Maniac Remake

This week director Nicolas Winding Refn announced he plans to remake the 1988 horror film Maniac Cop.

The original film is considered a grindhouse classic, and starred the late Robert Z'Dar as a New York City policeman who goes on a murderous kill spree (which sounds like something that audiences might have eaten up in 1988, but wouldn't fly here in 2017).

Refn is the visionary director behind such controversial movies such as Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon. His films are always visually stunning, filled with impeccably composed shots that feature bold lighting and brilliant, oversaturated colors.

Unfortunately Refn's films contain little or nothing in the way of content. No story, no plot and definitely no soul. His work is the very definition of Style Over Substance. But hey, they look amazing and the soundtrack's usually awesome, so there's that!

Refn's films are also incredibly slow moving. Wait, did I say it was slow? I meant glacial. His movies consist of interminable static scenes in which absolutely nothing moves. Not the camera, not the actors, and definitely not the plot. I've seen drying paint that was more exciting. 

Watching The Neon Demon was literally like staring at a still photo for five minutes. I cannot emphasize this enough. In fact I streamed the movie a while back and as I watched it, a couple of times I thought there was a glitch and the picture had frozen. That's how static his films are!

In fact, I can probably come up with a pretty good simulation of Refn's upcoming version of Maniac Cop right now! Just sit there in your chair and stare at the above still of Robert Z'Dar for ninety minutes, while listening to some pulsing House Music cranked up to eleven. Voila! You just experienced one of Nicolas Winding Refn's movies!