[Review]: Frankie, Maniac Woman

Dina Silva as Frankie

Exploring an inherently misogynistic society’s negative attitudes towards fat bodies and pretty privilege, Dina Silva and Pierre Tsigaridis’ eighties grime inspired slasher Frankie, Maniac Woman delivers its message to audiences with buckets of violence and blood. 

Frankie (Dina Silva) is an aspiring musician who is constantly hindered at every turn by society’s treatment of her based on her looks, to the point that she is driven mad by the impossible standards set by the patriarchal culture in which she exists. As she begins to have visions of a strange man (played by Tsigaridis) who tells her to kill in an increasingly violent manner, anyone who makes her feel less than, which includes both creepy men and “beautiful” women. After landing herself amidst a group of insta-models and influencers, Frankie unleashes her fury in a tirade of blood, guts and viscera. 

With both an aesthetic and thematics extremely reminiscent of William Lustig’s 1980 exploitation classic Maniac, Frankie, Maniac Woman seeks to explore the fractured mind of a woman who not only has to contend with a traumatic past and upbringing, but also with her surrounding environment telling her that her body does not fit into this world, and that it is her physical appearance that is judged by wider society – not her personality, her morals, and certainly not any talent she may have. The film depicts a battle of what it means to be a woman, pressured to convey pre-conceived feminine ideals in order to just exist and survive in this world. It seems to be no mistake that Frankie's chosen mask is one of a hyper-feminine depiction of a woman's face with makeup – perhaps representing the mask that at one point most women have felt the need to hide behind.

One aspect of Frankie, Maniac Woman that could be foretold to be quite divisive for audiences would be the antagonist’s focus on attacking and murdering primarily women, when it is in fact men that uphold patriarchal and misogynistic standards that the majority would assume should be her primary target. However, Frankie is flawed, and like a lot of victims of society’s harmful standards, turns her anger and vitriol towards other marginalised victims– she is the embodiment of “hurt people hurt people”, and it is this depiction that adds further depth to a film which would otherwise be cast off as just another exploitation movie. 

Frankie, Maniac Woman is a fun ode to exploitation classics, flipping the gendered script on how it is usually men who are driven to violence by their abusive mothers. Here we have a woman who snaps due to the pressures of society, as well as dealing with a traumatic past. It’s bloody and violent, but wading through the guts and viscera, there are hidden depths with its commentary on the effect of societal beauty standards and the result of pitting victims against each other. 

4 Screams out of 5