A cop is stalking the streets of New York City.
A maniac cop…
Written by Q the Winged Serpent’s Larry Cohen and directed by Maniac’s Bill Lustig, Maniac Cop is a solid eighties slasher.
It plays on assumptions about cops, their role in society and the way ordinary people act around them.
The ‘cop from hell’ reversal might have carried more of a jolt in 1988; in the age of increased visibility of police violence and over-militarisation, it feels almost quaint.
The New York City of the movie is the stuff of popular nightmares: the ‘Fear City’ popularised following its near-bankruptcy in the mid-seventies, filled with roving gangs and drug dealers.
It is the NYC of reactionary fantasy, but it is also the NYC popularised by movies.
The cast are solid:
Genre mainstay Bruce Campbell is fine as an innocent man on the run, and Tom Atkins is great as the veteran cop on the case.
The film is pretty tense, although that head of steam starts to peter out once the menace is given a shade more explanation and Cordell is revealed.
I am usually a fan of unexplained antagonists, but I left the movie a little wanting. We never get a sense of how Cordell returned - he just appears to be an immortal zombie. It might be a taste thing - I am not the biggest fan of supernatural antagonists.
Ending aside, Maniac Cop is worth checking out.
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