Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop

Director - William Lustig (Maniac)
Starring - Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead), Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps), and Laurene Landon (The Stuff)
Release Date - 1988
Genre - Action/Horror
Tagline - "You have the right to remain silent...forever"
Format - Streaming (Youtube)

Rating (out of 5):

     I knew this movie existed, along with two sequels, but never had the motivation to watch any of them.  However, after a few people asking me on Facebook, and emailing me on blogspot,  about reviewing a few William Lustig films, I decided to give them a chance.  However, they were not my first choice when it comes to his directing career.  I wanted to watch Maniac and Vigilante but could not find them to stream. I decided to look on youtube as a last resort just to see if someone happened to uploaded them in parts.  I could not find either of them but I did come across the Maniac Cop trilogy and decided to give them a go. 

     The film opens with a young girl walking alone at night when some street thugs try to mug her.  She fights back using her handbag and is able to escape where she finds a police officer.  The cop then proceeds to picks her up off the ground by her neck and then kills her.  This takes place while a witness is watching across the street.  The witness then tells all about the cop killing an innocent girl.  The newspapers dub the killer as the "maniac cop."  Detective McCrae (Atkins) begins an investigation to capture the killer in cop's clothing as bodies start to pile up.  McCrae is convinced that the killer is a cop, or at one time, was a cop.   A cop, Jack Forrest (Campbell), is having an affair with another officer and is caught with his pants down by his wife.  She then turns up dead and the adulterous cop is now the suspect in the maniac cop case.  Meanwhile, after some digging, McCrae comes across a lead pertaining to a former officer that was sent to prison.  This office was one of the best on the force before he was sent to prison for a bullshit charge.  While locked up, some of the inmates that he had put away, exact revenge on him while he is in the shower.  After packing an ass whooping from the extra large cop, the inmates finally cut him up with their prison shanks.  The people of the city no longer trust police due to the recent murders.  It is because of this that an innocent officer is shot and killed by a frantic old lady having car problems.  Forrest, and the female cop he was sleeping around with, try to clear his name and visit the doctor that pronounced the ex-cop dead.  The duo then uncover that the ex-cop, Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar), is in fact the killer.  Cordell has returned from the dead to exact revenge on those that sent him to prison and ultimately his death.  It is now up to McCrae, Forrest, and the slutty cop to take down the ex-cop before he can kill again.

      Just from looking at the poster and reading the title I did not think I would like this flick.  I was more interested in watching Lustig's Maniac and Vigilante.  However, after being talked into watching it I can see what all the hype is about.  This is the kind of movie that does not take half of the running time to get you into the action.  Right from the start this film puts you right in the middle of it.  Unfortunately, this leads to pointless dialogue and scenes that have nothing to do with the plot picking up the slack between each action scene.  The movie is able to combine the action and horror genre very nicely which gives the flick a very different kind of feel than you would typically get from an 80's slasher.  The story is pretty in depth for a slasher but something seems off to me about it.  It seems like the filmmakers started out to do a twist ending but abandoned that early on and revealed the killer about half way into the flick.  I honestly think that with a little more thought and some creative writing they could have easily pulled off the twist ending and revealed the murderer at the end.  However, I could just be over analyzing this.  The acting is very well done and two of my favorite genre actors are in this one.   I knew Bruce Campbell was in this before I watched it but I had no idea Tom Atkins was in it.  The kills are pretty standard slasher kills and the effects are done just well enough to pull it off.  The down side to this is the scars on the ex-cops face look completely ridiculous.  The viewer literally spends the entire film in anticipation to see the killers face only to be let down by horrible effects make-up.  Another problem I have with this film is the pacing.  There is so much action going on in the film but it is put together one on top of each other.  This leaves long spaces of boring dialogue and no action.  I think a little bit of thought could have also went into editing the film to evenly space out the action and break up some of the boring scenes.  Overall, this is an 80's classic and should be watched by those that love slashers and 80's cinema.  I will review the sequels later on, but for now I have a few films I wanna talk about before hand.