Elijah Wood

Nora Arnezeder

America Olivo

Zoe Aggeliki

Jan Broberg

Joshua De La Garza

Dan Hunter

Genevieve Alexandra

Liane Balaban

Megan Duffy

Luis Fernandez-Gil

Aaron Colom

Akbar Kurtha

Sal Landi

Délé Ogundiran

Bryan Lugo

Ron Reznik

Devra Korwin

Steffinnie Phrommany

Mike McCarty

Brian Ames

Patrick Orr

Mic Rodgers

Sammi Rotibi

Rochelle Rudolph

Lauren Emily Vaughan

Steven James Williams

C.A. Rosenberg

Grégory Levasseur

Joe Spinell

Alexandre Aja

William Lustig

Mairi Chisholm

John Barba

Thomas Langmann

Maxime Alexandre

Franck Khalfoun

Lisa Fields

dooner

Jamison Scott Goei

Lorraine Martin

Antoine de Cazotte

Daniel Delume

Alix Taylor

Pavlina Hatoupis

Andrew W. Garroni

Stefania Cella

Emmanuel Augeard

Matt Henderson

Jérémy Babinet

Chris Carroll

John David Denison

Marie-Hélène Riverain

Zsolt Magyar

Jean Webber

Franck Tassel

Jose Zamora

Mario Pérez

Kaiyoti

Jason B. McCann

Lee Whittaker

Vincent Cosson

V.W. Scheich

François-Joseph Hors

Adrien Arnaud

Tiger Curran

Jessica Harbeck

Keith Woulard

Horror

Thriller

Maniac

La Petite Reine

Studio 37

France

Mannequinac!

Having not seen the original film that this is a remake of, I have no frame of reference. Entering into it oblivious to any sort of bias or guideline, this Maniac proves to be a nifty shocker, one that is not without style even as it puts churnings in your stomach.

It's the stylings that I imagine have upset a lot of horror fans, the first person approach and avant-garde sheens strip the pic of genuine suspense. Yet it's a brave film in that respect, as is the casting of Elijah Wood as the titular maniac.

Story is hardly original, boy had major mommy issues to deal with and has grown up disturbed. He has taken a career creating mannequins, but with real lady hair! Cue a bloody rampage of scalping - but wait! A pretty lady photographer has befriended him...

So it is what it is, a film that's grotty in narrative thrusts, yet one that's plush of cityscape photography and POV daring. An odd blend for sure, so it goes without saying, all these things need to be of interest to the viewer for it to butter your bloody sandwich. 7/10

English

Official Theatrical Trailer