Maniac Killer (1987) Poster

(1987)

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4/10
Undrestandably obscure
Mathis_Vogel18 May 2007
Maniac Killer is a typically surreal Eurociné production. There's no gore, in case you're hoping director Bianchi would repeat his blood feast from Burial Ground. There is an extremely unconvincing shootout, everyone seems to get shot in the the stomach(most convenient place to strap on a squib?) Robert Ginty (the Exterminator) crushes a glass in his hand - of course he's evil. There's a shaky hand-held shot of the Eiffel tower. There's also a village idiot reminiscent of Bob in City of the living dead. Maniac Killer is as low on any action as Gianni Martucci's the Red Monks. Nothing happens. Still, there is certain weirdness to the film.
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5/10
Bad. Film. Bianchi. Good!
BA_Harrison6 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
It's hard to believe that director Andrea Bianchi and his cast were actually working from a script when making Maniac Killer, such is the general slipshod nature of the movie. It bears all the hallmarks of a film made at speed with very little preparation and on the tightest budget possible.

For this bottom-of-the-barrel horror, Bianchi enlisted the dubious talents of three past-their-prime B-movie stars - Chuck Connors, Bo Svenson, and Robert Ginty - all three giving what must be amongst the worst performances of their not-exactly-illustrious careers. Connors plays biochemist Professor Roger Osborne, who is searching for the cure to all the ills of mankind. Svenson is wealthy aristocrat Count Silvano (Svenson), and Ginty is Gondrand, the crazed leader of an Inquisición style murder cult, who has designs on the Count's young wife (he can't be ALL bad though - he owns a cool KISS pinball machine that he lets his henchmen play on).

The real star of the film, however, is François Greze as local village idiot, Matthieu, who roams the countryside collecting animal specimens for use in Osborne's experiments, and who learns to talk with the help of the scientist's array of computers. Greze is hilarious, overacting wildly, his portrayal of the wild-eyed, drooling imbecile almost as memorable as that of Peter Bark in Bianchi's zombie classic Burial Ground. The film's ridiculous highlights see Matthieu trying to describe the abduction of the count's wife with the use of what looks like Photoshop 1 (he may be dumb, but he's got some serious graphics skills), and his explaining of the same to the police via charades (Lionel Blair, eat your heart out).

Other hilarious highlights include several cheesy torture scenes in which topless hookers are menaced by a fat, bald, shirtless guy, who uses pliers and a hot iron to get them to confess to being possessed by Satan, plus a couple of incredibly inept but bloody shootouts in which one of Gondrand's men outguns a gang of pimps and blasts a load of cops.

The film ends with Gondrand getting his comeuppance, stabbed in the back by one his torture victims, at which point Greze delivers the best line of the whole film: "Bad... man... dead. Good". Might get that on a t-shirt.

5/10 - it's lousy film-making, but also fairly entertaining.
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4/10
Two for one movie making!
udar5517 April 2022
My recent '80s Italian kick led me to a weird place - the Italian-French co-production Maniac Killer (1987). This is a bizarre one as there are two separate plots going on here. One has a cult led by Gondrand (Robert Ginty) that tortures impure women and then he kidnaps the wife of Count Silvano (Bo Svenson, who should never play someone named Silvano). The second plot has professor Roger Osborne (Chuck Connors) performing experiments in life extension at his isolated mansion. The only common thing connecting these two are some cop characters that visit both. Andrea Bianchi is often credited as the director (under the pseudonym Frank Drew White), but this feels more like a Jess Franco film (and it was produced by his main outfit, Eurocine). It definitely has that Joseph Lai or Godfrey Ho feeling of two separate films being edited together. Oh, there is also no maniac killer so no one is killed by a maniac killer.
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5/10
Good Elements for this Foreign Slasher That Needs More
Reviews_of_the_Dead18 March 2024
This was a movie that I learned about through a podcast. I'm guessing it was Mr. Parka since this seems like a movie he would have checked out. I got this in for review from Laura at Scandal Coactive as part of the Eurocine Volume 1 boxset. This was one that when I saw it featured Bo Svenson and Chuck Connors, both are actors I've heard of it piqued my intrigue. I just haven't seen a lot of their works. I was excited knowing this fell into the horror genre as well.

Synopsis: a murderous cult kidnaps French prostitutes and tortures them to death to 'purify' them of their evil ways. The local pimps set out after them, as does a man whose girlfriend was kidnapped and may still be alive.

We start this off at what looks like a house party. It is revealed later that this is a night club. A couple comes out. There is a woman who is with Manfred Grey (Robert Ground). They get into a tiff where he hits her and goes back inside. She walks home. There is someone following her. They put cloth over her face, knocking her out. She wakes up, chained in a dungeon. This is the cult in the synopsis that is out to cleanse her.

It is from here that we meet moving parts that will come together. There is a mailman who meets his group of friends at a diner. They don't trust a local doctor, Professor Roger Osborne (Connors). He is doing experiments so they think he kidnapped the missing woman. Roger lives in his isolated home with Dorine (Dora Doll). Roger enlists of the aid of a deaf/mute young man who has mental issues. His name is Matthieu (François Greze). He collects animals for this doctor and this draws the attention of Countess Silvano (Paulina Adrián). She believes he's a poacher so she chases him off the property. The countess is married to the character played by Svenson. We see an interesting run-in at a party where she has a lover and the count kicks him out.

There is then the leader of this cult. I'm giving this information as it doesn't do much to hide it. There is Gondrand (Robert Ginty) who is working with Lysia (Suzanne Andrews) and Sam (Stanley Kapoul). They kidnap another young woman. This draws the attention of the police and Manny's crew. Gondrand has more pull than we realize, plus he has certain protections that help him as well.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I recognized our director of Andrea Bianachi since I've seen Strip Nude for Killer. I've also had another of his movies on my list for a while, Burial Ground, I just haven't watched it yet. I also know that he took over for Jess Franco for Angel of Death which is in this boxset. I'm giving this information knowing that this would be sleazy or at least I knew that it could be.

Let me then get into what I liked here. Having this cult kidnap prostitutes to cleanse them of their sins is a good idea. My problem is that they think these women are possessed by the devil, while they're wearing robes that are cult like. They look like they're worshipping Satan. They're also using a staff with a serpent on it, which also seems to fall in line there. These are good elements, but I just think that they didn't know what they truly wanted to do so it feels rushed and confused.

Another good aspect for me is having Roger doing experiments in this town so the regular townspeople distrust him. This feels like something taken from old world mad scientist stories like Frankenstein. His experiments leave blood so I did like that when the police officer in charge, the majordomo played by Henri Lambert, follows up a lead. It also makes sense that the henchmen of Gondrand would throw suspicion his way as well. It doesn't help that Roger flees when they want to take him in. This feels like it borrows from giallo films by needing him to clear his name.

There is also a subplot with Matthieu. I understood what they're doing here. He is a simple man. The way his brain works, it doesn't make the same connections for how we learned to read, write or just comprehend. That doesn't mean he isn't capable; a different approach is needed. Using the computer to help here was interesting. The problem is that this needs too much screentime to make it work. There are also leaps in logic to not linger longer than it already does there. What they use this for was fine in the grand scheme of the story. It just doesn't work how they wanted for me.

I'll finish out these thoughts with filmmaking. I do think that the cinematography was good. It doesn't do a lot to stand out. This being cleaned up for Blu-ray looks great though. I'll shift over to the effects and they're fine. We don't get a lot of them. This is working with a lower budget, so they needed to hide things. I'll credit the framing and editing there. We do get to see nudity, which I can appreciate. The problem that I have though is that this movie feels rushed. There are good story elements, it just jumps through things and we don't flesh it out in a way that feels complete. That is a gripe that I have in the end.

Let me then finish this out with acting. I thought the roles by Svenson and Connors were solid. These guys are collecting paychecks. I'd say that they didn't phone it in though, so that helps. Ginty was solid in his role, but we needed a bit more for his role to work for me. Doll and Lambert were fine. No one necessarily stands out here, but the acting was fine for a movie like this. Just don't expect too much there.

In conclusion, there are good elements here. I thought the concept for the story was one that is interesting, but I don't think they thought it out enough. They are supposed to be cleansing these prostitutes from being possessed by Satan, while looking like a cult that worships him. We get other concepts that I think could work, but what we linger on doesn't help. It also doesn't have enough time to make them all work and come together. The acting is solid. Svenson and Connors are the draw. The rest work for what was needed. I'd say that this is made well enough. It knows its budget so that helps them hide what they need to. There is untapped potential here that could work if remade properly. I struggled to keep my attention though which isn't good for a movie that is basing itself on a sleazy concept like this.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 10.
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5/10
Ridiculous! I loved it!
BandSAboutMovies10 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is so delightfully strange that I wondered, "Who would have made something this odd and tone deaf?" That someone would be Andrea Bianchi, the director of Cry of a Prostitute, Strip Nude for Your Killer and Burial Ground, three movies that pretty much set the strandard for either sleaze, strangeness or a combination platter of both.

Made for French distributor Eurocine - just like Bianchi's co-directing effort with Jess Franco Angel of Death - this movie piles on the weirdness and the sleaze in equal measures in story that may be about a devil cult that kidnaps prostitutes and tortures them to death to clean them of evil. It's also about the pimps coming to the country to kill the cult and get their ladies back. And it's also about a man coming to save his girlfriend.

Between Bo Svenson, Robery Ginty and Chuck Connors, the actors of this movie are all gruff and weathered. Ginty is the lead villain, a man who uses torture to take the sin out of these women by making them admit that they love Satan, which would seemingly be a good thing, right? Their aims are somewhat confusing.

I also have no idea why Connors is working in a lab across town and teaching Matthieu, a mentally challenged teen, how to speak with the aid of computers. These scenes show all the nuance you'd expect out of a Eurohorror/slasher film made in 1987.

What I do know is that this movie is on Tubi and that means that at any moment, someone unsuspecting could put this on and be confronted by its utter inanity. That alone makes me love this movie, along with a healthy helping of Satanic rituals, outdated computers and a shootout conclusion that wipes out nearly the entire cast.
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3/10
The only thing that was convincing besides the clothing on their backs the only thing that looked remotely real are the nude scenes
jordondave-2808520 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
(1988) Mania Killer/ Maniac Killer DUBBED THRILLER/ PSYCHOLOGICAL

I saw this movie as "Mania Killer" and not as "Maniac Killer", directed by Andrea Bianchi synonymous for directing slasher movies in Italy. This time it is a thriller, and an unimpressive one at that, it's more about the budget than the concept. You know, you can tell the movie may have been made in a week if and when portions of the manor for the protagonists who are the count and countess may in fact be exactly the same manor as the bad guy's. It looked like a single manor is filmed, which the front of the manor is the bad guy and the back of the very same manor is the good guy's or vice versa!!!! One would hope this low budget quickie made movie would consist to have some originality or creativity in terms of direction to plot, but it has neither. I must admit, the first time I saw this was so bad and forgettable that I fell asleep while watching it as the movie made no sense, and that I needed to absorb what the movie was conveying as the set up is hardly even there to begin with.

It begins when an escort/ girlfriend, Rosalie (Isabelle Rochard) for man named Manny (Robert Ground). And upon Roaslie walking home by herself she's then abducted before she is brought to a dungeon to be tortured by a bald assistant, Sam (Stanley Kapoul) taking orders from a guy wearing a red hood. It is one of those movies that attempted to make viewers think it's one person committing the acts only it to be someone else, which the revelation was revealed almost half way through the movie. And that in my opinion is not much of a mystery of the identity anymore. In other words, for the first half hour or so, it appeared to look like that it was Professor Osborne (Chuck Conners) her maid, Dorine with the help of Matthieu (François Greze) committing those acts when it was Gondrand (Robert Ginty) all along. Mathieu is one of those Igor types who is unable to speak normally but has a normal brain who collects animals places them into a burlap sack, whether they are alive or dead and brings them to the professor. And then it's like out of nowhere, a lady named Lysia (Suzanne Andrews) and her partner, Mr Harvey (Jean-René Gossart) end up working for Gondrand, my assumption were supposed to be journalists but were somehow became converted into this cult. At this point, the policemen with the man in charge sergeant Morton of the missing Rosalie is worthless. And they don't do anything until a Countess Silvano becomes the latest victim after she was shooing Mathieu away for chasing and grabbing helpless animals while she was riding her horse. And Gondrand is pursued by her husband, Count Silvano (Bo Svenson) when Manny and his two worthless gun handlers couldn't do the job. And it was at this point, viewers finally see that both the professor and his maid and Matthieu had zero connection with the kidnappings of the women. We want the idea to be appreciated but the director Andrea Bianchi has done this better on his slasher films.
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8/10
maniac-killer
andreygrachev31 October 2008
Wou. Another horror film from great director Andrea Bianchi. It is not much gored. But it has nice locations, perverted rich bastards, the atmosphere of another dimension. Sometimes I was thinking about some Chechz old films. The film is rather slow, but not boring. As usual the actors show rather unusual perverted personalities, science fiction detective man, local freak and many more details, reminding of Russian writer Yuri Mamleyev. The far out underworld with rather moody afternoon picture and hypnotic score. I would recommend that film to someone who really likes psychedelic awesome vision on cinema. Andrey Grachev. If you like Andrea Bianchi, please, write to me. I am gathering all possible info about him.

www.myspace.com/neizvest
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6/10
entertaining, but no gore
dr inferno20 December 2000
I must first say that I was kind of disappointed by the lack of gore in this movie by Andrea Bianchi (director of Burial Ground). Having seen the gorefest that is Burial Ground, I was expecting something along those lines, but it's not. Nevertheless, this movie was entertaining with its bad acting and its plot that barely make sense.

It's the story of a weird cult that kidnaps prostitutes in a small French village, and tortures "inquisition style" in order to purify their souls. But, soon the local pimp and others will seek revenge. It also includes a scientist from California that uses the village idiot to capture small animals to experiment on them.

Entertaining, if you want to laugh at a bad movie.
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6/10
A truly so bad its bad film
abduktionsphanomen21 January 2024
Maniac Killer - 1987 (This Film Rates a D ) After getting slapped in the face by a jerk of a man, Rosalee walks home in the dark alone and is stalked by an unknown assailant. She is drugged and carried away. Rosalee wakes up chained to a wall then stripped and tortured. The next day word gets around town and rumors start. A man is thought to be "experimenting on animals and women until they die". Meanwhile there is a town "half wit" named Matthew. He collects a cat/rabbit/bird in a canvas bag and is fascinated with fireworks. Matthew is snatching these creatures for Professor Roger Osborne who is a molecular biologist. This guy never takes off his lab coat. Anyways, he needs the animals for "new fresh blood". The professor teaches Matthew how to speak. There are also interludes of Occultist torture scenes that break up the monotonous and painful storyline. These feel very disjointed. The group of occultists torture women into confessing they are possessed by Satan and to "purify their souls". There are no real connections with either story except the local police investigations which intertwine both. By the time it ends you won't care about any of it. The acting is pretty terrible, but it is a French film. This is highlighted by the shootout scene at the 45-minute mark or the knockout scene at the 1 hour 6-minute mark. The poor doorman gets knocked out twice. No real gore but has some teaser moments that just do not pan out. So many gunshot to the stomach death moments. On the positive side there are a few boob shots. Do not waste your time here.
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