Maniac Cop 3 - review

By the early Nineties the slasher formula had become shop-worn and the rule of diminishing returns was in effect for any stalker sequel hitting the cinema.  Maniac Cop 3 was rated NC-17 and plopped right into HBO when it came out.  While it is the weakest entry of the series, with strange unexplained plot twists that come from nowhere and fizzle out quickly and bloody action scenes that feel like filler, there is still plenty of fun to have here.

Maniac Cop has some of the best continuity in slasherdom.  This movie picks up right after the last movie, with Cordell smashing his coffin lid and grabbing his badge.  Matt is back, but why?  It’s not really clear, there’s a voodoo priest guy that explains that he was the one to bring Matt back to life, that he really died in Sing-Sing, but he had “unfinished business” and that some souls leave echoes in this world that go on far after they are done living.  Okay, thanks for that, but why is this guy concerned with Cordell to begin with?  You expect some sort of reasoning, but he offers none, and things get sillier from there.

Detective McKinney is back, but this time he has a sidekick Katie Sullivan, a beat cop with a reputation for shooting first, asking questions later.  Sullivan is wrongly accused of using excessive force in a hostage situation; she is shot and left in a coma as corrupt news reporters dice her reputation to pieces and the department abandons her.  It’s up to Detective McKinney to clear her name and find out what really happened during the hostage standoff.

Cordell hears a radio broadcast of what happened to Officer Sullivan and takes immediate interest in the case.  At first it is assumed that Matt just wants to clear the good officer’s name and seek revenge on those who wrongly persecuted her; but later through Sullivan’s dreams and coma induced visions it is apparent Cordell is really looking for a wife and partner in his doomed afterlife.  I guess even Maniac Cops can get horny.   He starts going after any doctor who might show any callousness to Sullivan’s precarious health, electrocuting one with shock paddles and X-raying another to death.

Detective McKinney discovers the video tape used to convict Sullivan of excessive force was heavily edited by scumbag ambulance chasers to depict Sullivan killing an innocent hostage when in reality the “hostage” was working an inside job with her schizoid junkie boyfriend (Jakcie Earle Haley of NOES reboot fame).  However by the time he puts the pieces together the junkie and several other convicts have escaped their hospital room confinement and start shooting up the place, leading to a harrowing gunfight between McKinney and the criminal element, the kind of 80’s blood and sweat gun fight where people are riddled with hundreds of bullets and gun clips seem to hold an infinite amount of ammunition.  I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a few slow motion doves fly by, John Woo style.

During the chaos of battle Cordell sweeps Sullivan from her hospital bed and takes her body down to the secret voodoo church below the hospital where he hopes the voodoo priest will join him and Sullivan in a kind of unholy union.  McKinney follows him down and tries to plea to Matt’s good nature to let Sullivan go, but he refuses, and the priest is shot dead.  The church catches on fire and the battle spills out into the streets where Matt chases McKinney by car while smothered in flames.  Cordell seems to be lit on fire for half an hour without melting or showing any signs of slowing down.  Eventually the chase is concluded when his car explodes, seemingly spelling the end of the Maniac Cop.  McKinney lights a cigarette with one of Cordell’s severed arms and walks off into the city night, satisfied the Maniac Cop has been laid to rest.   

 

Maniac Cop 3 is a fun movie if you don’t think too hard.  They try to tie McKinney into a romantic sub plot but it just doesn’t work.  I really couldn’t imagine the blonde bombshell they couple him with would be interested in a chain smoking cop with bad acne scars, but the movie spends a lot of time trying to set that up.  They never explain why Cordell was so in need of a bride, especially since that wasn’t his prerogative at all during the prior movies.  It’s just kind of stapled on without any afterthought.  Why would the voodoo priest have any interest in what Cordell does at all?  Who knows?

It’s a little sad that it’s the last entry in the series, but Maniac Cop will return in the form of a remake scheduled for NEXT YEAR.  Count me in.