In a Violent Nature has been having a lot of consideration for its idea of taking a Friday the 13th-like slasher, with a masked killer stalking persons in the woods, and reinventing it by telling the story from the killer’s viewpoint. While that is a terrific notion, this 2024 title is not the initial to do it. 1960’s Peeping Tom had its killer filming his victims as he murdered them. Halloween seriously produced the gimmick well known with that opening scene of a teenage girl becoming stalked in her personal house ahead of becoming stabbed to death, till the POV is reversed to show us that the killer was her six-year-old brother, Michael Myers himself. Friday the 13th made use of it a lot also with the initial film in the franchise to play up the mystery of not figuring out who the killer is. More lately, The Poughkeepsie Tapes made use of that angle to terrifying good results, but these motion pictures have been only shown from the killer’s viewpoint in moments as a plot device. One film, nevertheless, forced us to reside via its killer’s actual eyes for the complete film. In 2012, for a reboot of 1980’s Maniac, Elijah Wood played a character so depraved that to place us inside his head produced us just as guilty as he was.

Maniac (2012)

In a gritty urban landscape, a mannequin shop owner conceals his dark secret as a relentless serial killer targeting unsuspecting ladies. His troubled previous and psychological torment are depicted via a series of disturbing events, revealing the inner workings of his thoughts.

Release Date

January 2, 2013

Writers

Alexandre Aja , Grégory Levasseur , Joe Spinell

Cast

Elijah Wood , Nora Arnezeder , America Olivo , Megan Duffy , Brian Ames

Runtime

89 Minutes

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Elijah Wood Was Perfect Casting for a Reboot of ‘Maniac’

In 1980, William Lustig‘s Maniac was unleashed onto the planet. With its gritty, grindhouse style, Maniac looked like a documentary or a snuff film, a related impact Wes Craven had achieved with The Last House on the Left. If the filming style wasn’t terrifying adequate, its villain was, with Joe Spinnell playing Frank Zito, a man with mommy difficulties who kills ladies and areas their scalps on mannequins. Seems like a good fellow, huh? Maniac is filled with intense violence and is an uncomfortable watch for most, but more than the decade it identified a cult following.

In the early 2000s, the era of horror remakes started with well known redos of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. Maniac was nowhere close to as well known as these titles, so to do a straight-up remake would only invoke curiosity amongst the most hardcore of horror fans. In 2012, with the remake boom dying out, a stab was taken anyway, so to speak. But as the most effective of horror remakes had found, there had to be a unique route taken to set itself apart. The 2012 Maniac, which was co-written by Alexandre Aje (The Hills Have Eyes, Crawl), and directed by Franck Khalfoun (P2), identified two strategies to shock its audience. One was to cast Elijah Wood as its killer. Wood was most effective identified to audiences as the heroic Frodo from the Lord of the Rings films, but now he was going to play a murderous madman. Just a year ahead of, he was voicing a penguin in Happy Feet Two for Pete’s sake! Having Maniac‘s killer as somebody who appears harmless tends to make it uncomplicated for him to lure in additional victims, when also permitting him to be somewhat sympathetic. The second alteration was in Maniac‘s style. Not happy with merely attempting to recapture the gritty appear, Maniac went larger, by taking us into the killer’s eyes. For ninety minutes, it would force us to invest almost each and every second in his head.

Many Tricks Were Used To Put Us Into the Eyes of ‘Maniac’s Killer

Elijah Wood had to be on set for the entirety of Maniac‘s 4-week shoot. He told The Scotsman that a lot of his time was spent standing behind the director of photography, Maxime Alexandre, whose camera becomes Frank’s eyes. He stated, “I would be behind him the entire time, tapping on his shoulder to make him move more quickly or slower. It was a completely fascinating way to function.”

Maniac was initially going to have a physique double play Frank most of the time, but as Wood revealed to The Guardian, that did not function, so for each and every single scene, he is suitable there behind the camera, and it is commonly his hands you see when the killer reaches out, with Wood merely leaning forward into frame. That could not generally function even though, as Wood could not attain each of his hands about the camera, so as Wood confessed to Front Row Reviews, a physique double was made use of when we see each of Frank Zito’s arms. That could possibly sound a tiny silly, but it is also creepy when you believe about it like the killer is two persons in 1. In a way, he is, even though not via the physique double. The killer in Maniac is not only Elijah Wood as Frank but us, the viewer, also.

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In one more interview with Front Row Reviews, director Franck Khalfoun acknowledged that other films like Peeping Tom had performed the POV of the killer, but in no way for the complete film like his did. He had 1 enormous purpose for wanting to do this: so we would turn into just as guilty as Frank. Khalfoun stated:

“I wanted the audience to feel trapped in his body. The cinema plays a big part in that concept since you are stuck in your seat forced to experience the events with little control over the outcome. Much like Frank is stuck in his body. You are therefore at the same time complicit and repulsed. Therein lies the horror”

The Audience Is Just as Complicit as Frank Zito in ‘Maniac’

There is a conflict in watching a film like Maniac. While it could possibly be entertaining and scary, it also centers on the male gaze, with a man stalking and hurting ladies. That’s uncomfortable and can make the viewer really feel guilty, particularly if they also are a man, so what much better way to make that message clear than to have us be 1 with the killer? If you really feel guilty, effectively, also poor, since you are nonetheless watching anyway, so Maniac is going to force you to be the killer as effectively. We are Frank’s eyes, and when occasionally we can be taken out of that for a handful of seconds when Elijah Wood is shown in a reflection in a mirror, we are then forced back in ahead of we have time to distance ourselves from the horror.

Maniac is not just a visual overall performance, as we have additional than Frank’s sight, but his words and feelings as effectively. The starting of Maniac begins out just like Halloween, with a killer watching his victim from afar and silently following her. Just like Michael does to his sister, Frank stabs a lady to death, but ahead of he does, he speaks, telling her not to scream. You never get that from Michael Myers. Beyond his words, we can really feel Frank’s panic as his speedy breathing increases when he gets anxious and scared ahead of every kill, just like we do by becoming produced to watch via him. He’s not somebody who is enjoying this but feels compelled to by the mental breakdown that is destroying him.

That type of story is great for the POV format since Frank is a man who has a motivation behind his kills, with his psyche torn apart by the sexual acts he saw his mother carrying out with guys when he was just a kid. He’s not a quiet man in a mask, but a complicated human becoming who is as frightened as he is frightening. Slashers like Halloweenand In a Violent Nature use the killer’s point-of-view as an intriguing filmmaking device, but for Maniac, going into Frank’s eyes is exactly where the correct horror lives.

2012’s Maniac is out there to watch on PLUTO Television.

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