Maniac (2012)

Maniac is a 2012 French-American psychological slasher film directed by Franck Khalfoun and written by Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, and C.A. Rosenberg. The film was produced by the French film companies La Petite Reine and Studio 37. It is a remake of the 1980 film of the same name and stars Elijah Wood as Frank Zito, a brutal serial killer. The film also stars Nora Arnezeder, Jan Broberg, and America Olivo.

Synopsis

Frank Zito is a mentally disturbed young man who has taken over his family's mannequin sales business after the recent death of his mother, who also moonlighted as a prostitute. Frank's childhood experiences of seeing his mother bring home clients or being taken out with her to turn tricks has left Frank unable to enter into meaningful relationships with women, and his sexual impulses tend to manifest themselves as violent urges that Frank externalizes as his mother's will. Struggling to come to grips with his mother's treatment of him, and spurred by memories of his mother brushing her hair before going out at night, Frank stalks, murders, and scalps a woman one night, attaching her hair to a mannequin that he then keeps in his bedroom.

Actors