Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Bardlerx Strictly average movie

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

Woodyanders A group of degenerate misfits mount a traveling show called the Cavalcade of Perversion, which goes from town to town with the specific intent of upsetting middle-class squares. Complications ensue when fearsome and ferocious ringleader Lady Divine (the one and only Divine in peak crazed form) gets whipped up into a bloodthirsty rage after she discovers that her smarmy boyfriend Mr. David (played to the slimy hilt by David Lochary) has been cheating on her.The second feature by John Waters naturally serves as a gloriously crude, lewd, and rude upraised cinematic middle finger that's done as a deliberately appalling affront to good taste, proper decorum, and basic moral decency. However, despite such blithely disgusting moments as the infamously blasphemous rosary job scene and the outrageous climactic rape committed by a giant lascivious lobster, this picture proves to be way too gleeful in its giddy depravity to be considered genuinely offensive. Moreover, the enthusiastic cast attack the raunchy material with lip-smacking aplomb: Mary Vivian Pearce as the eager Bonnie, Mink Stole as fawning groupie Mink, Cookie Mueller as Divine's ditsy tramp daughter Cookie, and Edith Massey as helpful barmaid Edith. The choice rockabilly soundtrack hits the right-on groovy spot. A total scuzzy hoot.

cultfilmfan Multiple Maniacs, is shot in black and white and is about a woman named Lady Divine, who runs a freak show in the woods called "Lady Divine's Cavalcade Of Perversions". They let rich people come in and see the show for free and then Divine, and her friends rob and kill them. Divine's boyfriend is is Mr. David, who is the announcer for the show and he is currently in love with another woman named Bonnie, and sneaks out to see her one afternoon. Edith, from the local diner spots this and reports it to Divine, who goes out looking for them. On the way over Divine, experiences a very weird afternoon and soon goes looking to kill Mr. David, and Bonnie. But little do they know that Mr. David, and Bonnie also have plans for them. Multiple Maniacs, is written and directed by John Waters, who is one of my favourite writer/director's and I have always loved what he has done. His films have great dialog, unusual characters, over the top acting and are so unique and off the wall it is anything but boring. Some people may even be turned off of some of his early films like Pink Flamingos, which I reviewed several years ago but failed to mention the film's plot or too much about it because many reviewers have spoiled the film and basically the whole review I talked about facts behind the film and just basically praised it. Multiple Maniacs, however I was disappointed with. The film is fairly slow moving and it some scenes character's seem to just talk and talk and some of the bits get a little old and tiresome after awhile. And most of the shocking humour in the film is now looking rather tame. And the film's story doesn't really have too much going on and I wasn't engrossed in it or having as much fun as I would be watching other John Waters' films. The film is not terrible and still has some unique ideas and things going on but it is probably my least favourite John Waters movie out of the ones I have seen (and I have seen all except for Mondo Trasho).

wlbwlb The key to understanding this, John Waters' most profound film, is a understanding of its Roman Catholic content and allusions. Divine's long interior monolog inside the church, essentially a long meditation on being different, the Way of the Cross, and the crucifixion scene are all keys to the film's message. Notice that the actors who play the Way of the Cross and crucifixion scenes are the same ones who played in the Carnival of Perversions which opens the movie. And who plays Christ? The heroin addict. Now Waters doesn't use these actors again just to save on budget. The meaning is clear: those people that you smug, suburban do-gooders rejected and made fun of are Christ and his followers. Remember that Christ didn't hang out with sanctimonious, middle class people, but rather with whores, fallen women, the sick, the rejected, the stigmatized, the sinners. Waters draws the parallels very clearly, but most people view the film in such a middle-class way that they can't see Divine and Waters' troupe of hippie- weirdos as allegorical Christ figures. The real giveaway to this interpretation is the actual text of St. Francis's late medieval Way of the Cross which Waters quotes verbatim in the film. And of course, did you ever think about the literal meaning of "divine." Poor, abused Divine's symbolic sacrifice at the claws of Lobstora is yet another variation of the Passion theme. A very literary film indeed.