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 :)

An insane high school science teacher (Noel Peters) solves a problem that has plagued mankind for decades. How can we spy on chicks in the shower without detection, become INVISIBLE!

What a premise, what a payoff, what a flick! The Invisible Maniac is schlock at it's best, a movie about a guy who becomes invisible to get revenge on the students who enjoy making his life hell. Of course he finds time to sneak into the women's showering facilities more than once to catch a peak and I don't blame him. While made in 1990, Invisible Maniac has all the pure and unpretentious qualities that made the 80's so special. Everyone is sex crazed, the girls take lots of showers, and and invisible science teacher is trying to kill 'em all. What more could you ask for?

The movie keeps its tongue firmly in cheek, but does so in a smart way. Deliberately being cheesy, over the top, and exploitative The Invisible Maniac follows the formula but manages to be a bit different here and there. I won't get into too many specifics, but the virginal heroine doesn't save the day. The dialogue is hilarious, the characters cliche (but fun), and they never miss a chance for some good old fashion female nudity. Savor each and ever scene featuring the lovely Melissa Moore and Shannon Wilsey and their "friends". Never has comedy, horror, and soft core porn came together to give us such a landmark film!

Call it misogynistic if you want, I just call it fun. If you're into this kind of flick (you know who you are) then your life won't be complete until you see The Invisible Maniac. R.I.P Shannon Wilsey.

Take one look at the cover of this movie, and you know right away that you are not about to watch a landmark film. This is cheese filmmaking in every respect, but it does have its moments. Despite the look of utter trash that the movie gives, the story is actually interesting at some points, although it is undeniably pulled along mainly by the cheerleading squads' shower scenes and sex scenes with numerous personality-free boyfriends. The acting is awful and the director did little more than point and shoot, which is why the extensive amount of nudity was needed to keep the audience's attention.

In The Nutty Professor, a hopelessly geeky professor discovers a potion that can turn him into a cool and stylish womanizer, whereas in The Invisible Maniac, a mentally damaged professor discovers a potion that can make him invisible, allowing him to spy on (and kill, for some reason) his students. Boring fodder. Don't expect any kind of mental stimulation from this, and prepare yourself for shrill and enormously overdone maniacal laughter which gets real annoying real quick...

Why is it that insane, sexually-repressed geeks are the only people who seem to learn the secret of invisibility? A nerdy scientist goes mad and kills some of his colleagues. Why? Cause they laughed at him and his failed invisibility experiment. He soon escapes from an asylum and gets hired as a high school physics teacher. He's teased by several vixens in one of his classes. This inspires him to perfect his formula. Despite being injected into his bloodstream, the serum affects his clothes and eyeglasses (how convenient). Once invisible however, all he can think of is to hang out inside the girls' locker room. After his secret is discovered he goes on another senseless killing spree.

If 700 monkeys were pecking away on 700 computer keyboards for 700 years, one of them might come up with Shakespeare's "Hamlet." It would only take about five days however, for a dozen of them to come up with "The Invisible Maniac." This movie is unimaginably silly and stupid with gratuitous nudity its only redeeming feature. By comparison, it makes other invisible man schlock like "The Amazing Transparent Man" seem worthy of a best picture nomination at the Academy Awards. Then again, you know you're in trouble when the theme song playing during the closing credits is the best thing about the movie.