Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

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

I have to disqualify this review immediately because I didn't see this whole film. Just the first 40 minutes, and wow is it dreck.Very rarely are the two-line summaries on the DirecTV guide accurate, but in this case it is. Shrink trapped in mental asylum on the verge of being shut down with insane, indestructible killer with apparent super-human strength. Killer makes Michael Myers look absolutely verbose and interesting in comparison.That's it. Wow.And Judd Nelson's in this crap...and I thought Anthony Michael-Hall's career was in the toilet.

It was, indeed, a nice little movie...except the fact that I couldn't find anything, absolutely nothing gore about it. Sorry but, when you call a movie "Maniac Trasher" (french title) you are expecting a lot more blood (was there even any in this movie?) and a lot of disgusting, disgusting scenes. But... no. Nothing ever happens. They think he's dead ? Well he's not. And it goes on and on forever. The ? oh, yes, by the way, let me introduce the winners : the czech former mannequin and the Breakfast Club former star... trying to escape the Trasher's terrible starve for death, and steam... see mythic scene when, hidden in the ceiling, the 2 heroes almost die of hot, steamy air blown by the maniac who let off some steam -hum- from the showers downstairs. Mean, mean trasher, you awful swine, you almost got them...But how the hell did you find a way to flee through the sewers, ending up EXACTLY under our model's mom's house ? where her little adorable, fatherless child is sleeping, waiting to be kidnapped by your infamous hands ? How, indeed... Nobody knows, but I do know that in the end, you might -or not- die because of electricity, or is it... fire ? Who knows, maybe you are...not...dead, terrible Trasher.

This suspense filled movie about a diabolical, insane killer, a helplessly trapped psychiatrist, and a caught up in the mix janitor gives new meaning to the term astonishing! The doctor, played saucily by Paulina Porizkova, becomes trapped in an insane asylum at night with no way out. The deranged lunatic, performed admirably by Larry Drake Jr., hunts her down, as they play cat and mouse. Meanwhile, a hapless janitor, played brilliantly by Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club), tries to help the doctor, and survive the night. Will the sun rise before "The Thrasher" catches the doctor and janitor? Rent or buy this exciting movie and find out! Also: great directing by Gregory Gieras.

Okay, I didn't expect much from this movie. No big names, except for Larry Drake (when was the last time he was in something decent?), and Pauline Porizkova (Ric Ocasek's SO). Your typical idiot plot (everybody acts like an idiot otherwise the movie would be over in about 5 minutes), your unstoppable loonie, your designated victims. Refreshing change in that we didn't have to listen to the loonie babble endlessly. However, the big oddity is the implicit message: sane people are stupid, ineffectual, weak, and incompetent. Crazies, on the other hand, are cunning, tough, brutally strong, and endure gunshots with only minor annoyance. This is seen not only in our unstoppable villain, but also in the sympathetic, supportive nutcase who aids our heroine. It is even seen (albeit briefly) in our heroine herself, who has her sanity repeatedly questioned when she starts behaving with some sense of self-preservation. Add in the coffee-swilling, donut scarfing cops and you have 90 minutes of stupidity you won't want to watch sober.