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“Look at the size of those hematomas!” Do we have to? Join your faithful Grue Crew – Bill Mulligan, Chad Hunt, Crystal Cleveland, and Jeff Mohr – as they visit the land of chins in Maniac Cop (1988).
Decades of Horror 1980s
Episode 163 – Maniac Cop (1988)
A killer dressed in a police uniform begins murdering innocent people on the streets of New York City.
IMDb
- Director: William Lustig
- Writer: Larry Cohen
- Music: Jay Chattaway
- Special effects makeup assistant: Brad Look (as Bradley Look)
- Cast
- Bruce Campbell as Officer Jack W. Forrest, Jr.
- Tom Atkins as Detective Lieutenant Frank McCrae
- Laurene Landon as Officer Theresa Mallory
- Robert Z’Dar as Officer Matthew Cordell/Maniac Cop
- Richard Roundtree as Commissioner Pike
- William Smith as Captain Ripley
- Victoria Catlin as Ellen Forrest
- Sheree North as Officer Sally Noland
- Nina Arvesen as Regina Sheperd
- William Lustig as the Motel Manager (uncredited)
- Sam Raimi as the News Reporter (uncredited)
- Jake LaMotta as the Detective (uncredited)
Your 1980s Grue-Crew bravely tackles the first film in director William Lustig’s and writer Larry Cohen’s Maniac Cop franchise despite the constant danger from being hit by swinging chins. Robert Z’Dar and Bruce Campbell are the main offenders but William Smith is no slouch in the chin category either. In fact, one of the film’s biggest assets is its cast. Bill keeps trying to figure out what makes the titular character so hard to kill while Crystal digs Laurene Landon’s performance and her 80s hairdo. Tom Atkins is the main attraction for Chad while Jeff gets lost in all the cameos.
Currently, all three films in the Maniac Cop franchise are available for streaming on Shudder and on Blu-ray: Maniac Cop from Synapse Films, and Maniac Cop 2 and Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence from Blue Underground.
Every two weeks, Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1980s podcast will cover another horror film from the 1980s. The next episode will be dedicated to Maniac (1980), the Crew’s second William Lustig film in a row.
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