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Is Maniac (Khalfoun, 2012) a Horror film that only women will fear?

The narrative starts in a place that people who have ended, what should have been an “amazing night out with friends”, completely alone. For some, the experience of walking home alone at night surrounded by drunk people may not be a jarring thought. However, for many, the experience is incredibly uncomfortable and films like Maniac reenforce the horror of these situations.  Aziz Ansari hilariously pointed out the difference between the genders in this situation in his Netflix series Master of None. In an episode dedicated to pointing out Ansari’s own feminism, his character Dev walks home and so does another girl who was at the bar with him that night. The editing cuts between both of them, when the camera fixes on Dev the music is cheery and more specifically plays the tune from “don’t worry, be happy” but the female’s music is much more sinister. Dev believes his night has gone poorly as he steps in dog poo, whilst the woman’s night goes badly as she is followed home by a drunk man who would not leave her alone in the bar and is catcalled frequently. After he follows her home, the drunk man states, “let me in…let a nice guy win for once”.  As 90% of all rape victims know their rapist, it seems fair to suggest that the “nice guy” is more dangerous than the creepy person lurking in an alley (This scene can be watched here). Unlike Master of None,Maniac forces the audience to see through the disgusting eyes of the completely sober man following women home at night.

All the above shots have voyeuristic elements but the whole film is shot in POV (the last one is used through the protagonist, Frank, looking in a mirror) and only once does the film allow us to see outside of Frank’s vision. Frank only targets women in his attacks and the other men in the film are used as ways of intimidating Frank, whilst he anonymously follows women home, he stutters when he speaks to other men. Maniac is a film designed to scare women, as to men, it simply poses no threat. However, what makes Maniac a truly abhorrent film is Khalfoun appears to suggest that Frank’s poor relationship with his Mother is too blame for his behaviour. At various points the film cuts to a flashback of Frank watching his Mother have sex and the audience quickly comes to the conclusion that this plays a huge part in his psychosis. It is impossible for the audience to identify with the Mother as she does not seem maternal throughout the narrative and her character is simply there to show how her sexuality has harmed Frank. Through the flashbacks, Khalfoun creates a sense of sympathy with Frank as he shows him as a young child looking afraid, it becomes difficult for the audience to remain unsympathetic towards the character. This makes the film more uncomfortable, sympathy is encouraged with a sadistic, psychotic murderer and the female characters are hugely undeveloped to the point where at times it is difficult to have sympathy towards them.

Maniac is clearly designed to terrify a female audience. The unrelenting use of POV shots forces the audience to gaze at a victim, whilst the eyes we are looking through are clearly a man who, on the surface, appears completely ‘normal‘. Khalfoun plays with the concept of the “nice guy” but still, forces sympathy with the protagonist. Maniac is an incredibly uncomfortable watch at times, particularly when discussing the cause of Frank’s psychosis and Khalfoun clearly suggests that female sexuality is too blame. Is the director suggesting that female sexuality is the cause of attacks on women? After re watching the film, I do believe that at times the director appears to take a victim blaming approach. To a certain extent, most Horror encourages a victim blaming approach. The typical “if I was in a horror film I would never….” or “is that character stupid?! why would they do that!” response is victim blaming at it’s core. Rather than the audience feeling abhorrent towards the murderer, victim blaming seems to be an audience’s way of dealing with the texts. What makes the film so unnerving is that at times Khalfoun forces us to identify with the man who ruthlessly kills anonymous women that the audience know nothing about.

Maniac is amazing! I love Azumi, she is super cute and has a rad sense of style :)

does anyone know any dexu x bakugo fics based off maniac or wish you were sober by conan gray?