Maniac (2012) d. Khalfoun, Franck (USA)
Like many, I utterly rejected the notion that a worthy update could be made of William Lustig’s skeevy 1980 slasher, especially since the original – while an undisputed classic – isn’t really that great of a film, surviving primarily on Joe Spinell’s go-for-broke central turn and makeup maestro Tom Savini’s lunch-buckling effects. Minus those time capsule elements set within a pre-Disneyfied Times Square backdrop, a direct remake seemed pointless. But as positive buzz arose from its various festival screenings, I began to grow cautiously optimistic. The truth is that it’s neither the train wreck that it could have been nor the instant classic that had been proclaimed, but rather a competent reworking that lives somewhere in the slightly-better-than-average arena.
