The Oily Maniac

After casting a magic spell and covering himself from head to foot in oil, cripple Shen Yuan (Danny Lee) transforms into an oozing monster to seek revenge on those who have wronged his family.

I'd been sitting on director Meng Hua Ho's The Oily Maniac for quite some time, waiting for the right moment for some seriously silly and ridiculously outrageous Shaw Brothers exploitation. I think I got my expectations up a little too high. While the film does deliver a memorably daft 'man in a rubber suit' monster, AND plenty of gratuitous female nudity (nearly all of the women get their jubblies out), it fails to completely live up to its wonderfully wacky premise and promising title, the creature not nearly maniacal enough. Where I had hoped that the man turned walking oil slick would kill countless bad guys in an OTT gory fashion, he merely swats most of his adversaries to the ground. Only one victim goes out in style, his head crushed by the oily maniac, but it's all too brief.

While I can't be too harsh when rating a film that gets the lovely Ping Chen (as Shen Yuan's love interest, Little Yue) to strip off more than once, or that features so many loud shirts (every bad guy wears one), I can only bring myself to rate this cheeze-fest a middling 5/10. The Mighty Peking Man, which also stars Danny Lee, is a much more satisfying slice of Asian trash from the same director.

THE OILY MANIAC Stars Danny Lee as Shen Yuan, who is given a mystical secret that can cure him of his polio. It also makes him invulnerable as long as he does good deeds. Following instructions, Shen turns into the shrieking petroleum product of the title, and begins wiping out bad guys right away.

All goes well until Shen uses his powers out of anger, causing him to go totally berserk! The scene where he deals with his corrupt boss is quite memorable indeed! The finale is a feast of fiery fluidity.

As Shaw Brothers films go, this is a good one. It's funny, exhilarating, and absolutely nuts! Sort of like a hybrid of SWAMP THING and THE TOXIC AVENGER (predating both of these films by a few years). The copious amount of female toplessness adds immensely to the absurdity of the whole affair!

You will not forget the Maniac's scream if you live to be a thousand!...

Shaw Brothers movies aren't really known for being chill, but The Oily Maniac was particularly lacking in it. It's very silly, which is good, but it's also one that goes a bit far with the sleaze and assaults against women. I get that you get some of that in movies of this kind, but it's a short movie and there were at least three scenes featuring the latter, and at that point, it makes me start wanting to ask uncomfortable questions about the director's motivation for making this film.

Still, when you get the Oily Maniac doing his thing, it's goofy, funny, and probably will prove memorable. His appearance and the sounds he makes always proved amusing. He can turn into oil, or he can be a hulking humanoid covered in oil. He also has to immerse himself in oil to use these powers, which leads to some funny stuff. At its best, it feels like a goofy and more hardcore update to the sorts of tragic anti-hero monsters found in the old Universal Horror movies of the 1930s and '40s... kind of.

So the film follows him as he uses his powers to get back at people who've wronged him while also being something of a vigilante. It's basic, stupid, perverted (not the good kind of perverted, and probably too frequently perverted, too), but if you think you're the kind of person who'd enjoy a Shaw Brothers movie called The Oily Maniac, then you will enjoy the Shaw Brothers' The Oily Maniac.

This cheesy highly 70's Hong Kong feature immediately gives you the impression that you're going to regret watching it. From it's immensely 70's feel, terrible dialogue and cheesy plot I expected the worst and maybe that's why I came out the other end pleasantly surprised.

Don't get me wrong The Oily Maniac isn't exactly a great film but it's not terrible either.

Arguably a superhero movie our hero gains the ability to turn into The Oily Maniac whose powers are essentially to be a man made of *Wait for it* oil! Though the plot isn't exactly original our leading character certainly is and though you may find it laughable and perhaps hard to get behind the character it is definitely memorable.

This is a film I'd happily see a western remake of as the concept is a lot of fun. A bit of a higher budget to overcome the terrible 70's sfx and maybe make it either R rated or more tongue in cheek (This one doesn't know what it wants to be) Better yet here's an idea The Oily Maniac vs The Greasy Strangler Can you smell the potential? Make it happen Hollywood

This is a great alternative to the crazy "Toxic Avenger", best acted with better actors and also makes you laugh more without all that nonsense vulgarity.

Shaw Brothers are a guarantee if you want to spend an hour and a half having fun in front of a good, completely recreational audiovisual product and above all without getting bored for a second.

Very well written, well acted, great photography, the monster is a bit of a cardboard, but it creates its mystical atmosphere all the same.

Undoubtedly best of all the various Troma, Jess Franco and other pieces of junk that today are acclaimed by fans for no reason.