The Invisible Maniac

Reworking the invisible man idea originally from H.G. Wells's book for a sexploitation horror flick is rather oddly effective. Seeing while not being seen plays well into cinematic voyeurism, as the Invisible Man here joins us, the spectator, in ogling naked women (although, they're playing high-school teenagers) before the killing spree rooted in the psychosexual handbook taken straight out of "Psycho" (1960). You know, mommy issues. Multiple scenes of the girls locker room in this one. Apparently, after every pathetic suggestion of a cheerleading practice, they need to shower. Even though the film takes place during summer school, so I don't know why they're practicing--did they flunk that, too, along with physics and so need to retake it? I don't know; maybe this district doesn't work the same way I thought the rest of the American school system did.

Regardless, "The Invisible Maniac" has just about everything one could hope for from a so-bad-it's-good film. Besides the ridiculous gore and gratuitous nudity, the scenes of Kevin Dornwinkle attacking people tend to be choreographed poorly--obviously pulled punches, conspicuous cuts and such. Noel Peters as Dornwinkle plays raving lunatic believably, and he has a strange way of delivering his lines. Women and teenage girls are objectified, while the men and boys are treated as sexual predators (although, a female principle treads both lines). The invisibility serum also works well here as an allegory for drug addiction. You can't ask for much better than this before you're requesting a movie that's actually good.

This film is fundamentally dumb, there is no getting around it.

There are a few highlights, like when some guy gets punched in the face by the invisible dude, its pretty funny.

This film is full of bad actors, not the naughty country kind or spies, just regular bad actors. Like next level bad.

The movie has more shower scenes than a Rheem commercial and praise be to God because they are all the best bits.

It borrows from lots of movies and none of those are any good either.

The movie does provide a few giggles and a couple of wtf moments but don't expect to find any thing more than that :)

Poor quality, non-existent texture. A couple of partial nude scenes and a perverse professor who from an early age gave clear signs of a problematic personality. The ending was the most reasonable thing I've seen and hinted that there must be a sequel.

Released in 1990 apparently straight to video, this film is described as a comedy or even a slasher horror type. Hard to be taken serious given the premise and subpar acting.

The lead character of the teacher/scientist (Invisible maniac) over acts especially with his fake evil laugh. The acting by the students are noticeably bad as most of them weren't exactly veteran actors by that point.

There is very little humor or clever witty jokes. The comedy comes from seeing the teacher spying on the students or some of the awkward interactions and overly sexual acts by the women (students and the one teacher). As noted this film contains a lot of skin throughout as a way to purposefully distract audiences into further enjoying the film. The writing is weak, the directing isn't great but its cheesy and silly tone with its gratuitous nudity makes the film worthwhile enough.

Second half of the film includes more of a slasher element where we see kills by the teacher taking down each student one by one. Some kills were clever and intriguing, although cheesy. The film never fully gets too horror but contains some elements. Overall not a great film but enjoyable for it's purpose.

This movie reminds me of The Toxic Avenger and Doom Asylum! It's a hilarious horror comedy that's not meant to be taken hilariously. If you appreciate good bad movies then this is the movie for you!