Luther The Geek is an odd experience to say the least. The film is very low budget, with some huge plot holes, and bad special effects, yet it’s still fun to watch, and keeps your attention though the short running length. It’s one of those movies that I shouldn’t like, but yet I find myself quite drawn towards it, like a fly to a bug zapper.

The film starts with a mob of people, complete with torches, break into a barn to see a caged up geek bite the head off of a chicken. During this, a small child is pushed down, and loses his teeth. Jump to years later, and we’re in a meeting to see if Luther can be released from prison, after killing three people twenty years ago. He’s now a model prisoner, albeit one that bites people with metal teeth, and clucks like a chicken all the time, but hey, who am I to say what’s model or not. Upon leaving prison, Luther kills an old lady at a supermarket, and then follows a woman home to her farm house, where we spend the rest of the movie with him stalking and killing members of the family.

While the film is clearly shot cheap, and the effects match this, it still comes out looking alright. It’s very dark, in the same way many of my favorite 80s and 90s horror movies looked. One question I do have though, is why this was on the Essential Gore Films list, as there is little gore in it, and it’s not done overly well. Luther, during the course of the movie, only kills a small handful of people, and none of the ways are overly gory, it’s mostly just bites to the neck, that even low budget zombies movies have done better since.

Edward Terry in the role of Luther is interesting, as his only dialog is to cluck like a chicken, it’s nice to see he was still able to make the character seem menacing. This is director Carlton J. Albright’s only movie in the directors chair, he also helped write this, and The Children, which is the only other credit he and Edward Terry have on their IMDB. I don’t know what happened to them, but it would of been nice to see a couple more of these low budget films come out of the duo.

Luther The Geek is a weird film to say the least, but it’s a weird film that holds your attention, and thankfully doesn’t run to long. I know people say, always leave them wanting more, but there’s something to be said about an experience that ends just when your finally getting tired of it. Does it belong on a gore film list? Well no, but if it wasn’t on the list, I don’t think I’d ever of heard of it other wise.
Score – B-
Gore – 3/10
Quality Of Gore – 1/10

Maniac started out with a budget of $48,000 in cash, which was put into a stock market account, which brought it up to $135,000, which was enough to get British producer Judd Hamilton to put in almost $200,000.  This budget,  while quite low, in no way reflects the level of gore used in this film. Tom Savini came in to do the special effects, and blows everything away, quite litterly in the shotgun scene, in which a dummy of Savini get’s a point blank shotgun blast to the face. The dummy, afterwards, was locked in the truck of the car, and dumped in the water, I wonder if that got cops wondering?

Maniac is the story of Frank Zito, a schizophrenic man who enjoys scalping young girls, and nailing them to mannequins in his apartment. While there is a love story tacked into the mix, the film is best known for being a non-stop barrage of violence and gore. After killing Frank is seen talking to himself, regretful of the things he’s done, and these scenes are some of the creepiest moments in the film, due largely to the great performance by Joe Spinell, who had previously worked with greats, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese, on The Godfather, and Taxi Driver. The scenes of Zito in his apartment filled with mannequins and dolls are terribly creepy in the claustrophobic atmosphere they present, with each shot being filled with dolls.

Maniac was directed by William Lustig, who’s known for the classic Maniac Cop series, and is lesser known for getting his start directing pornos. To save money on Maniac a lot of the woman who were just in it for a body count were played by contacts he made in the adult film business. After seeing Maniac and Maniac Cop, William Lustig was Quentin Tarantino’s first choice to direct True Lies, but it never happened. It’s clear in watching that Maniac was inspired a lot by Argento, in the use of colors, and music both. The music in Maniac plays about as perfectly as any horror film I could ever see, mixing into the soundtrack a heartbeating slowly as the life is slowly being choked out of it.

And slowly indeed! The strangulation scene I’m talking about is one of the longest I’ve ever seen, clocking in at an impressive 1:25, the entire time cutting between the dying prostitute, and the terrifying look on Zito’s face. Mere moments after we have Frank scalping the woman, with some of the best sound effects I’ve heard for making your gut turn. The dream sequence at the end of the film may be the goriest scene ever shot, with the mannequins coming to live in order to exact revenge on Zito. The headless one is the body of Ms. Voorhees from the original Friday The 13th.

Maniac is one of the films I wish was mentioned more often. It is the pinnacle of the body count slasher movie, with the gore to keep you interest in the kills, and a performance that is worlds above what most slasher films were offering.

Score – A
Gore – 10/10
Quality of gore – 10/10