Horrorfest 2017: Maniac Cop

Now we switch to some favorites of Nicholas Winding Refn, director of such great films as DRIVE and such crazy films as ONLY GOD FORGIVES. First on the list: MANIAC COP. You'd think I would have seen this 1988 exploitation flick directed by William Lustig before because it stars Bruce Campbell, the greatest actor of all time. But I just now got around to it.

The premise is simple: someone in a cop uniform is going around New York city killing innocent people. At first the cops don't believe it could be an actual cop, but one detective (Tom Atkins) buys it and follows some leads until he gets to beat cop Bruce Campbell, who has been framed.

There is one nice scene near the beginning where we're not sure if Campbell is the villain of the piece or not. I guess I ruined it for you. Then again if you think Campbell can be anything other than heroic, think again. Here he teams up with the afore mentioned detective and his officer girlfriend (Laurene Landon) to track down the real maniac.

This is a fairly low budget affair but makes the most out of its limitations. There's lots of great New York location shooting even though apparently they only shot in the city for a couple days. It's pretty convincing. This includes footage of the St. Patrick's Day parade at the climax of the flick.

For some reason I always figured this movie would be pretty awful, I guess based on the title and premise and everything. In fact I think I even read where Bruce Campbell himself said it wasn't very good. But I disagree. For most of the run time the movie keeps you guessing and is an interesting mystery. Lustig shoots from interesting angles and his camera is always energetic.