Maniac (2012) - 3.5/4

Maniac is a remake of the 1980 William Lustig classic slasher of the same title. Lustig didn't just approve, he also produced this remake, helmed by P2 director Frank Khalfoun. What makes Maniac really stand out, however, is the casting of Elijah Wood as the titular maniac, replacing the overweight and middle-aged Joe Spinell of the original. While the plot remains very similar, the new casting recasts (pardon the pun) the entire meaning of the film with impressive results.

Wood plays 'Frank,' a mannequin collector/restorer in New York. He was raised by his single mother, who whored around for cash and/or pleasure, often bringing men home where little Frank saw way too much. Frank now has a very ambivalent relationship to sexuality. Specifically, he likes to scalp women and place their hair on mannequins instead of screw them. One day the photographer Anna takes an interest in his mannequins and seems to offer womanhood some redemption at the same time.

A film like Maniac will never come anywhere near the Oscars or any other glitzy award ceremony. Yet, Elijah Wood's performance is as deserving of those awards as any other modern performance. Even as hampered as Wood is by the mostly-POV photography, where we share Frank's eyes, he still allows us to share Frank's anxieties, joys, and anguish through his voice and the few mirror shots Khalfoun provides. Wood proves, again, that he is the most versatile actor around, and easily one of the most talented we have.

The decision to force the film's viewpoint to be almost entirely Frank's was certainly a risky one. The intention, of course, is to make the audience sympathize and even empathize with a sadistic serial killer. Initially, however, the effect is alienating and uncomfortable. As the film's tensions increase and it hurtles toward an emotional climax, the discomfort is long forgotten. Wood's performance and Khalfoun's deft direction make it work. I'm still not sure it was necessary; but it works. By Maniac's end, I was entirely on Frank's side. I hoped not for the survival of a 'Final Girl,' but for her brutal slaughter. That became the happy ending: the serial killer protecting his heart from the awful people in the world. What kind of relationship between art and morality does this illustrate? I don't know. But Michael Haneke wishes he'd made Funny Games this well.

That is not to suggest the the film's psychology is insightful. Coming from the pen of Alexandre Aja, rewriting for Joe Spinell, there is little psychological realism present. Horror film psychology has always been a little glib, from the weird videos in Peeping Tom and the instant diagnosis at the end of Psycho on. Maniac pushes this to a point at which it has gone beyond even touching reality. The psychology of Maniac is fantasy psychology, where blood-spattered mannequins wearing fly-covered scalps can be models of purity for a psychosexually tortured psyche. I empathized with Frank and even rooted for him because, despite the near camp moments of fantasy psychology or maybe even because of them, there is a strongly pronounced emotional reality to the disturbed Frank, a wounded core that does not seem beyond redemption.

The bottom line is, Maniac makes very few missteps of any kind. It is a traditional slasher film made in 2012 that exceeds nearly any of the modern, ultra-violent slasher films made in the last decade-and-a-half. It also happens to be one of the finest horror film remakes I've ever seen. Khalfoun went way beyond what he'd done with the average P2, and Aja as screenwriter reiterates his ability to remake his favorite horror films. Bravo to all the talent involved.