MANIACTS

Produced by Jenny Hinkey, Billy Blake, and Howard Smith
Written and Directed by C.W. Cressler
Edited by Dan Handman
Director of Photography - Lisa Leone

Joe - Jeff Fahey
Beth - Kellie Waymire
Mason - Mel Winkler
Boley - John Furlong

C.W. Cressler‘s MANIACTS, a darkly comic tale of homicidal lunatics on the run, is easily summed up as NATURAL BORN KILLERS FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

Jeff Fahey is Joe, a killer of "important" people: doctors, lawyers, politicians, ect... While locked up in a sanitarium for the criminally insane, the rebellious prankster meets Beth, a killer who likes to rip the faces off lovers who have done her wrong. Kindred sprits, the two quickly fall in love.

Fahey's Joe is similar to his character Job in the early sequences of THE LAWNMOWER MAN. Fahey plays both with a wide-eyed childlike fear meant to reflect how emotionally frail both characters are. How a momma's boy like Joe is able to muster up the guts to carve up anyone is beyond me, but that's part of the goofy charm of MANIACTS, the characters aren't always what they seem.

Joe and Beth's relationships with each other and their surroundings allow for writer-director C.W. Cressler to examine the corruption found in both mental institutions and correctional facilities, similarly to Milos Foreman and the original CUCKOO'S NEST. From the feel of things, Cressler believes the same gray area between right and wrong exists that Foreman does. Considering the 30 years between the two movies, it looks like some things never change.

The tone of MANIACTS is disturbingly light with scenes of graphic gore used to humorous effect. The results don't reach the comic proportions of something like Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE or Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD 2, but the movie does work effectively enough to drive home the main themes while providing a few laughs.

The second half of the movie loses steam along with its sense of humor. Cressler moves the action outside of the facility and into a world of psychics and real estate barons, and it doesn't work at all. It feels like an entirely different movie. The black comedy that made the first half so enjoyable is also missing. I'm not sure why Cressler chose the abrupt change in tone and locality. Perhaps he discusses this during a commentary on the final release, something missing from the screener disc.

Rather than rebel against society, Joe and Beth find themselves trying to fit in, something they can never do. There are numerous comic opportunities that could have been worked if the Cressler took the movie down a different path or perhaps allowed Joe and Beth to retains the spirited attitudes throughout. Instead we get a final shootout that comes out of nowhere and does little to reinforce the themes of the opening 45 minutes. Everything said, MANIACTS can be a fun movie if taken as such, but it would have been a blast if it were consistent.

MTI Home Video