[Locke]

It's quite possible that Maniac is not only the best horror film of the year, but possibly one of the best horror films of the decade. Why is Maniac so good? Largely because it never takes the easy option, even though it has constant opportunities to do so.

Modern horror is driven by novelty, novelty has surpassed the importance of all other aspects of modern horror cinema, so when Maniac promised a slasher from the point of view of the killer, that would have been enough.

Sure it wouldn't have gone down as a classic, but the novelty would have appealed to the teeny boppers until the next fad came along. But that wasn't enough for Franck Khalfoun. We don't just wear Frank's shoes during the hour and a half of the run time, we become him. For an hour and a half, we're in his world, we are killers. And that is what makes this film so bonechilling.

Perhaps most scary of all, is the world Frank lives in is gorgeous. Frank appreciates true beauty, and sees art everywhere he goes and in all he does. To reflect this, this film bleeds style, but style that never feels like it's in place of substance. It's just that no shot is conventional, Khalfoun truly understands his medium and tries to use it to its maximum potential.

And most important of all? The effects are fantastic. Frank's scalping may feel a little simplistic when compared to the theatrical carnage of modern horror cinema but the effects are so convincing, the scalpings are terrifying all the same.

It's ultimately an incredible experience, watching a film that can be artistic, beautiful, sexy and grotesque all in the space of a single scene, often switching on a heartbeat, it shows masterful film making that it all works. And as Frank spirals more and more into pure madness, the surrealist beauty of the twisted piece only grows. Gorgeous.