Maniac Is Beautiful, Stylish, Different... And Genuinely Feels Like A Remake Of The 1980s Original

Maniac (2012)

Before we begin with the review, I absolutely have to share this awesome song from the soundtrack. It's another Drive-esque synthy song and I absolutely love it.

(video link)

When I first saw the original 1980s movie "Maniac" I decided that it could not possibly be remade because to do so the original movie would need to have some kind of unique plot that set it apart. That's not to say that the original had nothing to set it apart at all. It was essentially a showcase of Tom Savini's gore effects and that makes it special in its own way. However, a remake clearly would not be a showcase of Tom Savini's gore effects (or at least, if it was, Tom Savini had better have some pretty amazing new tricks up his sleeve to make it worthwhile).



Incredibly the remake has somehow managed to make some distinctive story points which fit the original and part of how it managed to achieve this is by making the story clearer and stronger. In the original movie the insane murderous protagonist possessed a whole load of shopfront mannequins without any real explanation. This time around it turns out that he makes his money by restoring classic mannequins and selling them to collectors. His hideout is actually at the back of a store devoted to this craft.

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Time For A Bit Of Classic Who!

There's been this thing recently where newcomers to Doctor Who are getting upset whenever the actor playing the Doctor changes and instantly complaining about the new replacement. They are also realising that the one they like the best often has some connection with when they began to watch the show. "That was MY Doctor" they say.

I can get behind this theory pretty easily because personally MY Doctor has always been Sylvester McCoy. A lot of old school Whovians thought he was a bad choice, but for me he defined what Doctor Who is supposed to be. This Doctor had a mixture of silliness and darkness to him. He has an odd way of speaking which I did not realise at the time was a result of him covering up his remote Scottish accent. As a result he has a tendency to roll his rs which is actually something I've always loved about his performance.



The first Doctor Who story I ever saw was "Remembrance of the Daleks", but I hadn't realised at the time quite how important it was that I came to Doctor Who at that precise time. My first ever Doctor Who storyline was also a number of other firsts:
- The first (and actually the only) Doctor Who story where Sylvester McCoy confronts the Daleks.
- The first Doctor Who story to actually SHOW how Daleks get up stairs.
- The first Doctor Who story to feature Ace as the fully fledged new companion.



I thought Ace was great straight away. Sure, she was a tomboy essentially. She wears a black bomber jacket, she makes explosives and she can handle a baseball bat pretty well. She's a companion who is prepared to face right up to a Dalek shouting "Who are you calling small?" She actually has a love interest in "Remembrance of the Daleks" but I wasn't concerned with that and was happy when it didn't work out. After all, at just five years old I wasn't interested in lovey-dovey stuff.

I had a brief stint working my way through re-watching some of the series I saw as a child. I've also checked out a few other Cybermen-related classic Who storylines.


Doctor Who - Dragonfire

Okay, sorry, what? This cannot be Doctor Who. It is so ridiculous obvious that it is a television studio and a very brightly lit one at that. Doctor Who is being offered a treasure map (seriously?) and his companion is loudly and enthusiastically hamming it up like a cheery enthusiastic primary school drama teacher.



The introduction of Ace here is just weird. This is the first story where she turns up, but she doesn't become the companion until the very end. She's only just met the Doctor, but she gets started right away calling the Doctor "Professor"; a trend that would get existing Whovians extremely annoyed.

( To read more about "Dragonfire" click here... )

Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks

Naturally I have already seen "Remembrance of the Daleks" a million times and I think its an absolutely wonderful Dalek story, so I decided to skip that one here. However, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. "Remembrance of the Daleks" is pretty definitely my favourite Doctor Who story of all time.

However, I decided to try out a classic Dalek story to see how well it stands up by comparison to Remembrance of the Daleks. I checked out "Genesis of the Daleks", the first story to ever feature the creator of the Daleks: Davros.



( To read more about "Genesis Of The Daleks" click here... )

Doctor Who - The Happiness Patrol

This is definitely a step down in quality from the "Remembrance of the Daleks" storyline, but it's nothing like as slow and boring as "Dragonfire" and Ace is still awesome. On a planet in the future, the government has a strict rule that everyone must always be happy. Anything negative or sad is banned and punishable by death.

I'd heard that this was supposed to be a critique of Thatcherism, but Thatcher would certainly have no trouble letting experience sadness. It's not until towards the end of the final episode that we finally have a confrontation with the Doctor which gives us some idea how Thatcher might have any relation to the dictator on this planet at all. I mean sure, we see protests by workers, but that's hardly unique to Thatcher.



( To read more about "The Happiness Patrol" click here... )

Doctor Who - The Greatest Show In The Galaxy

This storyline is creepy as hell. The story takes a long while to actually get going, but what we DO get is a clear sense that something is seriously wrong with the Psychic Circus which Ace and the Doctor are visiting. This is Doctor Who with evil clowns and our first view of the main evil clown is when we see a black hearse driving along and see him revealed within when he winds down the driver-side electric window. Meanwhile we see other workers from the circus making a run for it but, apparently, being tracked by kites with a giant eye painted on them.

Creeeeeepy!



( To read more about "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy" click here... )