It’s the first image we see of Elijah
Wood’s Frank in this remake of the 1980 horror film Maniac. Clearly looking to
shake his Hobbit image, since Lord of the
Rings Wood has chosen disturbing, psychotic roles as in Sin City and here, but this slasher film
will do nothing to further his career.
Maniac
is not the character study into psychosis it could
have been. Frank restores broken
mannequins and dresses them with the scalps of beautiful women that he murders,
their beauty frozen and preserved. His
home becomes a Frankenstein gallery of mannequin partners and body parts – the
character’s name is a blatant reference to Shelley’s gothic novel. Later we see Frank watching The Cabinet of Dr Caligari in another
piece of obvious symbolism. The
narrative features few new ideas with a script of stilted dialogue that lacks
credibility. Particularly laughable are the
split personality monologues that have more than a faint whiff of Gollum. Beyond some weird urges disguised as
migraines and an odd relationship with his dead mother, disappointingly we
never discover the root of Frank’s psychosis.
Khalfoun’s choice of perspective is the
only point of interest. Filmed solely
using a hand camera with moody noir lighting, we watch the action through the eyes of Frank. It creates a visceral experience that presents
the violence in full view – the first gruesome death comes within the first six
minutes. Yet with the lack of depth to
the narrative, this perspective is simply a twisted form of voyeurism that
diminishes the film to gore porn for anyone who desires to watch beautiful
women meet a grizzly end. The final,
nightmarish scene is particularly shocking.
“Sometimes I think they have more
personality than most people”, claims Frank when discussing his work. Sadly, both he and his victims are as plastic
as the mannequins he restores.
2/5