Maniac (2012)

Frank: "I'm not gonna kill you, I'm gonna keep you."

By Franck Khalfoun
With Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, America Olivo 

I decided to watch Maniac when it came out a few months ago not knowing that it was a remake to Maniac (1980). This is one of the rare occasion where I watch a remake before the original, the reason being that I only realized it was a remake once I started it. I've known about Maniac (1980) ever since I watched Flashdance (1983) and its famous soundtrack includes the track Maniac which was meant to be used in the former. Since then I figured I'd watch it some day but never got around to do so.

Maniac follows Frank a young man who repairs mannequin for a living but prefers to stalk young ladies in order to kill them and use their scalp on mannequins, which then come to life in Frank's imagination. When Anna walks into his shop in search for mannequins, she is a photographer who brings mannequin to life through her camera, Frank wants to be nice to her even if he gets random migraines when they talk.

I'm not sure how to say this, but this whole first person view is bothering me to no end. It was cool in Dark Passage (1947) or Rashômon (1950) but since then it's been used so much and it really doesn't bring anything new, if anything, it makes the film blurry and really hard to take seriously.

Apart from that the movie is full of stereotypes (yes, once again the serial killer has mother issues) and inconsistencies (Frank washes his hands frantically to the point of bleeding but he has dirt under his fingernails). The story is quite straight forward and there is very little suspense about anything. Elijah Wood is not particularly convincing or threatening.

There are a few good things however. I enjoyed the music; I don't know if they tried to recreate the sound of the original and the 80's, but it very much sounded like it and it was great. There are not so many horror scenes but one or two of them are enjoyable, especially the last one. In a way, this movie reminded me of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011) which is not necessarily a good thing, but at least The Human Centipede has the merit of being totally gross and gore, something that wasn't fully assumed in Maniac. The fact that they spoiled  Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920) was also pretty bad, although I fortunately had seen it.

I liked: The music. Creative gore and mannequin usage.

I disliked: First person view and blurry. No suspense. Not interesting. Stalkers are boring.

22/100
It's not worth your time, fortunately it runs under a hour and thirty minutes.