Maniac (The Last Drive-In)

Film Year:  1980
Genre:  Horror
Director:  William Lustig
Starring:  Joe Spinell, Carolyn Munro, Tom Savini as Disco Boy

The Movie

Joe Spinell stars as Frank Zito, a man with mommy issues and spends his evenings as a serial killer, scalping young women and attaching their hair to mannequins to comb them.  While this movie premise probably seems a bit too simplistic and a grimly nasty, this early flick from the 80's slasher boom has a little more depth than most.  What separates this from the likes of Friday the 13th and the like is that this movie is told primarily from the killer's perspective.  We see the world through their troubled eyes, and while we don't exactly sympathize with him, we at the very least understand him.

Reviews of 1980 seem to paint that aspect of the film as a perversion, seeming to mistake it as an effort to glorify a serial killer and his dirty deeds.  While film is very subjective, I do feel this is a misunderstanding of the intent of the film.  It's not a glorification of violence, but rather a portrayal and study of the mentally ill.  Getting into the brain of someone who would do something like this.  This isn't a death count movie.  Zito kills a lot of people, in very gory, Tom Savini enhanced ways, but they're the works of a sick mind, and the movie's only crime seems to be that it's somewhat intrigued by the sick mind.  Compare this to the "sick mind" of Pamela Voorhees, who was only a brief character with a brief, but blunt, motive for killing people.  Or Michael Myers, who didn't really have one.  Of all the 80's killers, Zito seems like something special.

Maniac stands out from the pack of 80's horror because of this.  It's different right down to the end, which isn't your typical virgin girl chased by somebody with a knife ending.  Instead it's a battle between Zito and his mind, and it's keeps the viewer guessing as to what's real and what's not.  Maniac is more fascinating than your average slasher movie.  You just need to allow it to be.

The Drive-In

Joe Bob is stepping up his guest star game this season, as we're three movies in and we're already on our third guest.  Following up Kelli Maroney and Chris Jericho, he's got a genre legend on his hands this week with Tom Savini, the special effects creator for films such as Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th, as well as the director of the first (there have been a few) remake of Night of the Living Dead, which Joe Bob praises as underappreciated (I disagree, but that's a rant for another day).  He also did the effects for today's feature, which involved a lot of scalps.  Savini talks a lot about the process, including a confirmation that he used his experience as a military medic to inspire his work.  He also expresses frustration with movie death scenes, in particular movie stars who keep their jaw clenched so they look "pretty" when they're dead, insisting a real corpse's jaw would be slack and limp.

Note:  The day after I watched this episode I watched Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker for my Rifftrax review, and during a death scene at the end of the movie, there was a clenched jaw and I couldn't get his words out of my head.

Savini also talks a bit on the production of the film, which he didn't just do effects for, but also had a cameo as "Disco Boy," a character who tries to get romantic before our titular Maniac shotguns his face.  And the answer is yes, Savini did his own head explosion.  He took the job for only five grand because he wanted to live in New York for a few months.  He also really dated his girlfriend, "Disco Girl," from his scene, who's real name was Hyla Marrow.  He also talks working with Spinell, and how Carolyn Munro stole her role from Dario Argento's wife, Daria.

Moving away from Savini, Joe Bob seems fascinated by parallels between this film and 2019's Oscar contender Joker.  In fact, he has a pretty big rant about Joker to open up the episode, asking the question of whether or not Arther Fleck was "disturbed or empowered?"  More Maniac related, he talks a lot about Joe Spinell, who is a "god among character actors."  Joe Bob is in awe of his work in the film and talks a bit about his career right down to his death.  He also points out several porn stars in the cast, including 7 into Snowy (a fairy tale where the dwarfs get it with Snow White) star Rita Montone.  Joe Bob clearly loves this movie, obviously thinking more highly of it than the movie Joker.  It's hard not to fall in love with his enthusiasm for it.

Joe Bob's Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐