Admittedly when I think horror, Elijah Wood’s name doesn’t exactly come to mind. Sure, he played a super-creepy guy-next-door murderer in Sin City, but aside from that he’s nothing but a wimpy hobbit – until being cast in Maniac.
Originally made in 1980 by William Lustig, director Franck Khalfoun has teamed up with writers Alexandre Aja and his frequent collaborator Gregory Levasseur to revamp this psychotic serial killer flick with none other than Elijah Wood as the crazed Frank Zito. But I mean, could we really buy Wood running around a city atmosphere stalking women and then hacking them up to bloody bits?
Creating quite the commotion over such strange casting, Maniac has been silencing doubters at festivals across the world while making numerous “Top Ten Horror Film” lists for 2012, far surpassing expectations for a remake attempting to out-horror an undeniable cult classic. Critics have been raving about how Khalfoun’s remake “outclasses the source material in every sense” and “goes from 0-60 in the blink of an eye” – all things I love hearing about upcoming films found in my favorite genre.
We’ve been given trailers already though, from teasers to gory red-band trailers that showcase brutality, but the most recent UK trailer does a great job summarizing the horror Elijah Wood is laying down. There’s a fantastically film-noir type feel thanks to the text and soundtrack, darkly playing up the creep factor as Elijah can be heard running through dialogue in the background. Also included are some critic’s quotes which put the overall buzz around this film in perspective pretty well, tying this minute and a half trailer together in a way that has me brimming with excitement.
With so much positive hype surrounding Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead, it looks like 2013 could be the “Year of the Remake” for horror. People definitely should be focused on Maniac first though, which is being released on March 15th in the UK. Check out the newest trailer below if you don’t believe me!
So what do you think, does Elijah Wood convince as mass-murderer Frank Zito?
