Maniac

Yesterday's horror film:

10/19: For today's horror film I checked out Maniac, a film that puts resident hobbit Elijah Wood in a role you never would have imagined before: absolutely psycho serial killer. Uh, yeah. 

Damn. This movie is fucking creeptastic. Majority of the movie puts you in the serial killer driver seat as Elijah Wood goes about town killing and scalping various women whilst having Smeagol-like conversations with himself (see the connection I made there?). Through POV shots from the killer's eyes we feel as if we are present making these horrific kills and it is unbelievably unsettling. You are the killer and living out his psycho fantasies. This isn't a new film concept by any means with movies like Peeping Tom or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer pioneering it but Maniac takes it to a whole other level of twisted perversion. It asks the question of us as horror movie watchers: you watch murder and mayhem as entertainment, but what does it feel like to be the killer? It's dark and uncomfortable and Maniac doesn't let you look away.

Truly, this movie is stellar at being a horror film that asks bigger questions. All the gore and madness is pointing at something far larger and it's an intriguing question it brings to the forefront. Maniac is more than successful and I can't recommend it enough as a creep-out fest. If you don't cringe at least a few times at the horror on screen than maybe you are what the movie is asking of you. That in and of itself is a terrifying thought.

9.5/10