Very well executed

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Elijah Wood is a highly versatile actor, he's done everything bar play an action hero in his career and for the most part he's succeeded. A foray into a psychotic isn't a new thing for him as he did a competent job in Sin City (2005) but his character here is somewhat different.First of all the entire movie plays out in first person through the eyes of our lead, the only time you ever actually see Wood is via a reflection (Which happens rather a lot) He's character is a mentally ill psychotic with a fixation for mannequins, mummy issues and a possible case of severe misogyny.Though the movie looks very slick it's not easy viewing. I don't mean that because of the subject matter or the violent acts that take place but more the vibe that just didn't sit right with me.America Olivo is a highly wasted actress and has a very small role in the film which I found to be a huge let down. Combine that with a dull lead female and Wood just making me cringe throughout and the cast failed on every front.Maniac did nothing for me, left my skin crawling and I failed to see any entertainment value.The Good: Brutal death scenes The Bad: Horrible unnerving vibe to the whole film Poorly cast Awful finale Things I learnt from this movie: America Olivo deserves better roles Scalping is really easy and can be completed in under 5 seconds Our killer is fine killing innocent women but when a man calls him gay and dries his hands on his jacket he does nothing

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.

I am not writing a review because unlike the others (not pointing fingers and i apologize if i offend) i don't want to spoil anything and don't want to say anything majorly about the story I see that people rate it for something it isn't and i feel like that is a problem. I just feel like people should know at least what I gathered from this film. I have not watched the original but what i have understood is that people seemed irritated that some "proffesional" reviewers wrote it off as a women hating, violent movie and nothing more.Now i have read some of the reviews for this and a lot of people say the same thing. Just a violent nasty and judges/rates it on that. IT Isn't. In fact this is one of the saddest movies i have seen. I think its wrong to say that it isn't violent. It has violence that makes you want to turn away. But its not about that. It doesn't rely on violence. The main character is a troubled man that tries to live his life, dealing with his issues. He doesn't have anyone and doesn't know how to deal with them alone.Its a 1st person drama/thriller with a sad but beautiful techno music to blend in with the neon lighted feel of this movie. The acting of Elijah wood is brilliant in that he mostly needs to act with his voice and not his face. The story is sad and i cant help but feel sad for the main character much like The Voices staring Ryan Reynolds. The movie focuses so much on there psychological problems that it just comes of as tragic and sad. This isn't a horror movie with no story and disposable characters. This is a character built, character driven sad movie that is beautiful both visual and story wise.

This is the first film I've seen where the vantage point is 99.9% through the eyes of the main character. Thankfully this is accomplished without being more of that found footage garbage where the camera gets dropped 12 times and the other characters just so happen to stumble across it in the middle of a 1,000 acre forest and just carry on filming. This film chronicles a bit of the life of a mannequin repairman who becomes fixated on this stunning blonde and his pursuit to impress her while engaging in some dubious hobbies. Gory, creepy, obsessive. It would seem that the ring finally drove Frodo to madness. The acting is well carried out and there's some decent music. I would recommend this for someone that has an interest in peeking into a few days in the life of the criminally insane.