Abertoir
The International Horror Festival of Wales

Our theme this year is New York’s 42nd Street, and nothing is more symbolic of the city that never sleeps than this infamous exploitation masterpiece from 1980.  Remade with Elijah Wood in 2012, this is Bill Lustig’s original film: a grimy, dirty and violent look at a psychopath (Joe Spinell) who stalks the streets of New York.

Lustig, a long-term attendee of the 42nd Street grindhouses, perfectly captured the danger, the seediness and the atmosphere of depravity of the New York that he knew. Not for the faint-hearted, Maniac is the ultimate exploitation classic that will stick in your head for days.