22. Maniac
A pot-bellied New York landlord with a penchant for hunting down women and removing their scalps does not immediately strike you as a remake Elijah Wood would be perfect for. But he’s back, channelling the dark side from Sin City, as Wood stars in the upcoming remake of William Lustig’s 1980 misogyny slasher, Maniac.
Wood plays billy-no-mates serial killer Frank Zito under the direction of Franck Khalfoun (P2) from a script written by remake maestro Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur and C.A. Rosenburg. In this latest take, the action is relocated to a grimy Los Angeles, where Woods befriends a young artist but struggles to quell his desires. You know, the ones where you want to chop off someone’s scalp.
The film completed shooting in December 2011, debuted at Cannes early in 2012 and a bloody new international trailer has landed. Since then it has hit the festival circuit to enthusiastic reviews praising Wood’s return to nutter territory and a storytelling technique in which the film is shot from the killer’s POV.
That technique was first used back in 1960 in Peeping Tom, which emptied the bowels of many amidst an uproar of controversy and has not been employed successfully since the original Halloween. It’ll be worthwhile to see Maniac just for that restricted narration plot device.
Maniac was released in France on December 26th but has no domestic release date yet.
21. Insidious Chapter 2
The little horror film that could, Insidious, was one of the most successful movies of 2011, bringing in a worldwide gross of $97 million – astonishing compared to its $1.5 million budget. James Wan’s original film united a cast from outside the genre to stunning effect. Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne shrugged off the shackles of their usual dramatic casting and brought heart and depth to the haunted house creepfest.
Unsurprisingly, a sequel was announced.
What’s surprising is how long it took for that announcement. As often is the case with box office hits, the studio will greenlight a sequel after the opening weekend figures are in. The intriguingly titled Insidious Chapter 2 was lit 20 months after it opened. This leads us to believe that Wan’s been working on the follow-up with consideration and care, instead of dashing off a script hastily in order to cash in.
The first film frightened audiences by removing all known horror scare tactics and replacing them with a simpler, bare-boned terror. Wan and writing comrade, Leigh Whannell know one thing for certain: you don’t need blood and guts to truly haunt. No, just some deft editing which made this writer shriek like a little girl.
As the original’s cast are all set to return, the continuation of this story will hopefully generate new chills. With a release date penned in for August 30th, 2013 we’ll keep you posted on any new developments.
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