MOVIE · 1980

Maniac

CrimeDramaHorrorThriller88 min

Joe Spinell is Frank Zito, a deeply disturbed New Yorker whose violent compulsions drive him to stalk and murder women, including local models, across the city’s seedy streets and parks. Haunted by childhood abuse, Frank moves through Manhattan in a haze of rage, isolation, and ritualized brutality. When he begins seeing photographer Anna (Caroline Munro), the film sets his attempts at connection against the escalating horror of his private life. Shot in early-1980s New York, Maniac stays close to Frank’s unstable point of view, with the city’s storefronts, apartments, and night streets becoming part of his unraveling.