20 Exploitation Films You Must See Before You Die

A $7,000 cinematic train wreck that attempts to pass itself off as a serious study of mental illness, Maniac is the story of bonkers boffin Dr Meirschultz (Horace Carpenter) and his assistant Maxwell (Bill Woods), a down and out vaudeville performer wanted by police.

Looking and acting like Nicolas Cage in glasses and a fake beard, Meirschultz demands Maxwell use his stage skills to procure a corpse into which he can place that surgically removed heart he’s kept beating in a Mason jar. Alas, going through with this proves too much for the poor lad, who snaps, kills his boss and assumes his identity.

Whatever you do, don’t miss the scene where Maxwell is asked to treat a patient who is “having the most frightful hallucinations….why, he thinks he’s the orang-utan in Poe’s Murders In The Rue Morgue!” Mistakenly administering “super adrenaline”, Maxwell inadvertently transforms the poor fellow into a howling lunatic who runs amok and attacks the first woman he lays eyes on.