Living in New York City, a man working as a mannequin-restorer at a family-owned shop tries to keep his murderous tendencies in check around a beautiful artist who wants to explore his work further only for the murderous urges to creep back in and endanger everyone around him.This was an enjoyable enough if slightly flawed remake. One of the more enjoyable aspects of this one is the one aspect carried over from the original in that the brutality is top-notch here. Given all the focus on scalping and the brutality involved there that details the various kills featured, there's a much sharper and more graphic focus on those methods than expected which generate some rather gruesome kills. The multitude of scalping done here are convincing, excruciating to watch and pulled off rather well with the knife entering the body and the sight of the flesh ripping and tearing as they're removed including some while they're still alive which helps to make for quite an impressive and bloody sight. As well, this one also generates plenty of graphic and gory sequences here where it showcases both the brutality dashed out in his crimes as well as the stellar flesh-ripping fun to be had in the finale which has plenty of rather bloody imagery. As well, this one manages to really get a lot to like out of the portrayal of the main psycho as the manner of him being a disturbed and clearly unhinged individual from the start has given this a frightening persona. Fighting off the craziness that's slowly creeping in allows for a rather obvious sense of suspense in when he's going to snap causes this to be quite enjoyable in the detailing of his life with every part of it documented here. These issues here really are what holds this up over it's few minor if largely-detrimental issues. The main problem affecting this one is that, despite all this great work here promoting the idea of his insanity, the film really doesn't have much interesting going on for a large majority of the time. The fact that spending the entire time in his personal viewpoint, even spending the time to see his reflection in mirrors or windows or even shiny surfaces gives this nothing all that interesting to watch play out, even going so far as to be outright boring as the idea of watching him cry in front of mannequins or complain about his mother's history of abuse problems and taking it out on women. These don't make him any more creepy than a regular psychopath, and the scenes featuring this are rather irritating to get through. That manages to give the film a lot of scenes where he comes off like a simpering loser rather than a brutal take-charge maniac out taking women's scalps and really loses a lot of the appeal and danger of the situation. Likewise, the ending is just a chaotic and wholly bland mess that just doesn't offer much clarity at all as to what's going on and just doesn't make any sense at all beyond bringing up more gore and action. Otherwise, there's not much else to this one.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Graphic Violence, several sex scenes and drug use.

A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Last House on the Left, The Amityville Horror, Cabin Fever, The Wicker Man. These are all classic horror films. On the other hand, I believe these classic horror films have not been remade into classic remakes. In my opinion, many remakes fail to capture the energy, wisdom, and likeness of the original. It is very difficult to capture lightning in a bottle twice. Especially horror movies, many directors, producers, and writers of horror all tend to follow the same format, and end up being predictable, bland, and lifeless. However, director Franck Khalfoun (P2, High Tension) brings some new life into a cult classic, a new direction, and in my opinion a new better film. I believe that Maniac (2012) is a rare exception of the remake actually being better than the original. Much like the 1980 cult classic, Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings, The Goodson) plays Frank. Frank is socially awkward, and a vicious serial killer. Frank collects the scalps' of his victims, and puts the finishing touches on his mannequins. One day he meets a beautiful, artistic woman, named Anna. Played by Nora Arnezeder (Safe House). The two bond, and everything seems to be going well at first. Elijah Wood may be short, and doesn't seem all that threatening. But he really does a fantastic job as the character Frank. Elijah Wood brings a new take on Frank, that we didn't see in the original. For example, in the remake we get more of an understanding and backstory (his childhood with his mother). The original was more of a typical slasher, violent guy, and killer with messy hair, etc. But Elijah Wood is a very normal looking guy, and I think that adds to the film. We almost feel sympathy towards him. Everything from his childhood, how people treat him, etc.I honestly believe this is the best film by Franck Khalfoun. He is becoming on of my favorite directors. He really brings a new artistic take on a very good cult classic. Even though he changes a few things from the original, he stays true to the original source material. For instance, the violence (train station ANKLE SNAP scene made me CRINGE). Also, this film has some of the best cinematography and camera scenes I've seen in a very long time. Every shot was gorgeous, and unique. I personally can't remember the last time I've seen a film, where a majority of the film is the main character's P.O.V. Maybe someone can let me know down in the comment section. The P.O.V. I thought was very well done, and it truly does add a to the movie. The viewer's literally get to go inside the killers world, and become apart of this character, both physically and mentally. So these are my final Bitchin' Buddha thoughts on Maniac (2012). I love this movie! This really is one of my favorite horror films, and just one of my favorite films in general. It's unique, gory for a reason, character development is good, and the cinematography/camera shots are something we don't usually see today. In my opinion, this is a blueprint on how to do a remake. Also, this would make a great double feature showdown. View the original, and this one back to back. Call me crazy, but I believe Maniac (2012) deserves...10/10!This review is brought to you by Boogie Buddha, and remember don't just get down, but get Boogie. Thank you for reading/viewing, and I hope you have an amazing day as always. :)

A remake of William Lustig's 1980's classic stalker/slasher/gore movie and it's actually done really really well in Frank Khalfoun's 2012 version. A young man with unresolved mother issues is stalking and scalping young women on the streets of America. Frank Zito (Elijah "Frodo Baggins" Wood) is a loner who owns a mannequin restoration shop by day and by night he gobbles up loads of pills to try and keep his hallucinations and desire to kill under control. Despite the pill intake his fetish is to stalk women on social media and lure them into situations where he can remove their scalps takes over for the majority of the time. One day he meets a young French lady Anna D'Antoni (Nora Arnezeder) who he seems to get along with. As he tried to keep his demons under control their relationship grows, he even helps her art exhibition, it's not until Anna's agent Rita (Jan Broberg) is murdered that Anna starts suspecting Frank may be involved, but by then Frank is in Anna's apartment. Subjectivity and involvement is explored through point of view shots, you literally see directly through the killers eyes which some will like and some will really struggle with when watching - in fact you have to wait a full 12 minutes before you get to see Frank's face. Some people can't stomach the content of the film let alone this gut churning involvement in the action, add in a large dose of gore and you have a film that not everybody will enjoy but is true to the original if not a step up which in this day of remakes and reboots is refreshing. There are nod's to the original, for example in the restaurant near the beginning when Frank meets Lucie and she says that she thankful that Frank isn't "Fat, with long black hair and greasy skin full of acne" - this is how Joe Spinell's Frank appeared in the 1980 version of the film. Likewise another nod comes when Frank has scalped a young a girl in the car park, the shadow cast from the street lights is a homage to the original movie poster from 1980. If only they'd managed to get Tom Savini in the remake like he appeared in the original that would have been great, maybe he'd have helped with using old-school style effects instead of some of the questionable CGI, but hey-ho, CGI seems to be part of most modern films so this is a gripe I can live with. The use of CGI is probably my biggest gripe with the film but all in all I don't have that many other issues with it. Musically this film is great, the score is atmospheric, creepy and tense. From a technical point of view Frank's dialogue capture is great, the tone and pitch of his voice varies depending on his situation and environment so you aren't limited to a monotone dialogue, very clever indeed. Using Elijah Wood may anger some people as he's still somewhat of a babyface good guy and an established Hollywood player but I liked his casting as it serves as great juxtaposition when comparing audience expectations of how he should be behaving, unless you are a big film fan and have seen some of his other darker castings you won't expect this style of Elijah. While the original felt to me like typical American 80's horror this version by Khalfoun feels more arty and European which some may like and other will instantly hate. In summary this is a really good gut churning creepy film which is going to be received like Marmite, some people will love it, some will hate it. I wouldn't watch this with your family or kids, I would however wait till it's dark and close the curtains to make it even spookier. I'm giving this a 7 out of 10 and a massive thumbs up. Some films are easy to forget, some stay with you - this is one which stays with you.

right off the bat i have to say that this is one of those rare occasions where a modern day remake is better than the source material. first off, Elijah Wood's betrayal as a mentally unstable killer is brilliant. Putting the audience inside the head of the killer puts a whole new spin off the antagonist in a slasher film. Another great characteristic of this film is the art direction. many of the shots/effects are not only beautiful, but they are clever especially in the first person narrative. This film definitely deserves a lot more recognition and should be shown to anybody who has interest into slasher flicks.