DJAkeeba

Less a sequel to "Maniac" than a remake of the obscure 1975 thriller "The Psychopath" (which starred Tom Basham as Mr. Rabbey, a children's TV host who kills abusive parents), this film shows how much Buddy Giovinazzo loves the grit and grime of '70s horror, as if the brilliant "Combat Shock" didn't make that obvious enough. Joe Spinell is in fine form here, and -- although it is marvelous that they got to work together before Spinell's untimely passing -- it's work like this that makes me annoyed that Giovinazzo has been toiling in German television the last few years. At a time when glossy, inferior remakes of horror classics are glutting the multiplexes, a truly edgy filmmaker like Giovinazzo, who knows how to preserve the spirit of the originals, could be box-office gold.

I'm curious, because of a) the wild overpraising of this film, and b) the fact that some of the "off-the-cuff" comments showing up here are repeated word for word on other sites. I mean, sure, this movie has some good jump scenes, but the characters are murkily conceived and the monsters are absolutely ridiculous, resembling nothing so much as Chris Sarandon's old mid-change makeup from "Fright Night". If people are honestly serious and are not just shilling for the studio or for Mother England when they are praising this movie to the rafters, I think it proves three things: 1) Audiences value "jump scenes" more than honest scares. 2) No one is ever allowed to complain about ludicrous monsters in any movie ever. 3) Audiences don't care about plot details. If anyone can explain the line "we all lost something in that crash"... and remember, the line was "we ALL", not "she and I both"... please do so.