Maniac 2012

Maniac is a 2012 slasher film directed by Franck Khalfoun and starring Elijah Wood and Nora Arnezeder. The film follows serial killer Frank Zito (Wood) as the owner of a mannequin shop murders victims as well as helping a young artist named Anna (Arnezeder) with her exhibition. On surface level maniac could be just another slasher film however what makes maniac different is the realistic portrayal of serial killer the film commits to as well as the psychological depth and exploration of its main character.

Instead of its 1980 original Maniac is shot from a first person POV (point of view) perspective. Maniac truly commits to the idea of the audience looking through the eyes of a killer. The film engages the viewer by following the killer literally putting the viewer in the perspective of the antagonist throughout the entire film. In the opening sequence where Frank stabs a woman through her jaw before scalping her the film. As the audience into the perspective of the killer. The film makes you witness the events that happen from his perspective as you become Frank acting out the same roof is killing that the killer does as the audience becomes the villain within the narrative. Through franks hallucinations throughout the film brought on by his migraines, we are shown the inner primordial desires of human nature is the protagonist ultimately wants to maim and kill, this makes maniac a lot more disturbing and realistic, lots of other slasher film in its grounded portrayal of a serial killer. Frank is presented in a dualistic like nature. With him taking medicine to calm down it is shown that he genuinely wants to connect and get close to people but the tragedy of the character shows that he ultimately can’t due to his psychopathic behaviour and the inner demons he battled throughout the film.

In the date scene with the girl he met online we see Frank genuinely wanting to try and get close to people especially women but ultimately, he cannot due to his relationship with his mother. He wants to fill a human connection with someone, he wishes to give it to lust and desire have emphasised is with her stripping but ultimately this is impossible due to the abuse at the hands of his mother causing a psychological fear of women. Therefore, he lashes out in violence as he strangles and scalps a girl. He puts their hair on manikins due to his fear of being abused and abandoned, he wishes not to feel alone and wants the comfort and love form women not giving to him by his mother which is a common trait found within a lot of real-life serial killers. With Frank talking to his mother’s head he blames her for the abuse and neglect he has suffered because of her and this monster was very much started from her influence. He is timid to persona is very much a product of his abuse in a way he does try to do the right thing and take care of Anna as well as his manikins but misses in this the tragedy of the film lies. Frank will never have a normal life and can never gain a normal relationship. The scars of his past concerning his abusive mother shows he is truly just a scared timid little boy who doesn’t know what to do instead lashes out like a child both as a means of protection under form of revenge is showcased by him freaking out and throwing up over scalping one of his victims.

What makes maniac different from a lot of other horror films is how much the film delves into the mind of its villain. Frank talks to his manikins as if they were alive but was not given to him by his mother. Inputting the scalps of his murder victims on the manikins his victims can never run away or leave him. The manikins act as a comfort for frank a substitute for the mother that never was to help with his abandonment issues. Frank gets angry and destroys his room because he can see his mother in the manikins, he collects his anger and resentment towards her causing him to lash out in violent tendencies. Frank’s mother was a prostitute who neglected him causing a jaded viewpoint of women. This further links into the idea of Frank having a childlike mind and the wanting his mother all to himself, as the mother figure is traditionally associated as a form of comfort therefore the idea of hand neglected him through prostitution creates a unstable mind within Frank causing these violent tendencies.

Frank meets Anna as she photographs his manikins outside of his shop since she is a photographer/artist that shares a love of his manikins. The character of Anna represents the idea of possibly a person who could save Frank from his own personal hell. With them bonding over the manikin’s maniac presents the idea of trying to find something simple to ground Frank’s sense of reality before exposing tragedy of showcasing a love that could never be. This is indicated by Frank stopping her from going any further into the shop. His fear of women as well as getting close to people in general stops him from having any meaningful relationships. Due to his past and his psychopathic tendencies, Frank can never really love anyone and to protect people the only thing he can do is push them away. When he looks at the dolls causing hallucinations the film shows Franks in a rage wanting to break through from his quite shy passive demeanour. Frank ultimately sees Anna as his salvation, in stalking her as well as other women maniac shows Franks obsession and need for female companionship to substitute for the loss of life present with his mother. With Frank stalking a woman into the train the film shows how Frank targets women as the lusts and craves after them. In the POV chase through the subway you we are again very much put into the perspective of the killer. The audience is within the mind of Frank even more so than the original. Maniac is different from a lot of other horror films in the genre due to its unique perspective upon the antagonist and how it analyses its subject. When Frank stabs the girl, the film goes out of its POV perspective as the camera circles around Frank. As Frank kills people it is if he removes itself from his subconscious mind acting as a separate entity altogether.

Frank and Anna share a gym in Bonn throughout the film both having a dislike for people in the love of manikins. Both Franks and Anna’s characters have parallels to Frankenstein in the idea of creating something from lifeless bodies, this is indicated when Anna talks about wanting the manikins to be faceless a feeling shared by Frank Lizzie only sees faceless victims when he kills. Within this scene throughout the film Frank and seemed to have a connection with the as indicated by Frank’s migraines this love could never be as he is after all insane. We are then shown flashbacks of Frank’s past. Instead of the original where Frank’s mother is shown to be abusive in the remake she is seen as somewhat normal. However, it is still clear how the psychopathic tendencies came about with Frank hiding in a cupboard watching her having sex with two men and doing cocaine. Seeing imagery such as this at such a young age clearly affected him. Frank wants his mother all to himself relating to the childhood fears of abandonment and neglect. He is kills women scalps them and puts their hair on manikins, so he does not have to feel alone, he seeks out the love and companionship it didn’t received from his mother in the women kills.

With Frank looking down at his body to find the bottom half of the mannequin the film shows that he cannot escape his fate and that he is destined to be a killer mirroring how we cannot escape the past with his mother. In maniac we are showing a perverted creeping kind of love is Frank talks down on the phone as he watches her from his car like a stalker. From this they go to the cinema to watch the Cabinet of Dr Caligari. In this scene he sees a projected image of himself on the screen strangling the girl at the beginning of the film with his mum’s voice played over the top. Frank will never be able to shift the impact his neglectful mother had on his life and will forever be haunted by the scars of his past. This scene is vital to the end of the film with Anna saying “eyeful to the girl was going to die” to which Frank says “I’m glad she didn’t”, as this version of maniac plays out like a twisted Gothic horror road. When Frank finds out that Anna has a boyfriend maniac explores one of its key themes. Frank is an effeminate male who fears masculinity through his mother as well as a woman in general, as indicated in him smashing a mirror by punching it showing his slow descent into madness. From this Frank hallucinate that the woman he sees having sex with a man in public is his mother. This further shows how all the sexual imagery in relation to his mother that he was subjected to as a child moulded Frank to the person he has become causing him to have both a fear of lust for women.

However, within maniac we also see a potential life and salvation for Frank is with his connection to Anna. With Anna saying “my face on your manikins” Anna means something quite different to what Frank wants to do to her. When Frank meets Anna’s boyfriend. He assumes he is gay. This reinforces the idea of a dominant alpha male causing fear and Frank as an effeminate man. This adds more to his fear, being bought on by abuse abandonment and neglect and is shown within the film the only way he can react to this is to either lash out or hiding cower like a child.

The character of Rita Gallery owner does not care about Frank’s work believing they are useless fees and therefore asked his interest of giving them to someone to smash. This is then followed by a POV of Frank stalking Rita in a typical slasher movie setup of Frank said during Rita in the bath and hog tying her. He does this both due to a resentment of his mother which causes him to project his psychopathic tendencies onto other women, as well as in order to keep Anna all to himself. He does a similar so that she can be all his and no one else’s as his love for her is ultimately a replacement for the love he never got in his own life from the female figure he never had. Within this scene Frank projects his own feelings towards his mother and Rita. He never wanted to hurt his mother but she ultimately made him to. Through the neglect and abandonment his mother subjected to from her being a prostitute and sleeping with her time and a hatred grew inside of him. Frank loved his mother but had a jealousy and resentment for all the other men she gave herself to that didn’t love her back as the film shows that in his own weird sick twisted way, Frank still does life is mother to some extent as shown with the “I’m not gonna kill you I’m gonna keep you” line which was said in the original. Frank hugs Rita calling her “mummy”. Again, Frank wants to find women in order to keep them in order to find the love of other people within his own life which has been absent due to his abandonment issues. As Frank scalps Rita he says “you will not go out tonight is that clearly you will stay at home with me”. This is similar to the tagline used in both this film and the original is Frank wants his mother to be with him and no one else relating to the childhood fear of motherly abandonment which has caused his psychopathic tendencies.

Frank then brings Anna comforting her about the death of Rita. Frank wants to get close to her and guilt trip into trusting him however before he goes he sees the making of a boy this ultimately uses a projection of himself as despite his serial killer persona he is just a scared child. Frank goes to Anna’s apartment to comfort her. What starts out as a somewhat sweet and caring moment between the two becomes warped as Frank accidentally let slip that there were other girls who was murdered and Anna saying that the police never mentioned anything about other victims realises that Frank is the killer. Due to this she becomes terrified wielding a knife which causes the fight to ensure between the two Frank kills Martin another man who was at the apartment by stabbing him in the mouth of a meat cleaver. This is a clever use of dark comedy due to Martin being a model whose last job was modelling toothpaste. However, it turns out Martin is still alive and in his dying moments have Frank through the door where he is one-to-one with Anna where he subdues her with a shower curtain.

As Frank goes to get out of the back of his van she stabs him and runs off. In the montage sequence that follows the film truly showcases a tragedy to the film maniac as it seemed as if both characters generally liked by another but there love could never be. Anna jumps in a car and shouts at the driver to run him over which he does only for the driver to crash and die and Anna to be thrown through the windscreen as Frank scalps as she lays the dying. This scene indicates the monster that Frank truly is but that he is also a monster that can never have happiness. Maniac is ultimately a tragedy similar to a dark Gothic horror romance. This scene of anodyne was mirrored earlier on when she thought the girl in the Cabinet of Dr Caligari was going to die to which Frank said “I’m glad she didn’t” but in sticking with the realistic feel of maniac anyone can die just as easily as anyone else be they good or bad. Frank again acts like a child being angry at the way his being treated and wanting the attention and love from her before concluding with the darkly comedic line “let me introduce you to my mother”.

We then transition to Frank putting a wedding ring on a mannequin wearing a wedding dress with Anna’s scalp on top of that showcasing a life that could never be. In the climax of the film the dolls, alive in Frank’s mind as the former victims of the past come back to haunt him. They rip Frank apart with their bare hands to kill him. This showcases a sense of justice in his death and do what he stalked and killed has become his undoing. This is further cemented with Anna walking away from Frank showing her rejection to him and that his power has been diminished. As they rip his face apart a mannequin head is revealed underneath it. This showcases how Frank is merely a doll just like all the others. His relationship with his mother has created this human who acts upon the commands of another being and that both his mother and the manikins within this scene are now able to manipulate and have power over him. in destroying his human self and turning him into a mannequin the climax acts as an ironic and fitting punishment along with his death. In the final scene the police break into his apartment showing the murder scene with Frank hiding in the closet just as he did have a chance. This alludes to the idea of the manikins coming to life was merely all in his head giving the film a grounded sense of realism as well as further demonstrating that beneath the serial killer maniac is the story of a sad lonely this child still haunted by his past.

Maniac is a film that divulges its protagonist in unique and realistic way. By focusing on the villain in the film showcases a realism to its plot as it examines just what makes a serial  killer tick and how the inner demons in his mind project outwardly form the insane killing spree that takes place.