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tales from the video vault |
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Written by Larry Clow
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Wednesday, 28 March 2007 |
'Maniac Cop’
Shapiro-Glickenhaus Home Video, 1988
starring: Bruce Campbell, Tom Atkins, Laurene Landon and Robert Z’Dar
directed by: William Lustig
the plot: New York City is thrown into a panic when a man wearing a police uniform begins murdering innocent citizens. Officer Jack Forrest’s (Campbell) wife turns up dead, and Forrest is blamed for the murders. But Detective Frank McCrae (Atkins) believes differently—McCrae knows that Forrest is having an affair with Officer Theresa Mallory (Landon) and was with Mallory at the time of the killings. McCrae and Mallory team up to find the real killer, but the answers they discover are beyond belief, with all signs pointing to former cop Matt Cordell (Z’Dar) as the killer. Years before, Cordell, a no-nonsense cop known for shooting first and asking few questions, was sent to prison on a string of bogus charges. In prison, the vengeful inmates killed Cordell, or so it seemed. Horribly disfigured and possessed of an indomitable rage, Cordell escaped death and began his killing spree, at first targeting regular people, but soon shifting his focus to the cops and politicians who put him away. As Cordell rampages through the city, McCrae, Mallory and Forrest race to stop the killing. It’s not long before they learn that almost nothing can stop Cordell.
why it’s good: With a tagline like “You have the right to remain silent. Forever,” you know that “Maniac Cop” is nothing but pure trash. It’s watchable trash, though, thanks to a script by B-movie auteur Larry Cohen and capable direction by William Lustig, who formerly directed the slasher flick “Maniac” and a string of hardcore porn movies. “Maniac Cop” is chock full of Cohen’s usual brand of urban paranoia, and the first 30 minutes, when the killer is still unknown and average New Yorkers are panicking in the streets, are the best of the movie. Once the hunt begins for Cordell’s identity, the movie drags a bit, but remains interesting thanks to cast full of B-movie regulars like Tom Atkins (who starred in “Escape from New York” and “The Fog”), Richard “Shaft” Roundtree and the estimable Bruce Campbell. “Evil Dead” director Sam Raimi even makes a cameo as a cub reporter covering a St. Patrick’s Day parade. There’s plenty of ridiculous violence and gore in “Maniac Cop,” and those looking for something out of the ordinary will be disappointed by its conventionality. It’s a cut above much of the slasher fare that made it out of the 1980s, but isn’t as arresting or funny as the rest of Cohen’s previous films.
why you should own it: You can probably pass on “Maniac Cop,” unless you happen to catch it on TV late one night. Synapse Video’s DVD features commentary by Lustig, Cohen and Campbell and a featurette on the career of Robert Z’Dar.
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