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Touches You

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Still affected by his mother's death, a psychotic serial killer begins stalking the streets of New York for potential targets only to find a potential romance that might quell his vicious streak and struggles to control his murderous urges before they return to affect his quest.This here was one of the more overrated slasher efforts of the time. The main problem here is the fact that the movie focuses on the killer more than the victims he goes after, being a character study rather than a truly enjoyable body count hacking. This is the real crime of the movie since he isn't one of the more fascinating serial killers in cinema history, so it can become boring if you're not in the right mind-frame. There are long stretches between kill scenes where you are just begging for something to happen, and all we get is watching him wander around looking for nothing or simply focusing on some old guy who keeps a part of his victims around and talks to them. That really loses the dread in the killer, since it either looks ridiculous and we laugh at him now or it's a trait that isn't very accurately represented throughout the whole movie. Here, it doesn't really invoke terror when a man scalps women to use their hair to dress up mannequins, then he begins talking to then while he's administering the hair to the mannequin. That looks silly instead of terrifying and when it comes into play as often as it does here with the utterly clichéd and wholly overused motive of childhood abuse from his parents as the catalyst for the rampage just making the whole thing even more problematic. There's also the utterly ridiculous romance angle that comes into play here that's incredibly difficult to rationalize why that occurs as it does here since there's very little about it that's believable why someone in her position would fall for an overweight, grimy person like him in the condition she does and it simply reeks of being there for envious purposes only. These here are really damaging and hold this back so much that the few positives here aren't that worthwhile. For the most part, nearly everything enjoyable with this one involves the gory killings which makes out nearly every single wound is like cutting through an important artery in the body. We get a slew of graphic kills here, mutilating the body with a series of intense work full of incredible effects work that gets featured. From the early random attacks, including the rather chilling stalking scene in the subway station to the attack in the friends' apartment to the gruesomeness of the utterly savage finale that ends this on a strikingly vicious moment, these here are quite good. Still, there's way too many flaws here to really mean anything here.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Brief frontal-full Nudity, and Language.

Abused as a child, a psychopath named "Frank Zito" (Joe Spinell) relieves his sexual frustration and anger by killing women and then taking their scalps which he displays on mannequins in his apartment. Although he disdains his actions immediately after killing them he continues to do so under the belief that he will eventually meet the "right" woman and only then will he be able to stop. Then one day he sees a young photographer named "Anna D'Antoni" (Caroline Munroe) and the idea suddenly dawns on him that she may hold the key to his problems. Anyway, rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that I was mildly disappointed by the fact that so much of it centered on the mental turmoil surrounding Frank Zito when there were several other characters which could have used more character development. For example, in one particular scene there was a "nurse" (played by Kelly Piper) who appears and then after a moderately suspenseful chase scene is killed. Now, while it was a decent scene, it could have been better if some effort was made to allow the audience to identify a bit more with the victim. Same thing with all of the other characters. Likewise, although the aforementioned scene contained some suspense the absence of it from the rest of the movie was quite noticeable. In short, while this movie wasn't terribly bad it could have used some improvement and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

After a pretty long time, I wanted to try this one again to see if it would stand the test of time - it did. The story is pretty simple and the dramatic side of things (especially plot-wise) is not all too strong, but 'Maniac' is superior in gore and (New York) atmosphere, and the crazy lead, played by Joe Spinell, is just about perfect.Straight away, William Lustig presents us with a dark-blueish opening on a beach, where our killer begins his bloody rampage. There are no cops here trying to solve the case, we are to simply make do with the actions and psychotic ramblings of a deeply troubled man (mommy issues), on the prowl for the perfect wig to fit on a new mannequin. Each kill scene is a classic, Spinell seems to just 'become' the crazy man with a knack for fooling some of his victims perfectly, and in the end we are presented with a fantastic apotheosis - and thén the cops come along.Very fine piece of exploitation cult - 9 out of 10.

Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) has mommy issues from child abuse, kills beautiful young woman, and scalps them as a result of his childhood trauma. In all honesty I don't think this is as disturbing as others make it out to be. It is very nihilistic, and it's not a pleasant film, but I've seen a hell of a lot worse, and I've seen TONS of horror movies. The gritty atmosphere in New York City definitely serves this movie well. I also thought the stalk sequences were very good. It has three really memorable ones. One involves a fairly lengthy cemetery chase between Frank & Anna (Caroline Munro) and another is a great chase through the subway as Frank follows a nurse. I did question as to why the nurse turns down a ride from her friend when she knows perfectly well a serial killer is on the loose. It seemed rather moronic to me, but that's a minor carp. My favorite might just be the well shot opening. It takes place on a beach in a dream sequence from Frank. I don't know why I liked it so much, but it was extremely creepy to me. The suspense is here in spades, and you're never fully comfortable while viewing this movie. The first half is better than the second half. The first half gives us a chance to get into the mind of how twisted Frank is. The second half plummets a little bit. The romance between Spinell & Caroline Munro is rather mundane to say the least, and it felt a bit otiose to me. How am I supposed to believe that a gorgeous beauty like Caroline Munro would fall in love with an overweight guy like Joe Spinell? It felt quite artificial to me, and they lacked chemistry. The gore delivers in a huge way. We get slit throats, women are scalped in graphic detail, stabbings. Tom Savini gets his head blown off from a shotgun. (One of the best head explosions you'll ever see. It's disturbingly realistic) A head is ripped off, and more. This baby is pretty harsh with some great effects. Joe Spinell is chilling here. He's essentially the whole film. He's in almost every scene, and his character of Frank is vividly depicted. He's completely unhinged, and he creeped me right out. He's just a nut-case with mommy issues, and you can't help but fear him. The way he taunts his victims for a few seconds before commencing a killing, and just the little things made him that effective. What's scarier is despite that the romance between him & Munro fell flat there is nothing abnormal about him in the romance scenes. He seems like a genuine person with charm to spare, major credit to Spinell for showing a bit of a human side in those scenes. I did feel his inner monologue got to be a bit much at times, and the fact that he wipes a kiss from Munro away from his cheek had me baffled. Why would you do that with such a gorgeous woman like her? I digress. This is Spinell's movie, and he gives a performance you won't forget. Caroline Munro is rather wooden in scenes, but she has a bit of a natural, English charm I couldn't help but like. It's not a great performance, but when you look as good as her, it doesn't really matter. Tom Savini has a cameo, and it's actually quite a hoot. He has a classic mustache as well. The acting is actually a strong point, aside from Munro. Everyone is quite competent. The ending bothered me a little bit. It's clearly there to set up the purported sequel, which never commenced. I felt they should have done a bit of a chase sequence, with authorities flagging down Spinell. They chose an anti-climatic ending, and it's definitely disappointing. Final Thoughts: I've seen this quite a few times, and it always manages to be an effective film. It's not perfect, and not for everybody, but I like it quite a bit. Well worth a watch 7/10