This is a very gory and bloody film and unless you don't mind watching these types of films you won't like it.

I've not seen the original so I can't compare the two. Elijah Wood is an actor I like and he is excellent in this as the serial killing maniac. I found it hard to get into the film but this is one film that gradually improves as it goes along rather than fades away.

Along with the bloody horror there are a number of really tense scenes. It is the most unsettling film I've seen in a while. Maniac is well filmed and uses some very interesting filming techniques. I can't say I enjoyed watching it too much was a bit too sadistic for my taste. However for it's type this is a very good effort.

Updated for the internet dating era and given a first person point-of-view treatment that forces us to view everything from the title character's perspective a la 'Enter the Void', this contemporary take on William Lustig's 'Maniac' is more innovative than your average genre remake. While Elijah Wood's face is often obscured due to the way the film is shot, the film also benefits greatly from his casting as, with big blue eyes and milquetoast mannerisms, he seems like anything but your average serial killer. There is also more attempt to explore his damaged childhood and his desire for a girlfriend. This time round, his love interest mistakes him for a gay platonic friend due to his obsession with "dolls" (mannequins) and reluctance to hit on her. The mannequins also figure better into the plot here with Wood actually owning a mannequin store. The film does, however, disappointingly ditch Joe Spinell's curious obsession with photographs as a form of preservation from the first film, which in turn renders his dressing up of the mannequins a tad random. The violence, while quite graphic, also does not have the same shock value this time round, and while the film maintains the original's semi-supernatural ending, the effect is not quite the same knowing that it is coming. Overall though, the 2012 'Maniac' offers some substantial improvements on the original, the point-of-view cinematography is frequently breathtaking and the incorporation of 'Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' footage is excellent. The music is at least as atmospheric, if not more so, and Wood is really quite creepy.

The original film is very disturbing, creepy, and was the stuff of nightmares, this remake is the latter, but for different reasons. I hated the direction of it, they literally copied the early eighties style, the storytelling was distracting, slow and totally disengaging for the viewer.

They literally just sent for sick and shock factor, that's all this movie is, a stomach churning series of events, designed to distract you from how bad the movie actually is.

Lacking in both style and substance, Elijah Wood did as well with the script as he possibly could, but it's impossible for him, in what is essentially a trashy gore fest. 3/10