Maniacts is a feelgood movie about misunderstood serial killers. It’s not a horror movie, though it starts out like one. It’s a comedy. It’s a low-budget blood and guts flick. It’s a sensitive drama. Mostly though, it’s one of those terrific films that feels like it’s set on its own planet. Or maybe it’s the same planet that Repo Man is happening on. The world here is one big desert and it’s populated with nothing but nutcases and blown minds.
Crazy Jeff Fahey and the cute as a button Kelly Waymire are locked up in a co-ed New Mexican mental institution headed by sadistic officials who run the place like Abu Ghraib. He’s the childlike soul who got caught in his apartment living room with the rotting corpses of the corrupt lawyers and doctors whom he specialized in slaying. She has a habit of nearly killing anyone who crosses her, thanks to the super-strength adrenaline rush she gets when angered. In between shock treatments and strait-jacket confinements, they meet and fall in love like David and Lisa. Unlike David and Lisa, they bust out of the institution with a spectacular bloodbath. Kelly Waymire’s hospital bed rape prevention scene in the break-out sequence is even more gross and gory than Uma Thurman’s in Kill Bill. You’re gonna love it.
After that, they find themselves sheltered by a grandfatherly rifle-toting farmer who claims to have dreamed of their arrival. The two lovers keep him company, help out on the farm, have lots and lots of sex, and finally do something about the sleazy developers trying to buy up the old man’s land.
Not your usual B-movie. Writer/director CW Cressler tries to do something unique with this one without ever being too goofy or annoyingly “clever” about it.