MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Michael_Elliott Multiple Maniacs (1970) ** (out of 4)Lady Divine (Divine) and her weirdo followers are a part of a traveling freak show who rob the people who come to see them. Divine soon learns that her husband is cheating on her and this here sends her into a crazed mental state that leads to murder.MULTIPLE MANIACS was the movie that John Waters made right before PINK FLAMINGOS and I guess you could say that the cult film-maker was slowly building up his level of outrageous trash. This film here doesn't seem to have the same cult following as Waters' next few films and I think it's pretty easy to see why. Not only is this film not as "shocking" as some of the others but I also thought it wasn't nearly as good.Yes, I know that Waters' has a large cult following and most of his fans love everything that he has done but I just found too many flaws with this picture. The biggest problem are the long stretches of scenes where nothing happens except for the characters talking back and forth. The prime example of this is a sequence where the husband goes to meet his lover in a bar and then they head to a room. This sequence just goes on for so long and it doesn't take long for it to get rather boring.The highlight of the film is the opening sequence with the freak tents where the "normal" people go and see ugly freaks doing ugly things. This is certainly a fun sequence that gets the film off to a strange and entertaining start but it doesn't last too long. I also thought the B&W images really helped the picture even with the rather rough cinematography. Divine is also quite good in his role and we get several Waters' regulars including the one and only Edith Massey.MULTIPLE MANIACS isn't an awful film and it's worth watching if you're a fan of Waters but there's no question that he would go onto much better.

fertilecelluloid I'm not some nut who will throw himself off a building for Waters or lick shoe polish from the Master's boots. I have rather fixed opinion on the different stages of the director's career. The early Super-8's (the few I've seen) are short, crude and original; the first features, including "Multiple Maniacs", "Mondo Trasho", "Pink Flamingos", "Female Trouble" and "Desperate Living" are all very interesting, though not all classics; the films that followed from "Polyester" are Waters Lite, strange birds documenting Waters' struggle to please the mainstream financiers and broaden his own creative output. Naturally, I like the middle period.When I think of "Multiple Maniacs", I think of David Lochary inviting conservative punters to come and seeing the most disgusting show of their lives. "See Puke Eater!" he screams with pride, and in that solitary invitation, he sums up why we loved the 70's and early 80's John Waters. Waters showed us filth without the sermon, without the hypocrisy. He acknowledge our love of sleaze, our passion for the putrid, and our lust for freaks. He came across as honest, as a misfit himself, an artist determined to rub our noses in the dirt we secretly craved.Well, some of us did.I prefaced this review with my declaration that I'm not a Waters brown-noser. Far from it. Despite its admirable desire to shock and sicken, "Multiple Maniacs" is also very boring at times and in dire need of a ruthless edit. The Lobster scene goes on forever and the trek to Calvary is almost as long as Gibson's "Passion of the Christ".The beauty of "Multiple Maniacs" is its pus-filled heart, not its aesthetics. The aesthetics would come later with "Female Trouble" and "Desperate Living" and seem counterfeit with truly awful trash such as "Cecil B. Demented", a film I want to murder.

csjlong A lot of people look at the performances in Waters' early films as crude but I think both Multiple Maniacs and Pink Flamingos (and, to a lesser degree, Mondo Trasho) are a testament to the talent the Waters' troupe really had. Divine has probably been discussed enough though I think she remains sadly underrated as an actress but what stands out for me in Maniacs is David Lochary's performance. He steals the show and improbably manages to provide some genuine soul to a contemptible character, perhaps because he looks positively saintly compared to Divine. Lochary is funny, sincere, scared and ultimately empathetic as the helpless, brainwashed victim of the implacable force which is the Lady Divine. You couldn't just hire regular actors to play the Lochary or Divine roles - you had to have the real deal and the magic of these movies does come from the superior casting.I think Waters' early films are by far his best, the movies he made before he learned "how to make movies." Some of his later work is cute but never as engaging and fresh as Maniacs and Flamingos. How exactly did Waters manage to combine slimy depravity with wide-eyed innocence in equal doses? The rosary job is perhaps the finest scene Waters ever concocted and then there's Lobstora, one of the most inspired moments the cinema has ever brought us.I don't think of Maniacs as mere camp. I think it's genuinely great film making with far more verve and inventiveness than most of the so-called "well-made" Academy fare.

Joseph P. Ulibas Multiple Maniacs (1970) was Waters' second feature length film. Heavily influenced by the Manson Family murders, Waters creates this film about a band of murdering, sideshow freaks/performers who travel from town to town robbing and murdering their rich,nosy customers. This is a weird film that showcases what Waters likes to do best. Try and repulse the audience as much as he can (mirroring the side show performers themselves).Unfortunately, most of the humor is pretty dated and the very low, low budget might turn off most viewers (if they were not repulsed by the first twenty minutes). Other than that, it's a very enjoyable movie.Waters will finally perfect his film-making a few years later with the back to back to back releases of Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living. Shot on 16mm, B/W.Recommended