10 Heart Stopping Horror Movie Chase Scenes You Can't Forget

In more recent years, audiences may have become familiar with Maniac via the 2012 remake from Frank Khalfoun and Alexandre Aja. And whilst the remade property is a wonderfully inventive retelling of the story, with a stunning leading performance by Elijah Wood, that's not the movie being be discussing here.

For this entry, we're throwing it all the way back to William Lustig's 1980 picture. Maniac stars Joe Spinell as Frank Zito, a loner struggling to cope with years of childhood abuse at the hands of the mother he adored. His conflicting feelings result in a homicidal rage towards women, and at night he stalks the streets, looking for young women to satisfy his urges and anyone with a scalp will do.

Maniac drew attention for its unapologetically grim and graphic portrayal of a disturbed man trying to cope with his demons. The murders are gruesome, and Spinell plays them with a frenzy that brings undeniable chills to ones spine. The brutal gore effects by Tom Savini alone are worth watching this movie for, although they did get the film in endless tangles with censors the world over.

The thing that really makes Maniac worth your time is a stunning mid-movie chase sequence. In this extended and disturbing scene, Spinell stalks a young nurse as she finishes her shift and attempts to take the subway home. There is an ever-present sense of dread throughout here, as the viewer has already seen Spinell in action multiple times and we know what he's planning. One can't help but claw at the seat as the young would-be victim stumbles through the grimy, dank subway tunnels and misses her train. Instinctively knowing she's not safe, she attempts to hide taking shelter in a flimsy bathroom stall, but sadly we all know it's too late.

This grimy, tense sequence captures the bleakness of '80s New York perfectly, and is so horribly engaging that it can even be forgiven for ending on a somewhat old-hat horror movie fake-out scare.