Rogue Cinema - Maniac on the Loose (2008)

Maniac on the Loose (2008) - By Brian Morton
Posted on Tuesday, July 01 @ Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

When I pour through my inbox and I find a movie called Maniac on the Loose many things go through my mind. The first is that the title is cool and I hope that it's as good a movie, the second is that the title usually never lives up to the expectation and I prepare myself to be let down. Well, into the DVD player went the movie and, lo and behold, this is one of the best indie movies I've seen in a loooong time!

The story is, there's a maniac on the loose (naturally), he's escaped from the local sanitarium and the head of the hospital, Dr. Grimm, is in a bind. You see, if word gets out that a dangerous mental patient pretty much strolled out of the hospital, he's sure that his career is over. So, he does what any good doctor would do, he begins a cover-up! Now, as much as I'd love to go into some detail and tell you all about how much I enjoyed this movie, doing so would absolutely ruin it for you.

Writer/director Steve Hudgins has put together one of the most well crafted indie movies I've ever seen, there are twists within twists within twists in the story, that all make sense and each leads to a new shocking revelation! The main players in the movie are Nick Faust as Dr. Grimm, Nick plays the head of the hospital with a sense of confusion and provides a lot of the comic relief to the movie. Then there's Steve himself, who plays a character called Ski Mask, a sadistic hospital security guard, who's more and less than he appears to be. And Steve and Nick are not alone in this, it’s pretty hard to single out anyone here, as everyone in the cast is terrific! Maniac on the Loose is a very rare thing indeed, an indie film that provides all the twists and turns of a movie like The Usual Suspects, and an ending that makes me wonder if there'll be a Maniac on the Loose 2. If you'd like to get a copy of this cool movie for yourself, you can head over to the Big Biting Pig Productions web site for all the info. I'm giving Maniac on the Loose four out of four cigars, because it's a movie that I'll probably re-watch multiple times, just to see if there are any holes in the story that I might not have seen on the first viewing, but I don’t think there are. So, until next time, when I'll be keeping a close eye on everyone walking down my street to make sure there are no maniacs on the loose in my neighborhood, remember that the best movies are bad movies.