Maniac was one of those movies that had a reputation for being extremely brutal, and thus, every kid wanted to see it. Directed by William Lustig, who also directed the "Maniac Cop" movies, it was banned in several countries which of course only added to the hype. But even without all the hype, any horror fan was instantly drawn in by the graphic cover art - a guy with a big knife carrying a bloody head. I guarantee you won't see art like that on big horror movies these days. That's one of the things that was sadly lost after the 80s. Nowadays, they always just show a group of people who star in the movie, trying to look all deep and serious. I blame Scream for this phenomenon.

Anyway, the reason Maniac makes the greatest horror movie moments list is because of special effects wizard Tom Savini. When it comes to horror movie gore, Tom Savini is pretty much the king... you really won't find much better. And in maniac, he created one of the most realistic head exploding scenes I've ever seen.

The killer, Frank Zito, finds a couple sucking face in their car. I guess he just doesn't like seeing somebody else getting all the action, so in an act of jealous rage, he hops onto the hood of the car with a shotgun and shoots the guy (played by Savini) directly in the face. There's no cutaway shots or anything like that. They just show the insanely violent head explosion scene straight on in slow-blood-gushing-motion. Absolutely brutal!

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