The movie title “Maniac” has been used a few times throughout our cinematic history. Dwain Esper’s 1934 shocker, entitled Maniac, which featured Phyllis Diller, was strong stuff for its time especially when a cat’s eyeball is squeezed out of its head. The 1963 Hammer film starring Kerwin Mathews also titled Maniac was decent but nothing in the league of the 1980 slasher horror directed by William Lustig. Maniac from 1980 is full of unrelenting gore, sleaziness and is downright nasty. And it’s also one of Director Lustig’s most thought provoking films.

Maniac is a psychological horror slasher that stars screen legends Joe Spinell (who also co-wrote the film) and Caroline Munro. Frank Zito (Spinell) a victim of child abuse by his now dead mother who was a prostitute affected Frank’s mental state quite a bit! Poor Frank has become a sexually oppressed psychotic adult man who kills women with bayonets and switchblades among other weapons. He then removes their scalps, placing them on mannequins while talking to himself or his mother, often whimpering. A photographer, Anna (Caroline Munro) takes a picture of him by chance which ultimately leads to them getting together and going on dates. Because she took a photo of Frank, he, at least what is implied, needs to get that photo to avoid any publicity, so he sets forth a dating scheme to kill Anna. While this is going on, Frank is still on his murderous rampage, killing young women who cross his path

Maniac is an effective film with non-stop sleaze and shocking gore effects. Throughout the film, when Frank is in POV mode we hear him moaning in excitement and ecstasy as he stalks his female prey, which made for a great effect.

This moviewas arguably Joe Spinell’s the biggest film as it was his first lead role. His character as Frank Zito may well be his finest hour, playing a dark, tormented, sick character. He kills but at times seems to show some distain toward it. There is a lot of character depth in his role as Frank Zito; we learn about his madness and see what turned him into the murderer he is.

Spinell had been in supporting roles in major mainstream films such as The Godfather and Rocky. Among other cult and genre films on his resume include Starcrash, The Last Horror Film (both of which paired him again with Caroline Munro), The Ninth Configuration and The Undertaker. Iconic actress Caroline Munro (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad), as lovely as they come also hands in a superb performance as Anna, a would-be victim. Another legendary name in the horror universe, the great Tom Savini who was responsible for the special effects in Maniac (and many other wonderful horror movies) also has a bit part in the movie, getting his head blown off.

Maniac has been given a 4k UHD release by Blue Underground and this release is nothing short of phenomenal. The image quality for Maniac, given a 2160p transfer with an HEVC/H.265 encode, surpasses the previous Blu-ray releases. Viewing Maniac in Dolby Vision shows significant improvement.  The colors which have never been vibrant or cheerful to begin with, still contains the same dull, muted looking color palette, which fits the grimness of the picture itself, but the films now sports a newer, more polished look. Daylight scenes have never looked any sharper than they do now. While the colors tend to be flat, they have improved by a notch, a bit richer, slightly more ‘colorful’. Scenes taking place at night are also improved upon in 2160p. There is much more shadow definition, with enhancements to the sharpness and clarity with the characters and surrounding areas in the background. In a nutshell, to simplify, you can see everything much easier during scenes taking place in darkness as the image is much clearer. Flesh tones look perfectly fine. Those close-ups of Joe Spinell’s face when he strangles his first victim are even more frightening and revolting.  Even with all the enhancements in 4K, Maniac has plenty of rich grain appearing throughout the video presentation with no DNR having been applied.

There are various audio options for Maniac most likely because the release is Region Free. The audio options are English Dolby Atmos/True HD 7.1, English DTS-HD master audio 5.1 and 2.0, along with Spanish, Italian, German and French 2.0 Dolby Digital are the offerings. After watching the film in English and comparing the three options, I can say that the English 7.1 Dolby Atmos track sounded the best with an improvement in richness and clearness to the audio. The violent scenes come in louder now, with screams of victims, gunshots and dialog, including Joe Spinell’s moaning and Jay Chattway’s terrifying musical scores sounding much more dynamic. The DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 audio tracks are also loud and clear, only that 7.1 has more density, more richness to the audio and improves upon what was already some fantastic audio. Thankfully, there are three options and you can pick the one you prefer the most. No audio issues were detected in any of them. Subtitle options for this release include English SDH, French, Portuguese, Thai, Finnish, German, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish.

The extras from previous Blu-ray releases of Maniac have been ported over, which is also is consistent with Blue Underground’s Zombie UHD release.

On the UHD disc we get the theatrical trailers, TV spots, radio spots, and both vintage audio commentaries. Bill Lustig and producer Andrew W. Garron provide commentary on one track and Bill Lustig (again), Tom Savini, editor Lorenzo Martinelli, Luke Walter (Joe Spinell’s assistant) are in the second commentary track. Both are highly informational and make for a great listen.

The Blu-ray disc has the same humongous wealth of extras, which includes Maniac Outtakes, Returning to the Scene of the Crime, Anna and the Killer, The Death Dealer, Dark Notes, Maniac Men, The Joe Spinell Story, Mr. Robbie Maniac 2 promotional reel, “Paul Wunder” radio interview with William Lustig, Joe Spinell and actress Caroline Munro, Bill Lustig on “Movie Madness”, Joe Spinell at Cannes, Joe Spinell on “The Joe Franklin Show”, Caroline Munro TV Interview, Barf Bag Review Policy, Grindhouse Film Festival Q&A with Bill Lustig and Sharon Mitchell, and a still gallery.

But wait, there is still more! The “Controversy” extras with TV reports from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia are also in this release. Newsbeat, which talks about violent films in America, Midnight Blue featuring pornographic director Al Goldstein and a love doll and Gallery of Outrage which is the feature with “outraged” film critics condemning the film are also present in this release.

Something worth mentioning on the Blu-ray disc is an Easter Egg (remember those?). To access it, simply highlight “menu “and press ‘up’ and you will see a little something that I will hold off mentioning and let you see it for yourself.

Despite the greatness that is this UHD package, those who own the 4K limited edition 3 disc set of Maniac may want to keep it because the UHD release doesn’t have the CD soundtrack containing Jay Chattaway’s scores. Also not included is a 20-page illustrated booklet featuring critic Michael Gingold’s essay “Maniacs That Might Have Been” and technical credits.

Despite unfavorable reviews throughout the film’s outrageous history, Maniac is one of the most beloved slashers of all time by cult horror fans. It is still one of the sleaziest, most appalling films ever made, which is what makes it so compelling. This UHD offering to me this the ultimate Maniac release. The image and sound quality are now at their very best to date, to go with the hours, possibly a few days’ worth of supplements make this a must have for Maniac maniacs! VERY highly recommended!   

Director- William Lustig

Cast- Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Blue Underground

Number of Discs – 2 (one UHD and one Blu-ray)

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date- 5/30/20