Taglines: I warned you not to go out tonight.
Frank Zito is a mentally disturbed young man who has taken over his family’s mannequin sales business after the recent death of his mother, who also moonlighted as a prostitute. Frank’s childhood experiences of seeing his mother bring home clients or being taken out with her to turn tricks has left Frank unable to enter into meaningful relationships with women, and his sexual impulses tend to manifest themselves as violent urges that Frank externalizes as his mother’s will.
Struggling to come to grips with his mother’s treatment of him, and spurred by memories of his mother brushing her hair before going out at night, Frank stalks, murders, and scalps a young street walker one night, attaching her hair to a mannequin that he then keeps in his bedroom.
Frank joins an online dating site, where he befriends a local girl named Lucie. The two eventually meet for what turns out to be a successful date. The pair return to Lucie’s apartment, where she attempts to seduce the virginal Frank; Frank, feeling overwhelmed by homicidal impulses, insists that he likes Lucie and that he must leave before something bad happens. Lucie, mistaking Frank’s panic for nervousness, becomes sexually aggressive and begins performing fellatio. Though he attempts to control himself, Frank eventually strangles and then scalps Lucie. Frank takes her hair back to his apartment, where he attaches it to another mannequin.
One morning, Frank awakens to find a photographer named Anna taking photos of the mannequins in his storefront. Frank invites her into his store, where she becomes taken with his work restoring antique department store mannequins. The two develop a friendship, with Frank agreeing to help Anna put together an art exhibit using his mannequins.
As the two spend more time together, Frank begins to fall in love, and becomes more aggressive about trying to control his urges, attempting to take pharmaceuticals to quiet his impulses. Nonetheless, one night he follows a woman home from her dance studio and stabs her to death in a parking lot; once again, he scalps her and attaches her hair to a mannequin in his bedroom.
As the date of the exhibit opening approaches, Frank learns that Anna has a boyfriend, sending him into an emotional tailspin. At the opening of the exhibit, Frank meets Anna’s boyfriend, Jason, who takes an instant disliking to Frank. Frank also meets Anna’s mentor, and art director Rita, an older woman who encourages Anna to leave Los Angeles to seek more opportunities. In a drunken state, Rita later mocks Frank, first sexually propositioning him and then accusing him of being a homosexual and teasing him for his interest in mannequins.
Frank follows Rita home, subduing her in her bathtub and then hog-tying her on her bed. Frank begins addressing Rita as his mother, expressing his rage for her treatment of him and articulating his feelings of being unloved, unwanted, and abandoned. Remembering a night he begged his mother to stay at home with him, only to be left alone while she went out to prostitute herself, Frank flies into a rage and scalps Rita while she is still alive.
Maniac (2013)
Directed by: Franck Khalfoun
Starring: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, Genevieve Alexandra, Jan Broberg Felt, Megan M. Duffy, Liane Balaban, Joshua De La Garza, America Olivo, Sammi Rotibi
Screenplay by: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur
Production Design by: Stefania Cella
Cinematography byB Maxime Alexandre
Film Editing by Baxter, Franck Khalfoun
Costume Design by: Mairi Chisholm
Art Direction by: dooner
Music by: Robin Coudert
MPAA Rating: None.
Studio: IFC Midnight
Release Date: June 14, 2013
Visits: 150
