Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Maniac Cop (1988), Maniac Cop 2 (1990), Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1992), and What Makes a Memorable Slasher Villain


Every story uses the same core building blocks to tell a tale that will capture the minds and imaginations of the audience. Whether the storytelling method is visual, textual, oral, or any other number of ways, those basic building blocks will be the same. There will be a protagonist, or group of protagonists. They will go against an antagonist, which could be a person, but could also be themselves, nature, technology, or society. The protagonist struggles to overcome the antagonist, going through a series of obstacles along the way. That’s it. Those are the basic story elements. Protagonist, antagonist, conflict, and struggle. Oh, and a resolution. You can’t have a story without an ending.

When it comes to movies, there are a few basic ways that those elements get used. One of the most common is the hero’s journey. It didn’t originate in movies but has become the structure for most modern blockbusters. There’s a hero who goes on an adventure, beats the villain, and grows as a person. Star Wars, superhero movies, action movies… This story structure is common through all of them. It’s not the one I want to write about, though.

There are stories that feature anti-heroes. These people aren’t the best. Where the hero’s journey might have someone like Luke Skywalker or Steve Rogers, a seemingly innocent young hero, positioned as the protagonist, the anti-hero stories go another way. They don’t live in an idealistic world. They may not have the same amount of courage as a typical hero. Most importantly, their morals are questionable. Anti-heroes are a little more selfish. They’re more likely to save their own lives than risk their lives for others. These questionable, relatable attributes are what make anti-heroes more compelling for many audiences. This is also not what I want to write about.

Hangout stories don’t feature the outward struggle that you might expect from a story. They mostly just involve people hanging out for a day or two, while working through some minor personal issues. Consider something like Dazed and Confused where the main character’s struggle was that he wasn’t sure he wanted to sign a letter agreeing to lose his social life for the sake of the football team. It wasn’t a huge conflict. It was kind of just a thread placed upon a story about a bunch of teens hanging out on the last day of school and first night of summer break. I don’t want to write about hangout movies, either.


What I want to focus this post on is a trend through the 1980s and 1990s that, I guess, flipped most of these stories on their heads. There were still the protagonists doing their protagonist thing. Many times, that mattered to the story. It was what made the stories a little more palatable to audiences. But, in the case of these movies, the real star became the villain. The villain was the reason people wanted to see each of the movies. The story was there because there needed to be some connective thread between the villain doing villain things. There needed to be something to get the movie from beginning to end. But the villain was the star. Let’s go through how slashers put the villains first, and what made for an interesting slasher villain.

Slashers didn’t happen overnight. The movie industry, particularly the horror industry, had been building towards it for decades. There were movies that had to be made before the slasher flick became a thing. Different parts of different styles of horror flicks had to be incorporated to create slasher flicks as we know them. There are new influences all the time, of course, but some were much more essential in allowing slashers to take shape.


The first of those influences was the monster movies of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Particularly, the Universal monster movies showed that the villain could become the star of a franchise, rather than the protagonists. When you think back to those movies, the monsters are what you think of. You think of The Wolf Man or The Invisible Man. You don’t normally think of the characters surrounding them. When you think of Dracula, you think of the vampire more than you think of John Harker, Renfield, or Van Helsing. The monsters were the characters who continued to return through the franchises, rather than the more heroic characters. That kind of franchising set the stage for later slasher villains to take starring roles.

The second influence was the Giallo genre coming out of Italy. I wrote about this a little bit when I watched Silent Night, Bloody Night. Much of the Giallo genre involved people being murdered by mysterious figures, frequently wearing black gloves. There were things that didn’t come over to slashers, for sure. The visuals were different, and the violence was different. The mysterious killer, though… That translated to many slashers. As did the black gloves and the shots from the killer’s point of view. Slashers have moved away from that stuff, for the most part. But in the heyday of the early to mid 1980s, those mystery hands were a big thing.

Finally, there were the suspense films coming out of Britain that influenced the slasher genre. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve always heard that Peeping Tom was one of the key movies to the rise of the slasher genre. It was a 1960 flick about a cameraman killing women while using his camera because he wanted to record their expressions while dying. Then there was Psycho, the Hitchcock flick. Yeah, it was technically an American film, but it was Hitchcock, the British master of suspense. It was a direct inspiration on a bunch of slashers and, although I don’t consider it a slasher, it made violent murder more acceptable on American movie screens, allowing slashers to utilize that on-screen violence.


Slasher movies began cropping up in the 1960s, but it wouldn’t be until the mid-1970s that they started to take off. Most notably was the one-two 1974 punch of Black Christmas and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Both movies became some of the most influential slasher flicks of all time, showing that the slasher concept could be successful in North America. They didn’t utilize the influences in the same way, particularly when it came to the Giallo stuff. Black Christmas went the mystery killer route, with the audience never finding out who was murdering everyone. All that was ever shown was a pair of hands doing the deeds. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre went the other route, showing who the killers were. What it did take from Giallo, however, was a sense of visual style. It wasn’t the same visual style as Giallo. It was quite the opposite. Giallo was vivid with big colours and stark lights and darks. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was dirty and almost documentary-like in its visual quality. It wasn’t the same visual style. Yet it was a visual style. It was the idea that a slasher could use a specific visual style to help tell the story that it took from Giallo. The influences were clearly making their mark on the slasher genre.

The most important influence, the one that plays most into what I initially wanted to discuss, is the monster movie influence. Following the success of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as well as Halloween four years later, many slashers would pick up on the importance of having a memorable villain. They would notice that the villain was what stuck with people. The villain was what kept bringing people back to the theater time and time again. A good villain could help a franchise go a long way.


So what is it that makes a good villain, particularly for slasher films? That’s tough to say, exactly, because so many different factors can contribute to a good villain. If you think of the most popular killers in slasher movies, villains like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Ghostface, Michael Myers, or the many other ones out there, there are a few things they have in common. There are certain elements that can be seen through many, if not all, of the villains.

I want to use the Maniac Cop movies as a reference point for some of these slasher villain elements. For one, they are the movies that inspired this post. I’m going to need to get into them at some point. But the villain, Matt Cordell, perfectly encapsulated many of the things that make slasher movie villains as memorable as they can be. Larry Cohen wrote a character that William Lustig realized with many of the trappings of a classic, traditional slasher villain. Before I get into how he fit that framework, however, I should explain what the movies were.


In Maniac Cop, people were being brutally murdered around New York City. Lt. Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins) was the detective on the case. Things got more complicated when the wife of Officer Jack W. Forrest Jr. (Bruce Campbell) was murdered while he cheated on her with Officer Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon). He was the prime suspect. McCrae soon learned that Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar) was committing the murders, after being sent to prison and seemingly killed in the prison shower. He was out to get revenge on Commissioner Pike (Richard Roundtree) and Captain Ripley (William Smith) for putting him there, as well as anyone who got in the way.

Maniac Cop 2 saw the reign of terror continue from Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar). Officer Forrest (Bruce Campbell) and Officer Mallory (Laurene Landon) were in therapy with Officer Susan Riley (Claudia Christian) due to the trauma they suffered. Nobody would believe them about Matt Cordell still being alive. When the murders restarted, Lt. Sean McKinney (Robert Davi) began to listen to their claims and went head-to-head with Matt Cordell, who was trying to get to Deputy Commissioner Ed Doyle (Michael Lerner), another officer who helped put him behind bars.

Then there was Maniac Cop 3, which was messier. After being cleared of the charges that put him behind bars, Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar) was laid to rest in the cemetery. That rest wouldn’t last long. A voodoo priest brought him back to life. Officer Katie Sullivan (Gretchen Becker) was shot during some sort of hostage not hostage situation in the back of a pharmacy, and was left brain dead in a hospital. Lt. Sean McKinney (Robert Davi) saw a report that framed Katie as a police officer using excessive force and wanted to clear her name. At the same time, Matt Cordell killed a bunch of people on his way to Katie, who he wanted to resurrect to be with him. Sean McKinney investigated the murders with Dr. Susan Fowler (Caitlin Dulany) and once again came face-to-face with Cordell.


Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to how the Maniac Cop movies showcase a good slasher villain by hitting on many of the common attributes that the memorable villains have. I’m not saying that having these attributes automatically make for a great slasher villain. All I’m saying is that they’re a starting point. They can help to build the foundation of what people want to see in a slasher villain, and can improve the chances of audiences remembering the movie and wanting more.

Matt Cordell was the villain of the Maniac Cop movies. He was a violent police officer sent to jail for… Something. I’m not entirely sure what that thing was. Maybe I should have paid closer attention. Maybe they didn’t say. Oh, okay. Just looked it up. So he wasn’t violent. He was set up as violent by a corrupt police force when he was close to uncovering the corruption. He was a good guy all along. In jail, he was attacked and killed. Only, he wasn’t killed. He was pronounced dead because he was braindead. That didn’t last. He would come back for revenge, through a series of violent murders.


The first thing I want to hit on is that Matt Cordell had a motive for why he was doing what he was doing. He was out for revenge because the corrupt New York justice system had put him away to cover up their corruption. He was killed while locked up. When he was alive once again, he targeted the people responsible for putting him away. The police commissioner, the police captain, the mayor, and a few others were on Cordell’s hitlist. He was unstoppable until his entire list was crossed off. Metaphorically. He didn’t have a physical list.

This idea of motivation behind murders has been a big part of many slasher films. Michael Myers, depending on the timeline, killed because of family relations, because of his desire to return home, or because of the Cult of Thorn. Jason Voorhees frequently went after camp counselors who would drink, smoke, and have sex. The reasoning was that he drowned because the counselors at his camp were too busy doing that stuff to notice him having trouble in the water. He also had mother issues. The Leprechaun killed for his gold. The Djinn from Wishmaster killed to get enough souls to open Hell and let djinns rule the world.

Motivations could also be revealed at the end of a slasher flick, if the story was based around the mystery of figuring out who was killing people. The first Friday the 13th was a mystery where the ending revealed that Pamela Voorhees killed camp counselors as revenge for her son’s drowning. The Scream franchise has relished in mystery reveals for the killers, with some of the reasonings being the death of a loved one, the separation of a family, and fame. Sometimes, as in the case of Black Christmas, the killer and motivation are never revealed, which makes the deaths even spookier. The killer could be anyone for any reason. Motivation, or lack thereof, is key to having a successful slasher villain.


Matt Cordell also struck on the physical appearance side of slasher villains. He was a large cop. If you know Robert Z’Dar, you know that size comes with casting him. Cordell dressed in a police uniform, but it was like a formal attire sort of thing with the white gloves and all that. His face was covered in scars, becoming more scar-riddled as the trilogy went on. It was an imposing figure in an imposing uniform with scars that showed he had been through some shit. It was a look that made Matt Cordell stand out from many of the other slasher villains that were out there at the time, and many that have come since.

Having a distinct look can be very important to a slasher villain. Leatherface had the skin on his face. Ghostface had the mask and the robe. Jason Voorhees had the bag on his head before switching to the hockey mask. Freddy Krueger had the scars, the hat, and the striped sweater. One of the more amusing ones was Michael Myers, who wore a painted Captain Kirk mask and coveralls. That look became so iconic that some of the future installments had to shoehorn a scene in where he got that costume again, just to make audiences happy that they were getting the same Michael Myers. Slasher franchises have their iconic looks that make their villains stand out.


Another thing that makes slasher villains stand out is their weapon of choice. Along with a unique look, most of the classic slasher villains have an iconic weapon of some sort. Or, if it isn’t iconic, it has become synonymous with that villain. Matt Cordell was a police officer who had a seemingly very police officer weapon. When he approached people, he held a police baton. That seemed par for the course for police. They would either have a baton, a taser, or a gun. The difference was that when Matt Cordell approached with the baton, he would reveal that it was the sheath of a giant dagger. His weapon of choice was a dagger cloaked in a police baton. That made it stand out that much more.

Most of the villains in horror movies have had weapons associated with them. The weapons went from the mundane, like Michael Myers frequently opting to kill people with a kitchen knife, to some slightly more unique ones. The villain from My Bloody Valentine used a pickaxe, while the villain from I Know What You Did Last Summer utilized a fishhook. Getting into the even more unique weapons, Freddy Krueger had a glove outfitted with knife fingers, and the villain from Slumber Party Massacre II had a guitar with a drill on the neck. Most classic slasher villains have weapons as iconic as they are.


The final thing I want to toss into the slasher villain mix is that, many times, they end up with supernatural abilities. If the villain didn’t begin with some supernatural power, they would be sure to pick one up later in their franchise. Assuming that they would be around for a franchise. Look at Matt Cordell, for example. The first Maniac Cop flick relished in the fact that he felt cold to the touch and wouldn’t die, no matter how many times he was shot. He was practically unstoppable. By the time Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence rolled around, he had been resurrected by a voodoo priest, making him one of the undead. That’s pretty darn supernatural.

Lots of slasher villains have gone the supernatural route. There have been the animate inanimate objects possessed by the spirits of serial killers like Chucky, Jack Frost, and The Gingerdead Man. There was Jason Voorhees being resurrected time and time again before his spirit began jumping from body to body. Freddy Krueger controlled dreams, Michael Myers had super strength, the Leprechaun was just plain magical, and the Djinn could corrupt wishes. Even movies like Puppet Master and Demonic Toys brought small figures to life to kill people. There is a lot of supernatural stuff going around in slasher movies, even though the idea of a slasher just comes down to someone killing a bunch of people.


A slasher villain can be a lot of things. A good, memorable slasher villain is tougher to find. Given the number of slasher flicks that come out on a regular basis, many of the villains fall through the cracks and aren’t all that memorable. The ones that are, however, use some, if not all, of these elements to strengthen the character. The filmmakers know that they need to hit on certain character traits to make their villain stand out. They need to give reasons for the villains to stick around in people’s minds.

Slasher flicks have come a long way since they first broke through to the mainstream in the mid 1970s. They took inspiration from the horror that came before, and used that inspiration to create many villainous icons that people still talk about today. The movies might not always be great. Most of them might actually be pretty bad. But people keep talking about them because there are some iconic villains killing people through movies that have elements of Giallo, monster movies, and suspense flicks in them. People eat it up. I eat it up. And I wouldn’t have slashers any other way.


That was a long post, but it’s going to get a little longer. Here are some notes:

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