Likely to be a contentious film for many (as the original was). As an audience, we essentially live 'first person shooter' by inhabiting the shoes of Elijah Wood as he unleashes a murderous spree fuelled by mummy issues. It's, at times, an incredibly uncomfortable, visceral experience. Those who need to "root" for their hero will be unlikely to stay with this for long. Wood is excellent as a shifty, deplorable type who will make your skin crawl. Whilst you cannot understand his crimes, the director deliberately appeals to your innate humanity by showing what the young boy went through and how this set him on the path of murder.

Damn!  Didn't even realize this was out there.

Andrew, you neglected to mention this was written by Alexandre Aja.

Also, it stars 1 of my favoritist of all favorites - America Olivo.

Got it saved on Netflix.  Thanks, for the heads up, Andrew.

No problem, Jeff. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this, epecially considering you're a big fan of this genre, like me.

Yeah, my review was very rushed and missed out loads of stuff! What are your thoughts on Aja? I quite like his work overall. I'm also not going to lie and say I didn't completely fall in love with the character Anna. She was excellent in this.

I saw this a few weeks ago, as it's now streaming on Netflix.  I was quite thrilled it was finally available and sat down to watch immediately.

Damn, was I ever underwhelmed and downright upset at what followed.

I loathed the POV pespective here.  It just didn't work at all, IMO.

I didn't like the look of the film, either.  Not sure quite why, but it just looked cheap all the way around.

Story-wise and plot-wise, this is just weak cliche stuff we've all seen so many times before. There's nothing new, nothing surprising, nothing really entertaining, IMO.

On top of all the negative shit above, I felt the tone was off as well.  There was an odd black humor thing running underneath the surface and that never works for me.

Really struggled to even get through the whole thing and was very happy I didn't waste a Netflix rental on this crapper.

Grade - D

Nice premise... I have a similar one pinned to my storyboard. I think my idea is better though.

I liked this one for what I think Maniac is supposed to be in the horror genre. I think it stayed really true to the original but still managed to improve upon it in many respects. The POV was totally unnecessary but I didn't mind it.

I think your review is fair enough, Jeff. One thing struck me as odd though.

Quoted from Dreamscale There was an odd black humor thing running underneath the surface and that never works for me.

I didn't get this impression at all. All the murder scenes are played straight. All the scenes with Elijah Wood seem like they're supposed to be dark and miserable. The scenes with women are kinda hokey but I figured that's just because they're poorly written. Judging from their other films, Aja and Levasseur don't seem to be able to write women well at all, especially Americans.

I never thought anything was played for laughs or even tough in cheek though. I also know that Aja generally isn't big on "fun" horror (with the exception of Piranha) and given what the original Maniac is like, I highly doubt he'd want to go down a black comedy road.

Care to clarify?

Quoted from James McClung I didn't get this impression at all. All the murder scenes are played straight. All the scenes with Elijah Wood seem like they're supposed to be dark and miserable. The scenes with women are kinda hokey but I figured that's just because they're poorly written. Judging from their other films, Aja and Levasseur don't seem to be able to write women well at all, especially Americans. I never thought anything was played for laughs or even tough in cheek though. I also know that Aja generally isn't big on "fun" horror (with the exception of Piranha) and given what the original Maniac is like, I highly doubt he'd want to go down a black comedy road. Care to clarify?

It was awhile ago that I saw it, but I think I'm referring to the scenes when the dead girls "come back" and interact with Elijah, as well as the online pick up chick in general.

It just seemed so goofy, I thought maybe they were going for some kind of humor that wasn't getting through to me.

Maybe, it was simply that everything was so over the top "dark", things came off to me as humorous, in a way that didn't work.

Not sure, James, but I am sure that I was shocked how much I disliked the film, as I was honestly looking very forward to seeing it.

I'm not sure any of that was supposed to be funny; I think it might've just been poorly executed.

In the original, for example, we never see the dead girls "come back." They're all just mannequins with scalps on them that Frank talks to. They never talk back. It's all played straight.

I think in the new one, they were trying to put you more into Frank's psyche or something to that. Then of course, you have to give the mannequins voice, which perhaps didn't turn out so great.

As for the online chick, I think that whole sequence was just sort of poorly written. All the way back to High Tension, these guys have always tried to write these goofy, fun loving chicks and set them against extreme violence. It's sort of something you just have to go with in anything Aja-related.

Overall, I think these days, you just have to tolerate some bullshit when scrounging for horror movies. I've seen way more this year than I thought I would. There's always something stupid or annoying that pops up in them. I thought Maniac was definitely one of the better ones.