Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop is a 1988 American action-crime horror film set in New York City, where a series of brutal killings throws the public into panic. Witnesses describe the attacker as a man in a police uniform, a detail that deepens distrust of the police and leaves the department struggling to respond. Suspicion falls on officer Jack Forrest, who insists he is innocent, while Lieutenant Frank McCrae becomes convinced the real culprit is someone else. As the violence continues, the investigation points toward a figure connected to the force itself.

The film was directed by William Lustig and written and produced by Larry Cohen. It was Lustig's third feature, following Maniac in 1980 and Vigilante in 1983, and it launched a series he continued with Maniac Cop 2 in 1990 and Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence in 1992. Tom Atkins plays Frank McCrae, Bruce Campbell plays Jack Forrest, Laurene Landon plays Theresa Mallory, Richard Roundtree plays Commissioner Pike, William Smith plays Captain Ripley, and Robert Z'Dar plays Matt Cordell. It runs 85 minutes and was made for about 1 million dollars.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 5.1 out of 10 from 16 reviews, while on TMDB it has a rating of 6.1 out of 10 from 546 votes, indicating a modest divide between critical and audience response.