Themes of sexuality and sexual difference are central to the exploration of the madman, his mannequins, and his mother in both versions of Maniac, with the prominent mannequin props in both rendering these fears both uncanny and accessible. From character actor Joe Spinell and the guerrilla filmmaking of the original to Lord of the Rings star-turned-indie producer Elijah Wood and the first-person POV of the remake, these films put viewers in the mind of a maniac while offering unassumingly sensitive investigations of trauma, gender trouble, and the desire to preserve the past.

We’re also screening Maniac (2012) on Saturday, December 5 at 11:59pm!

Guest Programmer Nicola McCafferty is a film scholar and programmer with a PhD in Screen Cultures from Northwestern University. She has programmed for the 61st and 62nd Chicago International Film Festivals and the 400 Theater, and currently teaches a class on "Media and Cultural Theory" at Northwestern. Her research focuses on the figure of the nonhuman woman across media, investigating how the overlapping categories of human and woman are constructed within the interlocking systems of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism.