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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: November 25th, 2022.
Director: Adam Rifkin as Rif Coogan
Cast: Noel Peters, Shannon Wilsey, Stephanie Blake, Melissa Moore, Clement von Franckenstein, Rod Sweitzer, Debra Lamb, Marilyn Adams, Savannah
Year: 1990
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The Invisible Maniac – Movie Review:
Directed by Adam Rifkin, credited as Rif Coogan, 1990’s The Invisible Maniac, opens with a scene where a psychiatrist speaks to an older woman (Marilyn Adams) about the damaged psyche of her son, Kevin Dornwinkle (Kris Russell). When this woman, Kevin’s mother, heads up stairs to check and see if he’s doing his homework, she catches him spying on a woman (Tracy Walker) across the way as she undresses, using his telescope. He’s punished for this and told by his mother that all women are bad.
Twenty years later and Kevin (Noel Peters) is now a scientist presenting his latest findings to a panel of other scientists. He touts his latest formula, able to turn a person invisible, as a modern medical miracle but when he injects it into himself to demonstrate, it doesn’t work and he’s literally laughed at. Kevin flips out and attacks his peers and is promptly sent to a mental hospital. But we don’t spend much time there, as moments later, Kevin escapes and somehow manages to find himself a job as a physics teacher at a high school under the watchful eye of the horny MILF principal, Ms. Cello Stephanie Blake (as Stella Blalack).
Kevin’s summer school class is comprised of a bunch of hot chicks like Vicky (adult film star Savannah, credited as Shannon Wilsey), Bunny (instantly recognizable as Melissa Moore from Samurai Cop), Joan (Kalei Shallabarger), April (Gail Lyon) and Betty (Debra Lamb) as well some dumb guys like Chet (Robert R. Ross Jr.), Gordon (Rod Sweizter of Psycho Cop Returns) and Bubba (Eric Champnella). While Kevin enjoys peeking in on the girls as the shower - which they do a lot in this movie - so too does the mute janitor, Henry (Jason Logan). At any rate, when he isn’t teaching or peeping, Kevin continues his experiments and, after trying out the latest version of his formula on a bunny rabbit, finally gets it to work. Unfortunately, Kevin’s damaged psyche is even more screwed up as an adult than it was as a kid, and when the students in his class start disrespecting him, he decides to turn invisible and get revenge.
Quickly paced and chock full of completely unnecessary and gratuitous, though admittedly quite welcome, nudity as well as a couple of moderately intense gore scenes in its final act, The Invisible Maniac, directed by the same man who gave us Psycho Cop Returns, The Dark Backward and Detroit Rock City, is exactly what it sounds like. Made on a modest budget with exploitation in mind, the entire thing is completely predictable and devoid of any actual suspense. That said, it knows not to take itself too seriously, injecting plenty of dark humor into its narrative and throwing in plenty of nudity from its attractive female cast to keep us distracted from what are some obvious and plentiful shortcomings in the script.
For the most part, it works pretty well at all of this. There’s no depth here, no character development, but there’s enough wonkiness inherent in the different set pieces to keep things amusing. While the various lovely ladies are a definite asset to the movie, the real star of the show is Noel Peters in the lead. He plays this role dialed up to eleven, cackling like a lunatic throughout the movie and really throwing himself physically into the part. He’s got a fairly expressive and rubbery face, looking a bit like Johnny Knoxville crossed with William Sadler, and he’s perfect for the part. It makes you wonder why someone so clearly talented when it comes to chewing the scenery didn’t go on to make more movies (his only other credit is a 1997 made for TV version of Cinderella but his part must have been pretty small as the IMDB doesn’t even list a character name for him).
Bonus points for including an awesome theme song in the form of ‘He’s Invisible’!
The Invisible Maniac – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
The Invisible Maniac arrives on UHD from Vinegar Syndrome in an HVEC encoded 2160p transfer taken from a new 4k scan of the original 35mm negative and framed at 1.85.1 widescreen with HDR10 enhancement. Picture quality here is very strong. The elements used were clearly in fantastic shape as there isn’t any noticeable print damage here at all. Colors look fantastic, really popping throughout, and skin tones – which are on display a lot in this movie – always look lifelike and natural, never too pink or too red. Black levels are nice and deep and there aren’t any issues with noticeable crush or compression issues. Detail is very strong, not just in close up shots but medium and long distance ones as well (one drawback of this is that the higher resolution makes it easier to see the fishing line used in certain scenes to create the illusion of Dornwinkle moving things when invisible). There’s plenty of depth and texture to appreciate here as well, and no evidence of any noise reduction or edge enhancement, resulting in a very nice and very film-like presentation.
A 24-bit English language DTS-HD track is provided in the original 2.0 Mono with optional subtitles provided in English only. Audio quality is solid. There aren’t any issues with any hiss or distortion here and the dialogue is always easy to follow. The track is clean and properly balanced and the score and occasional song used in the mix always sounds good.
Extras on the UHD include a new commentary track Commentary track with writer/director Adam Rifkin, moderated by filmmaker Elijah Drenner that covers plenty of ground, covering the director’s career starting from his early days and worth with John Landis up to more recent efforts. He talks quite a bit about how he came to want Noel Peters in the lead and what the actor was able to bring to the project, as well as how the different actresses that worked on the picture wound up in the movie. Lots of stories here about what it was like on set, marketing the film, financing the movie, locations that were used on the shoot, who did what behind the scenes and lots more. This is really interesting stuff, basically a crash course in the history of the movie and what went into getting it made.
The disc also includes a commentary track with The Hysteria Continues!, which covers the film’s slasher movie elements but also the sexploitation angles that are worked into the movie, details on some of the performers’ other credits, thoughts on what works and what doesn’t in the movie and more. If you’ve enjoyed this group’s commentary tracks in this past you’ll enjoy this one as well, as it’s another typically entertaining talk that can be quite humorous without ever poking too much fun at the movie.
As to what’s on the included Blu-ray, alongside the feature and the same two commentary tracks, we get Fast, Cheap And Out Of Sight, a new thirty-two minute featurette that covers the making of the movie by way of interviews with Rifkin alongside executive producer Cassian Elwes, composer Marc David Decker, actress Stephanie Blake, actress Debra Lamb, actor Rod Sweitzer and crew member Dan Povenmire. It’s a pretty thorough look at all aspects of the making of the movie, from casting to effects to locations to its VHS release as well as having to extend the length of the movie for a foreign release.
Finishing up the extras is a single thirteen minute deleted scene called Dream Sequence (which included on that aforementioned foreign release of the movie), twelve minutes of Rif Coggan appearing on a public access show called Request Video, a four minute music video for the theme song that plays in the later part of the movie, ten minutes of behind the scenes footage from the making of that video and, last but not least, a two minutes original video trailer for the movie.
Vinegar Syndrome has also done a great job with the packaging on this release, putting the two discs inside a black keepcase with reversible cover sleeve art that fits nicely inside a spot varnish enhanced, embossed slip cover designed by Robert Sammelin that is limited to 6,000 copies and available only from their website and select independent retailers.
The Invisible Maniac - The Final Word:
The Invisible Maniac is every bit as trashy and dumb as it sounds, but it’s an entertaining enough schlockfest made all the better by Noel Peters insane performance and a bunch of naked ladies. Vinegar Syndrome’s UHD/Blu-ray combo is a good one, presenting the film in an immaculate presentation and with a nice array of supplements covering the film’s quirky history.