10 Best Slasher Horror Movie Remakes Of All Time

Maniac (1980) was a dark and gritty low budget slasher movie directed by William Lustig (Army Of Darkness), which told the story of Frank Zito (Joe Spinell – Rocky), a psychopath who stalks the streets of New York at night. Frank spends him time killing and mutilating young women by scalping their corpses and displaying their hair on mannequins around his apartment.

Achieving somewhat of a cult status, the macabre and visceral film was given a fresh remake in 2012 by director Franck Khalfoun (Wrong Turn At Tahoe) and stars Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) as Frank, in what is unquestionably his most disturbing role. Much of the movie is shot from Frank’s POV with a demented voiceover, as we see what he sees and hear what he’s thinking. He is a calculated murderer who kills without remorse. The scalping scenes are as shocking and difficult to watch as they were back in 1980, and the storyline, as Frank attempts to embark on a normal relationship, ultimately goes terrifyingly wrong.

The movie stands out for its sequences of fantasy, as in his imagination Frank’s mannequins come alive and take on the personas of the women he has killed and whose hair they are wearing. But the horror of these scenes are grounded in reality, as, for instance, we see flies buzzing around the rotting flesh on their heads. With an eighties synth-heavy score, this is a remake which stylistically acts as a fine companion piece to the original.