MANIAC COP (1988)

MANIAC COP (1988)

Tagline: You have the right to remain silent. Forever. 

(Horror, Crime, Action)[R]

Lieutenant, I've been going over your report. Seems you automatically assume it was a police officer instead of some lunatic son-of-a-b---h dressed up like a cop.

In this one, a maniac that is a cop or is dressed up like a cop is going around killing random people in N.Y. After Officer Jack Forrest’s wife is killed, he becomes the prime suspect. He cheated on his wife, so he seems just like the kind of dude that would do that. Detective Frank McCrae is skeptical and doesn’t believe this is an open and shut case. It doesn’t take long before he is face to face with the killer, but can they even capture him, much less stop him?

First off this movie has just a ton of plot holes and references to things we never saw happen. In one scene Theresa (a cop who is sleeping around with Jack) says she shot the maniac cop in the face. Only in that scene we never see that happen. Unless it’s in some un-edited version I am not aware of. Secondly, unless the maniac cop is a zombie, he should definitely be dead. If he has Jason-like powers then I can assume that’s all well and good, but that is never mentioned or explained. We do actually get a backstory for this one which never goes into all that. Come to think of it, a lot of intro films don’t explain why the main slasher can’t be killed, so I should probably let that slide. 

No, I don’t consider the fact that I told you he can’t be killed a spoiler. If he could be killed, MANIAC COP 2 and MANIAC COP 3 would have been pointless unless they were subtitled A DIFFERENT MANIAC COP…etc. 

Irony – The maniac cop is played by Robert Z'Dar who actually was a cop with the Chicago PD at one point. He is most famous for his role in this series but had a long and successful acting career with 121 projects. 

Acting-wise any time Tom Atkins shows up, you know you are getting something pretty great out of him. He plays Detective Frank McCrae in this and his character is eerily similar to his role as Ray Cameron in NIGHT OF THE CREEPS. For me Bruce Campbell who plays Jack Forrest in this is a huge miss. I don’t like his character and really as an actor overall, I find Bruce Campbell very uneven. Some of his roles are great and in others, he’s just another jerk stuck in the spaghetti strainer of people you weren’t in the movie. Theresa, the movie's other main character is played by Laurene Landon. She has done a bunch of horror stuff but is also in AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL. 

The score and soundtrack are below average, which kind of sucks because it was the 80’s and they had 7 amazing years of music to choose from. The effects however are very effective and just seeing the maniac cops mangled face up close is enough to give anyone under 14 nightmares. Maybe even the 14-year-olds. Even though I grew up in the ’80s, this was my first time seeing this thing, and outside of the acting (Richard Roundtree who plays Commissioner Pike is also good in his short time on screen), this movie didn’t blow me away, but it isn’t terrible either. If they had taken out some of the unnecessary plot points it could have really gone a long way to improving this movie. 

For me, this is a 5 out of 7. Trying not to beat it up too much over some bad script decisions. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SHAPIRO-GLICKENHAUS ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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