[Music] welcome to the kill count where we tally up the victims in all our favorite horror movies and show you how they were made I'm James Ajanise and today we're looking at Maniac released in 1980 Maniac is an early slasher among those that came out right after Halloween and it has a lot in common with its contemporaries namely a deliberate pace a lack of real characters and graphic as hell kills courtesy of Gore Daddy Tom Ceini What makes Maniac stand out is its killer Frank Zitto We spend way more time with him than any of his victims Kind of putting us in his shoes and those are not shoes you want to wear Frank is a disturbed and extremely sensitive guy whose sexual frustrations are worse than Jake Barnes Why did you need those other men they didn't love you I did While that's not a unique trait among serial killers real and fictional Frank is hella compelling thanks to actor Joe Spanel who also co-wrote the screenplay Spinel was all over 70s cinema working with Scorsesei and acting in The Godfather and its sequel While he often played an unsavory guy Frank Zitto is less mobster and more messed up mommy issues Spanel is guided here by director William Lustige who would later make the Maniac Cop movies and Uncle Sam Remember that one good stuff Prior to Maniac his only two credits were two hardcore pornos he directed under the alias Billy Bag For his horror debut Mustig wanted the film to feel unsafe and make viewers question the sanity of the people who made it The end result was a little gialo and a lot of sex and violence which he and Spanel considered the commercial ingredients of the film Maniac's not only a slasher it's a low-budget exploitation film I had to laugh when I saw it was on 4K This thing was shot on the cheapest 16 mm stock available I don't think it's going to show up on a cold screen in the AMC ad I mean I still bought it of course but unless you want to do some kind of AI upscaling with this which you shouldn't There's no polishing any sheen into this It's a complete grimefest shot gorilla style in 1979 in New York City So you know I'm going to love this shit Cheap horror movies have a unique way of showing us what a city really felt like in the past They're out there with a camera and no permits They ain't dressing any streets This is what these places actually looked like In the end I appreciate the concept of Maniac more than I enjoy watching it It suffers from a little slasher slog with some sequences going on for way too long But Frank Zitto is a great character The music is solid The effects are fantastic and it's got a Bond girl That's good enough for me What you going to do when the maniac kill count runs wild on you before I answered that though I had to ask myself a different question What was I going to do when the dangers of the modern internet ran wild on me after all for a 21st century kill counter there are threats around every corner Like the men in the middle I'm setting up a fake guest Wi-Fi for you 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The movie begins with some sightseeing down by the beach boy A couple sleeping on the beach but when the guy goes off for firewood a killer comes POVing towards the lady He grabs her neck and slits her throat open with a razor blade Look at all that red blood All while her man fetches sticks like a dumb dog He comes back and gets told to heal by the killer via Garity a word I've known since I was a kid only because of horror movie kills The things you learn with this life of mine The killer is Frank Zitto a real title card He lives amidst the creepiest doll collection This side of the warrants What else you amassing in your man cave bud a bunch of keys Oh that's cool Oh and a pirate from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride You know I hear there's a real skull in there When Frank's not busy feeling on his titty scars he's trolling the streets of New York Kind of like these sex workers I need one more trick to make my rent Frank comes across them and purple shorts hits him up sounding like Franken Hooker You want to go out he's looking for some action So he goes with her into a motel where the clerk's wearing a V-neck undershirt God I love a good motel clerk I I just want to see the three of these guys in a sitcom together you know this clerk was actually played by director William Lustig at the insistence of Joe Spanel who kept trying to make him crack up on camera by writing funny things on the card he gives him Frank takes the girl upstairs with him and you can tell it's going to be money well spent Always exciting to do it with a chick who looks bored out of her mind They get up to bed gymnastics complete with making out and spanking cheeks She's actually into it until he starts choking her full force Yeah this ain't anyone's kink He chokes her so hard she briefly turns into another person but she's back to being the sex worker by Tommy finally strangles the life out of her putting another victim on the kill count Frank has a quick guilt vomit in the bathroom and complains aloud to his mom You make me do that Yep this snot-nosed crybaby has mommy issues Shocking I know He returns to the sex worker's body and scalps her with the movie relishing on a close-up of the act Really showing off Savini's work Oh and then he takes the scalp off and exposes some brain Damn man This is pretty good shit Tom Savini was still working on Friday the 13th in New Jersey when Mustig hit him up to work on Maniac Sabini was upset that a lot of his effects were being cut from Friday So they convinced him by saying that wouldn't happen here promising to release Maniac unrated That was enough to convince Sabini to take the job despite the low budget and how last minute it was I don't think there was much preparation of anything really For this scene Savini made a latex scalp from a cast of actress Rita Monton's head It had tubing glued underneath it that allowed blood to be pumped in offscreen He then attached the scalp to Monton's head with morticians wax resetting the whole thing between each take Frank heads back to his home sweet home and introduces his current collection of mannequins to the newest member of their family He lays it on the bed and dresses it in the sex worker's clothes and gives it her scalp Oh that's why he scalped her And that's why the other mannequins have all got bloody faces He's using them as trophies for his victims Ha everything makes perfectly rational sense now Joe Spanel helped write the script for Maniac Always intending to play Frank Zto himself He extensively researched numerous serial killers like Ted Bundy John Wayne Gayy Richard Spec David's son of Sam Burkowitz and of course Ed Gene He noticed a lot of them had mommy issues that played into their treatment of women which formed the basis of the character Frank packs a shotgun and hits the town He spies on Tom Ceini and his mustache as they take a drive with her date played by Savini's actual girlfriend at the time Doesn't take long for Tom to get the girl in the back seat And that's when old Frank Zto decides to make his move He creeps up to peep on all the kissing and caressing until he's spotted by the gal who tells Sabini they gots to go But it's too late for the horny couple In a kill inspired by the son of Sam Frank leaps onto the car hood and gives Tom a surprise Holy shit that head exploded all over the place That was insane Absolutely an Alzheimer kill The woman covered in blood screams as Frank points the gun at her for an eternity We're talking like half a house of a thousand corpses shot here It's psychological torture that becomes deadly when he adds her to the count with an uplose shotgun blast This infamous sequence has one of the best behind-the-scenes stories of all time It was filmed near the Verzano Narrow's Bridge which connects Staten Island and Brooklyn Savini already had a mold of his own head which is why he was cast in the role He packed the fake head with animal brains and eight prophylactics filled with blood Then while filming with three slow motion cameras he blew it apart with an actual real life shotgun So I'm like "Well how how are you going to do the explosion?" He said "Well I'm going to use live ammo." And so we're like it's okay This was obviously super dangerous and also super fucking illegal man The crew had to clear out of the area within 60 seconds of firing the gun They later tried to film some pickups but the splattered brains had begun to smell so bad they just dumped the car in the Hudson River Someone's going to find that car with this chicken wire body and this head and wonder what soprano thing is this Frank's at the park scaring little girls on bites when he notices he's being peeped at by a photo A stylish one Oh Uh lady I I'm so so sorry He gets her name and address from the bag she left lying there and plans to make use of that info later For now he's going to window shop for a new mannequin one that can wear his next trophy scout That spells bad news for this nurse getting off her shift Even though she reads about the killer in the newspaper she turns down a ride from her friend and opts to walk home alone instead Real smart Her nurse friend is played by Sharon Mitchell who previously worked with Lustig in The Violation of Claudia She was Claudia Many of Maniac's actresses were porn stars which was pretty standard for this type of exploitation film The nurse realizes she's being followed and runs down to a subway station but slows herself down Butterfinger Jones over here But I digress She hippity hops the turn style but can't get on the train before it leaves And that spells crappy Zumin trouble In fact make it crappy Zoom double The nurse ultimately runs and hides in a bathroom but Zitto never quits being the prowler He sees a sign for the restroom and realizes his prey is probably there I love the shot that pans from her hiding to him looking for It's simple but effective After a long spell of silence she leaves thinking it's finally safe but it ain't Frank stabs her from behind and taunts her as she screams Ah man this weirdo's got problems including a bayonet he has to wash now Good going genius Lustig and Spanel wanted Maniac to focus on urban fears like riding the subway at night walking down an empty street or getting home to an empty apartment The lurid subject matter and graphic kills did not go without controversy It was picketed by multiple women's groups and reported on by many local news Maniac is considered the ultimate in explicit violence By the time the movie is over the audience will have seen a scalping a shotgun blast to the head and hey hey hey Whoa Hey you're going to spoil the video Still the stuff that actually wound up in the movie was reportedly less intense than some of the stuff pitched by Spanel at that table where we were thinking up effects Joe Spanel would come up with stuff No no Joe No we we can't we're not going to do that to a woman you know another murder another scalp to nail onto a mannequin Why does Frank look like Yasified Robert Goule here well since we're 50 minutes in we should probably get to some sort of story here So Frank visits that photographer chick from the park whose name is Anna Yes Uh my name is Frank Zto He took my picture in the park May I speak to you whoa Holy shit Is that the same guy yep Frank manages to look and act normal for Anna mostly Listen I'm the photographer right all right What was that Frank all right Yeah that's what I thought he said He charms her enough to get a date And honestly you can't blame her This is not the Frank we know Crying about killing and talking to his dead mom He almost slips a little during dinner showing Anna a picture of the mom who messed him up so badly but it doesn't knock him off the cliff and instead they have a shockingly pleasant evening I love this scene's acting and chemistry It's so good The camera never cuts instead just rotating around the actors as they do their thing Anna's character was originally written for the late Daria Nickelodeon who appeared in several films directed by her husband Daario Arento When that fell through they instead cast Caroline Monroe who previously worked with Spanel in 1978 Star Crash Monroe had already gained prominence in multiple Hammer horror films and as Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me which is a top three Bond film The Show Monroe would go on to co-star with Spanel again two years later in the last horror film Anna gets back to her day job photographing the world's most middling models Seriously they are bad The edge gals are lackluster and center lady needs to dial it back a bit Doesn't help that the sequence is absurdly long and set to some ridiculous showdown song Nice Okay Three What is that frank visits Anna at work to give her a stuffed animal He meets one of the models Rita And you instantly know Frank is going to fixate on her next While they're doing their thing he pockets Rita's locket giving him an excuse to stop by her place that night As he gives her the necklace back he jams up the lock on her door But she's none the wiser That's why she strips down for some tubby time giving this early slasher the requisite TNA Oh and B like like the other bee the the V be Rita soaks in that thing for a good long while like she were having a day at the spa Good for her Bad for her is that Frank has returned and is in her apartment now After her bath he tackles her to the ground spilling her freshly brewed tea everywhere Oh no He takes her to the bedroom where he ties her to the bed and does his creepy talking thing And now we're back together again and I'll never let you go Never After his heaving monologue he takes out a switchblade and when she begs him not to kill her he gags her again Then he pushes the knife straight into her torso killing her with a solitary stab Man what is this guy's problem mommy Oh mommy Oh right His mommy That's his problem Probably why he's looking like a little kid right now playing with some toys It's sad in a pathetic sort of way Wait but then he starts shooting at a target on his wall with a gosh dang gun I mean I assume this dude lives in an apartment Don't he got neighbors in keeping with the film's low budget the interior of Frank's apartment was built by some dude whose name we don't know Seriously Spanel just met some random guy who convinced him to hire him as a production designer According to Lustig when they came to see the finished set they realized the guy had built an actual apartment with immovable walls and running water Spinel and the uncredited designer then sourced props dolls and mannequins to furnish the place which is one of the most memorable parts of Maniac Good job Unknown Dude Frank calls up Anna from a pay phone and asks her on another date but he says she's got to be ready in 15 minutes Pretty inconsiderate Frank You can't just expect her to drop everything And I can be ready in 10 Okay I'll see you Okay never mind And he's off Ah man The towers too soon movie On the way to their date Frank says he wants to stop by the cemetery and visit his mother's grave He leaves a wreath by it but they should maybe skip the prayer Place is getting smokier than the thriller video Also Frank's losing his cool He's mine forever What are you talking about yeah I'm surprised it took this long but I mean once he was in front of his mother's grave it's pretty predictable he'd snap He chases Anna through the cemetery in a bunch of good tracking shots but loses her among the stone and fog that allows her to get the jump on him with a shovel Oh shit Yeah Anna Didn't know you had that in you She runs away from him and Frank has a total breakdown complete with disembodied voices Mommy has to punish you Mommy mommy please don't lock me in the closet The reminders of his past abuse gets him balling and bowing in front of his mama's grave Oh shit she's Carrie whitening him Oh no it it wasn't real I guess turn off the zombie alert Maniac was shot in New York City during the cold months of November and December which took its toll in unexpected ways There were supposed to be maggots on Frank's dead mom here but they all froze to death before they could shoot the close-ups Frank stumbles back home to a shitty apartment where he sees a young woman in his bed The same one he saw when he was strangling the sex worker to death and whom we now can safely say is his mother probably at the age he was when she abused him He takes a good look at his mannequin collection Oh wait You think him and the tourist trap guy would get along i mean they're both kind of softies How do I look how do I look speaking of tourist trap the mannequins all of a sudden come alive Holy crap man Things are getting real weird at the end here I think those carry hands knocked us into crazy town Frank's reanimated victims grab a plethora of weapons and use them to hack and slash at their killer Between his screaming the droning music and the shots of these disturbing women this whole scene is real messed up and actually ends up being pretty scary And holy shit then we get a crazy decapitation as Frank's head is ripped from his body Wow that is gross and clearly fake Yeah but still it's fucking awesome Sini wanted to use actual animal intestines here but realized once he got on set that they were too big and wouldn't look human So instead he took the crew's leftover dinner of shrimp dip salberry steak and apple cores and stuffed it down the fake neck with condoms filled with blood The absolute best part of this kill though is that it uses the same fake torso they used for Pamela Vorhees's beachy decapitation As awesome as the decapitation is though it doesn't count as a kill since it didn't actually happen The next morning two detectives storm Frank's building and enter his room And it looks like the mannequins haven't moved an inch Frank is really dead so we can count him but his head is still attached which is lame He's just got a blade in his belly and he's bled out The cops shake their heads and leave and the movie ends peacefully since Frank is absolutely positively dead Just kidding The movie ends with a title card How many New York lives did Zitto zero out let's find out and get to the numbers Oh honey You've been standing here this whole time looking like that That won't do it [Music] all Much better I counted eight kills in Maniac a standard slasher number The victims consisted of five women and three men giving this pie chart a red edge or rege if you will We've only seen this content breakdown twice before in Prom Night and everyone's favorite Christmas kill count Tvenge With a run time of 88 minutes Maniac had a kill on average every 11 minutes I'll give the golden chainsaw for coolest kill to Tom Savini's disco boy I mean I basically have to This exploding head is the stuff of legend I might have gone with Frank's death if the cool one had been real but it wasn't So you know that makes my job easier Do Machete for Lameless Kill will go to Disco Girl shot in the face with a shotgun offscreen And that's it Maniac came out in 1980 Director William Lustig helped produce a remake in 2012 which is done almost entirely through Frank Zto's first person view And when it's not you see that he's played by Elijah Wood Hell yeah dude I would love to look at that sometime I I've actually never seen it But until next time I'm James Aenise This has been the kill count On the next kill count Welcome to Paris and step into the catacombs the world's largest crypt Stop This is the Empire of the Dead Ignore that Come on down and make some momento my memories with the remains of over 6 million people Find new friends There is always some weird peoples down here And see important historical sites Hundreds of people fell to their death right here You might even discover an ancient mythical artifact a philosopher's stone or Harry Potter memorabilia If you'd like a guided tour sign up for one with Professor Scarlet Marlo and her team of Tomb Raiders They'll take you through a bonafide boneyard Fuck that man I'm not climbing in the bones And use your help to unearth secrets in the land of the dead Ooh Abandon all hope ye who enter here This week hunt for hidden treasure with Asbow Then on Friday climb out of the catacombs for the kill count only on Dead Meat Jesus Jesus Okay Is that bad is that bad as above so below Can currently be watched on the picture streaming platforms Dead meat always recommends you watch the movie for yourself before it's kill It's the only way to have your own properly informed opinion Kills are never meant to replace the experience of watching a film Thanks a lot for watching this kill count maniac As always I've got to point out that these are the types of movies that I love to cover They spark the most joy in me Maybe it's because they're the movies I grew up watching Or maybe it's because they I feel they're very important to the horror genre Or maybe it's just because they're easier videos to make A lot easier to make a kill count when like 10 minutes of the movie is spent on a chase scene But it's also easier to write jokes about the weird shit going on in these movies And you get stuff like blown apart heads with real shotguns That's awesome I want to thank some patrons like Key of Sing Two Ghouls One Podcast Oh that's good Freely Mey David Montana Lee Monroe Puppet James' best meaty The fuck you say axel Delgado and Penguin Oh Penguin Uh careful with those tariffs out there Thanks everyone