It's beyond "Maniac," it's beyond "New York Ripper," two great, intense slashers in their own right, but they don't match this one for it's sheer, terrifying visuals, and hypnotic story about a completely unhinged Madman, stalking a family down in Florida after being unwisely released from a maximum security psychiatric hospital. His doctors thought the new age treatment they gave him had cured him. It didn't..and what follows will have even the most jaded horror fans, speechless. The violence shown is so diabolically morbid, but it's so well photographed that it can't be dismissed as mere exploitation. Maybe it's because it was filmed in 1980, or maybe it was the film stock they used, but the look of the film is so majestically seedy that you can almost smell the dampness of the rundown movie theaters that dared to show this. Also this is something that could never be made today, with it's scenes involving children and extreme violence, I have to wonder how they got away with it, and if it affected the kids later in life. It even has a twist "shock ending" that will knock your socks off while explaining why everything before it took place. I wouldn't recommend viewing by young people as it's very intense. I felt very strange after watching it and I'm an adult. This is a forgotten horror masterpiece..
