Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Zandra 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.

dancing_ostrich Violent movies don't usually bother me but the sound effects while he's scalping the girls almost made me vomit. Reading other reviews people seem to say that this movie was beautifully shot and had some type of symbolism. In my opinion it was a gory waste of my time.

GL84 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.

lojitsu A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Maniac" (R - 2012 - US)Sub-Genre: POV/SlasherMy Score: 7.3Cast=6 Acting=9 Plot=7 Ending=8 Story=7 Scare=7 Jump=5 F/X=8 POV=8 Blood=8As he helps a young artist with her upcoming exhibition, the owner of a mannequin shop's deadly, suppressed desires come to the surface. "Please don't scream. You're beautiful." The opening scene of this film is one of the best I have ever watched in the genre!! After that, it kind of levels off and never peaks again. The POV scenes were really well done and Elijah Wood was great in his role. I did not see the original, so I can't say how this one compares as a remake. As a standalone horror film, however, this is well worth a watch!!

Chris Smith (RockPortReview) The grimy and disturbing 80s horror classic gets a new look with help from modern horror icon Alexandre Aja. Adding to the intrigue is the casting of Frodo himself, Elijah Wood, in the role of the disturbed knife wielding manic Frank. The story is relocated from the streets of New York to Los Angeles and Frank is more of a presentable and attractive guy than the sweaty overweight version played by Joe Spinell in the original. Another major difference from the original is that the whole film is shot entirely from Frank's point of view. Although we do see his face a number of times in reflections. All of these changes work in the retelling of a man who stalks the streets murdering and scalping women. The up close and graphic opening scene sets the tone for what shapes up to be a quality remake.Like a lot of severely deranged killers Frank has some unresolved mommy issues and takes it out on his victims. With his mother now dead he owns and operates her Mannequin store. This is where he meets Anna, a photographer who conveniently enough is shooting mannequins for an up coming exhibit. Like in the original Frank see's Anna as his last chance to live a somewhat normal life. Although it doesn't take long before he is back on the streets stalking his next victim. The P.O.V shooting style gets us a glimpse into Frank's disturbed mind, from his hallucinations and anxieties to his loneliness and despair. Director Franck Khalfoun's use of mirrors and reflections, and the way his shots are composed are rare for a horror movie. For its budget and everything that could go wrong, they really made quite the film.Elijah Wood's portrayal of Frank also gets high marks as he doesn't force anything, and doesn't play "insane" but is just a normal guy, who just happens to murder people. A lot like Anthony Perkins in "Psycho". He is a frightened and lonely guy who suffered terrible emotional and physical abuse from his mother as a child. All of this repressed anger and rage surfaces at night when he must go out and kill his "mother" over and over again. After every kill he takes their scalp and some piece of clothing and puts it on one of the mannequins in his bedroom. In the end his thin cover of sanity is blown with Anna, and his mannequin friends want a piece of him too.