Back to trending
Maniac

Maniac

Crime · Mystery · Horror · 1963

When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.

Movie details

Maniac

“Stalks his wife... his daughter... their lover!”

1963 Crime · Mystery · Horror 1h 26m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Maniac?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

The Lady Vanishes

The Lady Vanishes

Thriller · 2013

Young socialite Iris Carr befriends an older woman while traveling solo by train. When Iris wakes from a nap, the woman is gone and other passengers claim she never existed.

The Night Stalker

The Night Stalker

Mystery · 1972

Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.

Black Angel

Black Angel

Mystery · 1946

A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.

Lady in the Lake

Lady in the Lake

Mystery · 1946

Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.

The Mirror Crack'd

The Mirror Crack'd

Mystery · 1980

Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.

The Glass Key

The Glass Key

Crime · 1942

A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.

The Blue Gardenia

The Blue Gardenia

Crime · 1953

Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.

The Verdict

The Verdict

Mystery · 1946

After an innocent man is executed in a case he was responsible for, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.

The Apology

The Apology

Thriller · 2022

Twenty years after the disappearance of her daughter, a recovering alcoholic is preparing to host her family's Christmas celebration when her estranged ex-brother-in-law arrives unannounced, bearing nostalgic gifts and a heavy secret.

Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom

Horror · 1960

Loner Mark Lewis works at a film studio during the day and, at night, takes racy photographs of women. Also he's making a documentary on fear, which involves recording the reactions of victims as he murders them. He befriends Helen, the daughter of the family living in the apartment below his, and he tells her vaguely about the movie he is making.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Michael Carreras

Written by

Jimmy Sangster

Kerwin Mathews

Kerwin Mathews

Paul Farrell

Nadia Gray

Nadia Gray

Eve Beynat

Donald Houston

Donald Houston

Georges

Liliane Brousse

Liliane Brousse

Annette Beynat

George Pastell

George Pastell

Inspector Etienne

Arnold Diamond

Arnold Diamond

Janiello

Norman Bird

Norman Bird

Salon

Court is in session

Put Maniac on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Cool Ironist

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.