''Multiple Maniacs'' is a 1970

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

composed, shot, edited, written, produced, and directed by

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

, as his second feature film and first "talkie". It features several actors who were part of the Dreamland acting troupe for Waters' films, including Divine,

Mary Vivian Pearce Mary Vivian Pearce (born November 9, 1947) is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters. Life and career Pearce is a childhood best friend of Waters and has appeared as an actress in all of his films. Because ...

, David Lochary,

Mink Stole Nancy Paine Stoll (born August 25, 1947), known professionally as Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, and has appeared in all of his feature films to date (a distin ...

, Edith Massey,

George Figgs George Figgs (born 1947, Baltimore, Maryland) is an American actor and projectionist. He began his career portraying characters in the early films of John Waters. Because of his work with Waters, he is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Wat ...

, and

Cookie Mueller Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller (March 2, 1949 – November 10, 1989) was an American actress, writer, and Dreamlander who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'', '' Pink Flamingos'', '' Female Tr ...

. The plot follows a traveling troupe of

sideshow In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. Types There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions: *The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten s ...

freaks who rob their unsuspecting audience members. In 2016, American art house film distributor Janus Films and video distribution company The Criterion Collection undertook a new restoration of the film, with its preview for the restored print released June 17, 2016 at the Provincetown Film Festival, and its national exhibition began August 5, 2016.

Plot

Lady Divine is the owner and operator of The Cavalcade of Perversion, a free exhibit of various perversions and fetish acts and obscenities, such as the "Puke Eater". The show is free, but the various performers must persuade and even physically drag reluctant passers-by to attend. As the finale to every show, Lady Divine appears and robs the patrons at gunpoint. This arrangement seems successful to Mr. David, Lady Divine's lover, but Lady Divine becomes bored with the routine and decides to murder the patrons rather than merely robbing them. After escaping the murder scene, she comes home to Cookie, her prostitute daughter, and her new boyfriend Steve, a member of the

Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a Far-left politics, far-left militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, the group was organiz ...

. Lady Divine receives a call from Edith, proprietor of the local bar, who informs her that Mr. David had been at her bar with another woman (

). Lady Divine heads there to catch them, but is raped on the way by two glue-sniffers. Meanwhile, Mr. David and his new lover Bonnie—a woman who desperately wants to be part of the troupe—engage in sex acts at the home he shares with Lady Divine, during which Bonnie anally penetrates him with a dildo. While Lady Divine contemplates her rape, the

Infant of Prague The Infant Jesus of Prague ( cs, Pražské Jezulátko: es, Niño Jesús de Praga) is a 16th-century wax-coated wooden statue of the Child Jesus holding a ''globus cruciger'' of Spanish origin, now located in the Discalced Carmelite Church ...

appears and leads her to a church. Making her way uncertainly into the church, Lady Divine prays, but is then approached and seduced by a strange young woman named

Mink Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera '' Neogale'' and '' Mustela'' and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": ...

. They have a sexual encounter in the church pew, with Mink inserting a

rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or ...

in Divine's

rectum The rectum is the final straight portion of the large intestine in humans and some other mammals, and the gut in others. The adult human rectum is about long, and begins at the rectosigmoid junction (the end of the sigmoid colon) at the l ...

while describing the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imita ...

. Now lesbian lovers, Lady Divine and Mink go to Edith's bar with the intent to kill Mr. David and his mistress, but they are too late: David and Bonnie, who have by this time decided that they have to kill Lady Divine to protect themselves, have left. Mr. David returns to Cookie's house, intending to kill Divine, instead he finds Cookie and fellow Cavalcade performer Ricky there. An argument ensues, and Bonnie accidentally kills Cookie. They tie up Ricky and hide Cookie's corpse just before Divine and Mink return. When Bonnie tries to shoot Lady Divine, Divine attacks and kills her with a knife. She then turns on Mr. David and eviscerates him as well, cannibalizing his internal organs, and becoming more frenzied. Ricky suddenly surprises Mink, who shoots him. In a fit of anger, Divine accuses Mink of betrayal and stabs her. Divine becomes even more crazed upon finding her daughter Cookie's body hidden behind the couch. Exhausted from the ordeal, Lady Divine collapses on a couch and is subsequently raped by Lobstora, a giant lobster. In the aftermath (mumbling "You're a maniac now, Divine"), she destroys a car, then wanders Baltimore trying to kill anyone she can. The National Guard appear, surround Lady Divine on the street, and shoot her, to the tune of " America the Beautiful".

Cast

* Divine as Lady Divine * David Lochary as Mr. David *

as Bonnie *

as Mink / The Religious Whore *

as Cookie Divine * Edith Massey as Edith the Barmaid /

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

Paul Swift Paul Swift (August 18, 1934 – October 7, 1994) was an American actor. Career Between 1970 and 1977 he appeared in roles in four of the early feature films directed by John Waters. He additionally appeared as himself in two Waters-relate ...

as Steve *

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

*Michael Renner Jr. as The Infant of Prague *Rick Morrow as Ricky

Production

Filming took place in Baltimore, Maryland. Waters has said he was influenced by Herschell Gordon Lewis's '' Two Thousand Maniacs!'' (1964) when writing the film, and the title ''Multiple Maniacs'' is a direct reference. Waters stated in a 2015 interview with the British Film Institute that the giant lobster rape was played by Vince Peranio and his brother in a paper mache costume. The idea came from a combination of Salvador Dali, Jack Smith, a post card of giant lobster over the beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts and most likely from taking LSD and cannabis.

Release

''Multiple Maniacs'' had its world premiere in Baltimore on April 10, 1970. Waters later recalled that he toured the film throughout the United States, showing it at small arthouse theaters and other venues which often required a deposit to screen features. The film also showed internationally, with screenings in England in early 1971.

Critical response

Upon the film's debut in 1970, ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

''s Lou Cedrone wrote: "''Multiple Maniacs'' is very smelly, save for a moment here and there when the Waters humor is apparent. And humor he has. It's just a shame he has chosen to ignore that for the brutality which is not, as he and his audiences may think, a gas." In 1981, Geoffrey Himes, also of ''The Baltimore Sun'', referred to the film as "thoroughly disgusting" yet "also quite funny at times." The film holds a 100% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, Waters' highest-rated film on the site.

2016 restoration

A new restoration for ''Multiple Maniacs'' by the American film distribution company Janus Films and the video distribution company The Criterion Collection was previewed on June 17, 2016 at the Provincetown Film Festival, and its national exhibition began at the IFC Center in New York City on August 5, 2016. The restored version was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 21, 2017 by The Criterion Collection, featuring a commentary track by Waters among other newly produced special features. This release marked the first time the film had been available on a home format in 30 years, since its original VHS release by Cinema Group in 1987.

Box office

As of August 18, 2016, ''Multiple Maniacs'' has grossed $33,036 in North America.

References

External links

* * * * * *
''Multiple Maniacs: Genuine Trash''
an essay by Linda Yablonsky at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Multiple Maniacs 1970 films 1970 LGBT-related films 1970s black comedy films 1970s comedy horror films 1970s crime films 1970 independent films American black comedy films American black-and-white films American comedy horror films American crime comedy films American independent films Films about rape Cannibalism in fiction Films directed by John Waters Films set in Baltimore Films shot in Baltimore Lesbian-related films 1970 comedy films 1970 drama films Drag (clothing)-related films LGBT-related black comedy films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films