Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William Lustig
Produced by	Larry Cohen
Written by	Larry Cohen
Starring	Bruce Campbell Tom Atkins Laurene Landon Richard Roundtree Robert Z'Dar
Distributed by	Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment
Release date(s)	May 13, 1988 (1988-05-13)
Running time	85 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,100,000 (estimated)
Box office	$671,382 (USA) (sub-total)

Maniac Cop is a 1988 action/horror film directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen. The film spawned two sequels, Maniac Cop 2 (1990) and Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (1993).

Synopsis

Innocent people are being brutally murdered on the streets of New York City by a uniformed police officer. As the death toll rises, Detective Frank McCrae heads the investigation. Jack Forrest, a young cop, finds himself under arrest as the chief suspect. He and his girlfriend Theresa, along with McCrae then set out to solve the mystery before the Maniac Cop strikes again.

Cast

• Bruce Campbell as Jack Forrest
• Tom Atkins as Frank McCrae
• Laurene Landon as Theresa Mallory
• Richard Roundtree as Commissioner Pike
• William Smith as Capt. Ripley
• Robert Z'Dar as Matt Cordell (aka Maniac Cop)
• Sheree North as Sally Noland
• Ken Lerner as Mayor Killium (while not present in the USA version, a Japanese edit exists which features Lerner as the Mayor of New York City. The subplot has little interaction with the main story.)^[1]

Cameos are made by William Lustig, and Sam Raimi.

Music

Jay Chattaway's score was released on LP in 1988 by Phoenix Records.

Track listing

1. "Main Title"
2. "A Night in the Park"
3. "Flashback Montage"
4. "The Chase"
5. "Morning Train"
6. "Face Down"
7. "Sally's Drive"
8. "On the Ledge"
9. "Splash Dance"
10. "Epilogue"

Release and reception

The film was first released on DVD on April 8, 1998 by Elite Entertainment which included a commentary by director William Lustig, writer Larry Cohen, star Bruce Campbell and composer Jay Chattaway as well a trailer and deleted scenes. Later, on November 14, 2006 a "special edition" DVD was released by Synapse Films. This version includes the film restored and re-mastered with a DTS soundtrack. Synapse Films scheduled an October 2011 Blu-ray release.

The film was mostly panned by critics at the time of its release. It currently holds a 38% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics noted that the filmmakers did not do anything interesting or unexpected with its high concept plot.^[2][3]

Notes

1. ^ "Movie-Censorship.com". Maniac Cop (Comparison: Theatrical Version - Japanese TV Version). http://m.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=1038. Retrieved 08/21/11. 
2. ^ "Maniac Cop Review." Variety. 1988. 7 May 2009.
3. ^ Harrington, Richard. "'Maniac Cop' (R)." washingtonpost.com. 4 June 1988. 7 May 2009.

External links

• Maniac Cop at the Internet Movie Database
• Maniac Cop at AllRovi
• Maniac Cop at Rotten Tomatoes