The Sequel to This Infamously Gruesome ’80s Horror Slasher Got Canceled for a Tragic Reason

William Lustig‘s Maniac remains to this day one of the more infamous titles in the annals of 1980s slasher cinema. A grimy, low-budget affair about a disturbed man who kills women and takes their scalps to keep on the eerie mannequins that clutter his apartment, it wasn’t a major studio release, but it still attracted its fair share of attention. Joe Spinell was a character actor who’d worked on some pretty big titles like Taxi Driver and Rocky, and he arguably found his big break as the titular maniac, Frank Zito. Although ’80s slashers would become known for receiving terrible, rushed sequels, Maniac was a standalone product that told its story and got the hell out, albeit with a cliffhanger ending that could have been exploited later on had there been any call for it.

Well, there was, in a sense. According to Lustig, Spinell was eager to make a follow-up movie, particularly because he’d been upset by the responses of women’s groups to Maniac. It was hard to look at that picture and not see that its antagonist harbored deeply misogynistic tendencies, but the idea that Spinell himself, and others who made the movie, were facing accusations of the same attitudes was deeply upsetting to him. He considered himself a lover of all people and just an actor. The movie didn’t reflect who he was as a person. It was with this in mind that he set about making something of a spiritual successor to Maniac – one that would reframe him as a fighter for justice, even if only in the context of a fictional world.

‘Maniac’ Was Supposed to Have a Sequel

Image via Analysis Film Releasing Corporation

With Lustig’s blessing, Joe Spinell got to work on a sequel and decided that an obscure 1973 horror named The Psychopath would serve as his framework. The story revolves around a children’s entertainer who is so disturbed by the stories of child abuse he hears from his young audience that he becomes a vigilante of sorts, and doles out justice in violent ways. With the help of newcomer director Buddy Giovinazzo, a seven-minute promo was made titled Mr. Robbie, which was intended to help secure funding to make a feature-length movie. It was a very low-budget affair with mostly non-actors working opposite Spinell, but it already feels like an extension of Maniac. It captures that dark, grainy, grimy ’80s New York atmosphere well, and delivers on the explicit violence that marked the horror of the era. At the center of it all is Spinell as Mr. Robbie, who is being consumed by his own little world of obsession and hopelessness.

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It sees Mr. Robbie as your classic sad clown, milling around his crappy apartment while the words of his young viewers ring in his head, divulging stories of parents who beat them and treat them poorly, and begging their favorite TV entertainer for help “before they kill us.” He then goes to a local bar where he sits around in a drunken stupor, paying little attention to the work associates talking to him. When the cook is shutting up shop for the night and tells Robbie that his kid is a fan, but that he watches too much TV and has to be punished for it, Robbie sees his opportunity to exact revenge and treats the cook to a facial steamer courtesy of the industrial kitchen. It’s similar to Sleepaway Camp in its execution, and with a budget behind it, could have delivered the same level of fun practical effects. It may be cheap and unpolished, but this short film gives a very promising look at what was shaping up to be an interesting new direction for Maniac.

‘Mr. Robbie’ Never Got Finished

According to Giovinazzo, they struggled to find investment in the movie despite the promo film. Efforts would go back and forth for a while, and Spinell was intent on getting the movie made. However, it would not happen soon enough, and Spinell sadly died in an accident in 1989, leaving Mr. Robbie as a concept piece that would never be seen through to completion. Giovinazzo was disappointed to have never managed to get the project off the ground, but maintains that it was a fundamentally important step in his career that taught him a lot about film sets, dealing with actors, and the business side of filmmaking. He is also quick to pay tribute to Joe Spinell and his generosity as an actor, both to fans and to other filmmakers. He may have garnered a reputation as the creepy serial killer from Maniac, but the real Spinell was a passionate, thoughtful, and thoroughly dedicated artist, and had he lived, he could well have been the vessel through which a number of new, interesting horror antagonists were born.