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Maniac' (1934) - Coming to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber as part of their 'Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture' range
Release date: September 17
"So perverse that it continues to shock and offend viewers 90 years after its release, Dwain Esper?s Maniac is a deranged retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" in the guise of an educational film on mental illness.
This no-budget thriller by self-taught filmmakers has a wildly fragmented style. Its intrusive use of title scrolls, stock footage, and gratuitous nudity make it one of the first true underground films (with a gruesome wink at the eyeball-slicing scene of Un Chien Andalou).
Maniac is presented here in a new 4K restoration, from the original camera negative and other 35mm elements preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and is presented in cooperation with Something Weird and the Sonney Amusement Enterprises Film Collection."