Maniac
Maniac is a 1980 film from the USA, directed by William Lustig, running 88 minutes. reelscum files it under video nasty, splatter and slasher.
- Year
- 1980 · 1980s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 88 min
- Director
- William Lustig
- Updated
- 30 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (26/100)
- Banned in
- UK
Defined in the glossary: Video nasty, Splatter, Slasher
Refused BBFC certificates for cinema in 1981 and video in 1998 and seized by police, it was passed with cuts in 2002 and uncut only in 2022.
Savini's effects, Spinell's performance, and a very bleak little film.
One of the grimmest slashers ever made, and elevated by two things: Tom Savini's effects and Joe Spinell's disturbing central performance. A lonely, damaged man murders women and scalps them to adorn his mannequins, and the film puts you uncomfortably inside his point of view rather than a victim's.
Spinell, who co-wrote it, makes the killer pitiable and repellent at once, and Savini's shotgun-to-the-head effect, performed on himself, is infamous. It is a bleak, sweaty portrait of urban madness, not a fun body count.
Nasty, sad and better acted than it needed to be.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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The cycle in depth
- Banned, cut and confiscated
A Fulci print flown out of the country, an Australian rating that just means no, and a German court that filed The Evil Dead under criminal violence. Three states, three machines for making a film disappear.
- The Exorcist was banned on video in Britain by one censor
The Exorcist passed uncut for British cinemas in 1974, then had no legal UK video release from 1988 to 1999 because one censor would not certify the tape.
Filed alongside
The Burning
The raft scene is the best kill in any slasher. The rest is fine.
The Driller Killer
Abel Ferrara's debut. More interesting as a document of downtown New York.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Almost bloodless, and still the most upsetting film here. The heat is the horror.
The Evil Dead
Prosecuted in Britain. Actually a comedy, though it took years to admit it.
Boardinghouse
The first shot-on-video horror feature, blown up to 35mm and just as ugly as that sounds.
The Exterminator
A flamethrower and a meat grinder. Death Wish with the restraint removed.
Alice, Sweet Alice
American giallo in Catholic New Jersey. Genuinely disturbing and well acted.
Terror Train
A costume party on a moving train, a killer swapping disguises, and Jamie Lee Curtis again.
Mountain of the Cannibal God
The cannibal cycle in a dinner jacket, ex-Bond girl and real animal deaths included.
Sleepaway Camp
Ninety minutes of nothing, then an ending nobody who has seen it forgets.
Nekromantik
German, banned widely, and much sadder than its reputation suggests.
The Prowler
A killer in WWII combat gear stalks a graduation dance. Savini's best gore work.