Cinematic Swag: MANIAC poster designed by “That’s the Way it Goes” is enough to make your head explode
William Lustig's MANIAC is a horror and exploitation classic in every sense of the word. The film follows Frank (Joe Spinell), a psychotic killer hellbent on taking his mommy issues out on beautiful women. Mentally damaged by an abusive childhood, he scalps his victims, bringing the hair home to adorn mannequins in an act of childlike reconciliation with the lack of approval from his own mother. The film is violent and vile, yet has endearing qualities that are almost impossible to define. Spinell puts in a performance worthy of major recognition. A passion project of his (he has story and screenplay credits), he and director Lustig crafted a serial-killer story told entirely through the point of view of the murderer. It works brilliantly making it a masterpiece of horror filmmaking.
Until recently, the only uncut versions of the film existed on home video. However, thanks to Grindhouse Releasing, a new, completely uncut 35mm print of the film is on tour with Lustig himself making appearances for audience Q&A sessions. The print will be showing for 3 weekends (Feb. 18th & 19th, Feb. 25th & 26th and March 4th and 5th) at the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston, MA. as part of their Coolridge After Midnite series. Lustig will be in attendance for this weekend's (Feb 18th & 19th) screenings. For the event, Derek Gabryszak of That's the Way it Goes has produced a stunning new poster. See the full poster after the break!
The thing that immediately strikes me about this poster is the juxtaposition of the menacing title MANIAC and the odd innocence displayed by Spinell's Frank character. In short, Derek really understand MANIAC and that shows in this artwork. The uneasy feeling elicited by this image is a perfect companion to the film itself. Plus, it's capped off by a freakishly cute panda bear. It gives me chills!
The poster is 24" x 36", 2 color and hand pulled. The edition is 125 strong and will be on sale at the screenings this weekend at the Coolridge. Any leftovers will go on sale on Monday, February 21st on Derek's website, http://thatsthewayitgoes.com. Derek will be designing more posters in the future for the Coolridge so keep an eye on his website because if the upcoming posters are half as good as this one, your bare walls will soon be covered in unadulterated awesomeness.
Commenting Rules: Comments are intended to open up the discussion to our readers about the topics at hand, and as such should be offered with a positive and constructive attitude. If your comment is not relative to the above post or is disrespectful to the authors and readers, we reserve the right to delete it. Continued abuse of our good nature will result in banishment of the offender. Additionally, if you have any burning issues to point out to the GATW crew - typos, corrections, suggestions, or straight-up criticism - please email us instead of commenting here.