Entertainment

Excessive gore shocks in ‘Maniac’

Frodo go loco! Elijah Wood plays the title role in “Maniac,” a pervy LA photographer with mommy issues who likes to follow random women around or arrange to meet them online, then bring them home afterward. Not all of them, though: Just the scalp. Then he enjoys stapling the scalps to mannequins that he displays in a shop.

Special effects have advanced a bit since the notorious 1980 original that heralded a new standard of gore, so even hardened veterans of the slasher genre may have difficulty laughing off the rather unbelievably gruesome straight razor-meets-hairline scenes. Normal people will be scrambling for the nearest barf bag.

The movie, told from the killer’s point of view, is genuinely unsettling and propelled by a terrific, buzzing synth soundtrack straight out of the early ’80s. But the only suspense is in which woman will be the next victim. We’re talking about a 90-minute killing spree interrupted only by awkward dates and leering at nekkid ladies.

Perhaps the film’s chief opportunity for success will be to attain outlaw status by arousing the ire of feminists, whom I suspect will eagerly play along. Even non-feminists, however, will find it hard to disagree that the film is exactly what it intends to be: the purest exploitational trash.