#42 Maniac Cop

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Plot:

Innocent people are being brutally murdered on the streets of New York by a uniformed police officer. As the death toll rises and City Hall attempts a cover-up, Frank McCrae heads the investigation. A young cop, Jack Forrest, finds himself under arrest as the chief suspect, having been the victim of a set-up by the real killer and a mysterious woman phone-caller. Forrest, his girlfriend Theresa, and McCrae set out to solve the puzzle before the Maniac Cop can strike again.

A User Review:

This film has such incredible potential, but just throws every opportunity away to be great. The opening credits are way too slow, the film doesn't really try very hard to keep your attention, and the moments that could have been suspenseful seem to fall right into place as one might expect (especially a scene where a man is caught cheating on his wife).

The story revolves around a cop who goes around killing innocent civilians, and Bruce Campbell becomes the prime suspect in the murders.

With Bruce Campbell as a main character (though not the character with most screen time), one would expect a good time. He has consistently delivered to his fans, in "Evil Dead", "Brisco County" and "Jack of All Trades", to name a few. But in this he does not have the humor or charm he usually does, and I have to blame the director for this, because it is so completely out of the norm for Campbell that I can only suspect he was asked not to be himself.

Likewise, Sam Raimi appears briefly. By appearing, along with Campbell, this film likely got more attention from fan than it would have otherwise. And that's too bad, because this is a blotch on the record of Raimi.

Many of the killings could have been incredibly gory, but were done in such a way as to be clean and many times were not shown at all. A remake of this would be sure to really get the blood and gore in key moments.

All in all, a great idea for a film (with all the "corrupt cop" movies, why not a monster cop?) but horrible execution that seems to drag and not let the best aspects (death scenes and Campbell) shine.

Trivia:

Jill Gatsby is writer Larry Cohen's daughter and is killed in every one of his movies that she's in.

Poster:



Trailer: