[Editorial] A Maniac for William Lustig’s Maniac (1980)

“I told you not to go out tonight, didn’t I? Everytime you go out, this kind of thing happens.” [Maniac. Directed by William Lustig, performances by Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro, Blue Underground Entertainment, 1980]

A film like 1980’s Maniac has a troubled and controversial past and makes it hard, as a feminist, to defend what is widely considered misogynistic serial killer fare. I am not undertaking this to change minds on that fact, but more to speak upon the fascinating uniqueness of what is truly a grindhouse cult classic that gets so much right. Many fans of the genre describe it as a groundwork-laying precursor to the much-superior film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), but, personally, I find Joe Spinell’s portrayal of the titular Maniac Frank Zito a performance based in a harsh realism and artfully told - emotions, mayhem, and all - by one of the most charismatic character actors of the latter 20th century.

Spinell, best known for character performances in Taxi Driver (1976), Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979), and most notoriously for The Godfather (1977) - which, through a crafty maneuver - he was paid handsomely for throughout his life. More importantly, Joe Spinell wanted to be the star of a film and that film ended up being Maniac. After shopping around his story idea, Spinell garnered attention from grindhouse filmmaker William Lustig and was able to secure special effects wizard Tom Savini - whose career would soon hit the stratosphere with 1980’s Friday the 13th and become a force to be reckoned with from the successful (and very first NC-17 film) George A. Romero opus Dawn of the Dead (1979 for American release, the 1978 date that is often used, was for the Argento Cut as per an agreement between Romero and Dario Argento for Italian release and is missing most of the gore we all know and love). The meetings to iron out the story, getting funding for the independent release, and securing co-star Caroline Munro were of epic proportions and quite successful with only a few bumps in the road - the major one being the loss of Daria Nicolodi (wife of Dario Argento) who was replaced with Munro, a frequent co-star of Spinell’s and a friend. The other issue came from Tom Savini himself in discussing all the different gore and ways to kill Zito’s victims. Savini actually toned down many of Spinell’s ideas, famously saying “You can’t bite THAT off of a woman!” (The Last Drive In with Joe Bob Briggs on the Shudder Streaming Service, Season 2, May 2020). 

It is, at this point, I’d like to turn the attention toward the fighting force against much of 1970’s and 1980’s horror, Siskel and Ebert. Maniac was chosen as one of their famed “Dogs of the Week” on their CBS show Sneak Previews. Siskel and Ebert are often referred to as “haters of horror” and, as a tongue-in-cheek way to poke fun, my podcast The House That Screams often includes their vile-filled reviews on horror films we cover. None is more poignant than their lambasting of Maniac, which I might add, includes visual coverage of many of the most graphic kills that they are lobbying against in a weird twist of the adamant message to avoid the film. Gene Siskel describes Maniac as “[...] a disgusting horror show that forced me out of the theater after only 30 minutes. Maniac is a repulsive story of a berzerk killer in New York. This is an extremely brutal film that thoroughly grossed me out and what sent me out of the theater so early is the scene where we see a head hit by a shotgun blast and it explodes in slow motion. That came after a couple of throat slashings and a vicious strangulation. Maniac is making its slimy way into theaters all around the country so be on the lookout for it and avoid it.” [“For Your Eyes Only, S.O.B., The Great Muppet Caper, Dragonslayer, 1981.” Sneak Previews, season 3 episode 22, 1980, CBS.]

It is my personal opinion, especially in light of the trend to be obsessed with true crime all over the world, that Frank Zito is the quintessential and very real portrayal of what a real serial killer might be like, frankly, goes against many of the complaints of the film. Zito is an unattractive, often blubbering with tears and covered in sweat and other questionable fluids, man-child who shows a lot of emotion and remorse and fear - not the cold, calculating serial killer that seems to be all the rage these days. I am no fan of true crime, preferring to keep my interests in works of fiction and Zito is purely a work of the imagination, but it is in my imagination that a real serial killer would be more like Frank Zito - an outcast with a mother complex that kills and scalps women so he can “keep” them by putting their clothes and various body parts on mannequins so they can never abandon him. His betrayal by the one woman he connects with, Anna, causes him to shriek out in tears “MOTHER!” in a very eerie way reminiscent of Jim Jones during the Jonestown massacre. 

Joe Spinell was disappointed that his face was not featured on the cover of the film. This was his first starring role after years of being a consummate character actor. He never quite recovered from this or the fact that the movie was lobbied against, maligned, and often blocked from theaters. He never got to see its success as a cult film as he passed away in 1989. The film is now considered a classic in the horror genre. Tom Savini’s effects are second-to-none on top of phenomenal acting by all. In fact, Tom Savini created the role of “Disco Boy” just so he could blow his own head off (prosthetic, of course) in the scene that chased Gene Siskel from the theater. It’s iconic to horror fans and special effects fans alike and quite the brave move on his part as shooting a firearm is illegal in New York City and there was only one chance to get the shot to avoid being arrested.

The scene must be viewed to really appreciate the wizardry of Savini’s work. The 2-Blu-ray set put out by William Lustig’s Blue Underground Entertainment company is well-worth the investment and still widely available, including on the second disc features like “The Joe Spinell Story” and interviews with Tom Savini, Caroline Munro, and director Bill Lustig.

For myself, I say keep your Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. I’ll keep loving my hard-to-defend Maniac for all time. If you haven’t seen this film, you should. If you haven’t watched it in some time, you should watch it again. If you haven’t seen it since last week, you should definitely watch it again. It’s difficult to do much better than this cult classic can. It’s best to end with a quote from Frank Zito himself.

“Should you stop them? I can’t stop them. But you do, don’t you? [...] You’ve got to stop or they’ll take you away from me. I will never, ever, let them take you away from me. You’re mine, now and forever. And, I’m so happy.”

Find my audio discussion with my podcast panel here: The House That Screams: Maniac (1980)

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