Maniac is one of those slashers that people either love or hate. It’s as polarizing as it is under seen. The entire point of the story is to follow a serial killer around as he does his thing in NYC. He finds a girl, kills her, and takes her scalp as a trophy. That’s the gist of the film.

Now, the remake starring Elijah Wood as the murderer is debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. This particular festival is very genre-friendly. Shoot, Lloyd Kaufman made a documentary about Troma participating in the festival about ten years ago. There’s the actual competitive festivals and then a variety of alternate programming happening at the same time. The strangest part is how often horror, sci-fi, and fantasy not only makes it into the actual competition but wins acting awards.

But I digress. The Maniac remake is one of the non-competitive Midnight Screenings. Will we get a chance to see Elijah Wood expand on his work as a psychopath in Sin City on the big screen? We’ll know soon enough if Maniac gets a theatrical release.

Here’s the first teaser trailer. It’s exactly what you would expect: NSFW. Shock Till You Drop by way of First Showing

 

Thoughts? I’m one of the Maniac fans and think the new first person angle could improve the story. What do you think?