Maniac!

Move over Travis Bickle, there’s another cinematic psycho roaming the streets of New York City, and his name is Frank Zito. Joe Spinell co-writes and stars in this 1980 horror film that coalesces the essence of the desolate and paranoid streets of late 70’s New York, and the maniacs who stalk them. As viewers, we are immediately plunged into Frank's demented, isolated life, and see through the eyes of this misogynistic, knife wielding maniac, who’s disdain for woman stems from an abusive childhood. Frank’s creepy apartment is scattered full of dolls, a shrine of his mother, and mannequins, which he nails the scalps of his victims to. It seems he is trying to surround himself with his victims, not just as trophies, but to preserve the beauty of woman in the inanimate, which can never wrong him as his mother had. Joe Spinell is utterly believable as an extremely disturbed psycho, switching from a rueful man-child with mother issues, to an unapologetic murderer.

Frank is accompanied by a myriad of weapons to wreak havoc among the streets of New York including knives, straight razors, scalpels, daggers, and a shotgun concealed in a violin case. Effects master Tom Savini gives us some of his best work, which include numerous stabbings, throat cutting, scalpings, and an infamous scene of Tom Savini getting his head blown off via shotgun blast. At times Frank seems reluctant, and knows what he’s doing is wrong, having inner monologues between himself, and his mother, exacerbating his already questionable sanity. Later in the film he crosses paths with a woman photographer, and we see a glint of humanity in him, due to her amiable disposition. Will his murderous tendencies come full circle again, or can he connect with a woman, finally get over his mother problems, and bury his misogynistic brutality? Take a look for yourself, in this callous, gritty little gem of a horror flick. Also, word of advice…if you‘re a woman, I suggest not walking the streets of New York alone, for Frank Zito may be waiting in the shadows to add your pretty little scalp to his collection.