Neon Maniacs is a 1986 released American science fiction action horror film directed by Joseph Mangine (cinematographer on Alligator and Alone in the Dark) from a screenplay written by Mark Patrick Carducci (Pumpkinhead; Buried Alive). It was filmed in 1984. Also known as Evil Dead Warriors
The movie stars Clyde Hayes (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), Leilani Sarelle, Alan Hayes, Andrew Divoff, P.R. Paul, Victor Brandt, Marta Kober (Friday the 13th, Part 2), Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, John Lafayette, Solly Marx (Silent Madness).
Plot:
In the heart of San Francisco, the legions of the damned lay waiting beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
As night falls, they are unleashed upon the city to carve terror into the souls of the innocent. But when one young woman named Natalie (Leilani Sarelle) escapes a teen slaughter, she cannot convince anyone that a rampaging army of psychotic ‘monsters’ has mutilated her friends.
Now haunted, hunted and having a hard time in high school, Natalie must arm herself and her classmates for one final bizarre battle against the horror of the neon maniacs…
Reviews:
“Some sequences work beautifully and some of the action set pieces are exciting, but the disjointed nature of the film and lack of focus are painfully obvious resulting in a movie that is made all the more worse in that the script had an enormous amount of possibilities […] The entire movie reeks of the decade from the clothes to the music.” Cool @ss Cinema
“Everything from the staging of the murders to the dramatic pacing seemed off somehow. Chalk it up to sheer incompetence or a total lack of inexperience on the part of the filmmakers, but whatever they did, it repeatedly ended up being the correct course of action. For example, the decision to use that sinister-sounding synthesizer flourish whenever the Maniacs would appear on-screen was the epitome of correctness.” House of Self-Indulgence
” …on to the negative. That would include the direction, writing, editing, music, sound, most of the acting and pretty much everything else … The mutants are just there without purpose or reason; killing people, again, for no reason. Seeing how they went to great lengths to make each of the mutant designs so distinctive and elaborate, you’d figure they’d set aside a minute or two to provide them with an origin, an explanation or a mythology to make them, you know, actually interesting.” The Bloody Pit of Horror
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“If Alejandro Jodorowsky somehow wound up working on a movie for New World Pictures in the 80s, this is probably what would have happened. I can’t for certain credit artistic ineptitude or even the interference of censors or the studio for this film’s end result. All I know is that watching this must be very close to experiencing brain damage by way of fever dream. Is something missing, or am I missing something?” VHS Summer
Cast and characters:
Alan Hayes … Steven
Leilani Sarelle … Natalie
Donna Locke … Paula
Victor Brandt … Devin
David Muir … Wylie
Marta Kober … Lorraine
P.R. Paul … Eugene
Jeff Tyler … Wally
Amber Austin … Lisa
James Acheson … Ray
Chuck Hemingway … Gary
Bo Sabato … Manello
Jessie Lawrence Ferguson … Carson
John LaFayette … Thomas
Gene Bicknell … Cozzie
Katherine Heard … Sue
Frank X. Baleno … Joe
Trish Doolan … Donna
Teri Ralston … Marilyn Peterson
Dick Frattali … Alex Peterson
Cynthia Sprink … Angela
Technical details:
1 hour 31 minutes
Audio: Mono
Aspect ratio: 1.85 : 1
Trailer:
Free to watch online:
