blu-Ray player so the region lock isn't an issue. :biggrin:

Its region free according to BU themselves but the 2nd disc is a region 1 DVD.

Good to know, as that's me not picking this one up then, as I'm not collecting R1s- at least not if I can "avoid" them.:nod:

any reason for that??
I have quite a few R1 dvds. So I dont mind.

Just a personal thing, no judgement whatsoever on the quality of R1s:)
I had to find a way to "restrict" my film-collecting-habits a bit as I can't really spent it all on movies- no matter how mouth-watering they might look to me.:nod:
And as watching the very first release at hand worldwide isn't my biggest thing any more, skipping R1s isn't usually a great loss - hell, I hardly manage to keep up with everything of interest put out over here!:p
In the end, I also prefer to support genre releasing companies in the EU- but for those cases where the R1 is "the only way to go", I take the plunge:)

Fair enough.
Doubt you will see a Blu of Maniac in the UK though.
it still not been re-submitted for a uncut dvd release over here.

Anyone seen the screencaps?
Its kinda off-putting...I may go for the dvd instead, :lol:

Hi-Def Reviews - Horror Digital

Thats the way i've been going with films, can't get em all so have to water down what i decide to buy, and with such great UK companies such as Arrow & Shameless turning out some cracking releases i too have decided to give r1 releases a miss, however any good blu-ray titles unlocked from the states like the Blue underground titles i will purchase on the strength that they are not getting a current U.K release, i buy Arrow & Shameless titles & have also recently started picking up Another World Entertainment releases on dvd as they seem to be putting out some good stuff, there latest one being ZOMBIE, NIGHTS OF TERROR which i will also be purchasing unless Arrow or Shameless decide to start releasing more of these italian zombie gut munchers as they are in dire need of some decent U.K attention & not the so so releases some of them have had in the past, so while i have become more picky in my purchasing habits i am still buying the titles (mainly from UK) that are worthy of obtaining :rockon:

After the aweseome transfer of VIGILANTE I was expecting something similar for MANIAC ... but apparently, either the source material is crappy or Lustig himself should have taken better care of his movie - the screenshots look downright awful!

Well, I don't own any version of the movie right now and haven't seen it yet which is why I'll stick with the Blu. If I had one DVD edition already, I would have cancelled this.

Still a neat gift to the German fans of the film to include the German audio on the BU discs- as "Maniac" was the very first movie which got banned over there on vhs:rockon:
R2-wise, the AWE 2-discer seems to be currently the best option to take, certainly my favourite of the 3 "Maniac" DVDs in my collection.:pop2:
Those who're not exactly obsessed with the film are also "not-too-badly" served with the ABUK DVD (if they find it cheaply), with the infamous Savini gore pretty much intact and only some snippets of"sexual violence" missing.:o
As "Maniac" is one of those titles I could pick up time and again, I'm almost thankful that the "R1-lock" on the extras of the DVD provides me with the perfect reason to skip at least this edition.:p:)

importing AWE discs can be as expensive as the US blu.
Like the Blu is like £2 more then the new DVD version out.
Im paying £15 for the blu inc shipping, while AWE releases have been around £18 although I not checked Manaic. If its cheaper then the Blu then someone let me know :)

The AWE is £14.98 on e-bay.

MANIAC..2 DISCS....ULTIMATE UNCUT SPECIAL EDITION.. on eBay (end time 13-Nov-10 07:47:42 GMT)

I'd just go for the BD.

so around same price

or there is the original AB us 2 disc for £10

I bought the Anchor Bay tin version of this a while ago now, one of the line of limited tins AB put out back in the early 2000's, this being the only version of the film that I own.

It's a good watch, not seen it in a while though, I remember it being a good slasher, at least one of the better ones so I will probably pick it up on blu eventually.

MANIAC 1980 William Lustig
 

That's a nice tin. I got it too recently, thankfully I got it at a bargain price on Australian eBay, because I've seen it go for silly money here on the UK eBay. The soundtrack CD in the shape of Joe Spinnel's head was a nice touch!

Love this movie, the Blue Underground BD is a must for me.

Unless of course you'd live in Scandinavia just like me.:p
But from a UK perspective that's certainly a valid point.:)

Yup.

Would the AWE master be the same one as the AB original?
I doubt AWE would pay to remaster it for a standard def release.

If DVD and Blu are about the same price I'd definitely go for the Blu cuz even though it looks aweful for HD standards, it might still be slightly better than the DVD.

Sounds reasonable- though I always thought that the AWE DVD's pq is somewhat better than that of the ABUK DVD (the latter certainly being identical to the ABUS pq-wise?).
Not a sensational difference, but still somewhat clearer and sharper- imho.
One reason just MIGHT be that the AWE edition's extras are all featured on the 2nd disc whereas the ABUK/US DVDs have the film and all the features together on a single disc.;)

MANIAC:
The Bill Lustig and Savini Commentary is very entertaining, one of my favourites.
The Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro scenes in Maniac are hilarious. The Clam restaurant scene has to be seen to be believed. I think Bill Lustig has since cut most of the Munro scenes out now though. I can understand why too.
Jay Chattaways score is the best thing about Maniac. A great score.
Joe Spinell was a fine actor, I really miss not seeing him poping up in these movies these days.

I do prefer the Maniac Cop movies, over Manic though. They are much better movies, which were also directed by Bill Lustic. (More fantastic work by Chattaway!)

Please post your thoughts on the new Maniac Blue-Ray, I may get a copy myself...

I also like the Maniac Cop movies, great fun. But Maniac is still a very interesting film, it's like a case study of a psychopath - no real explanations are given and his rationale is all over the place, but that's part of what it makes it all so intriguing. I'll definitely pick this up on BD - I have a soft spot for the film since it was one of the very first 'banned' movies I picked up on bootleg VHS back in the early 90's.