When the world is ruled by violence, and the soul of mankind fades, the children's path shall be darkened by the shadows of the Neon Maniacs.
A weird, unknown little 1986 Slasher Movie.
A teenage girl named Natalie is the only survivor when a group of monstrous killers slaughter her friends when they go out for a little makeout time in secret. When she escapes they stalk her around San Francisco to finish the job, leading to one of the strangest final showdowns even this particular genre's ever seen.
Neon Maniacs provides examples of:
- Antagonist Title: At least, we assume so, since the monsters are never actually called "Neon Maniacs" within the movie.
- Covers Always Lie: The poster art above shows Steven and Natalie carrying guns. The only guns they ever pack are squirt guns (which are the only kind that would work on the Maniacs anyway).
- Didn't Think This Through: The teens come up with a plan to protect themselves from the Maniacs by going to a concert and all the guests will be given squirt guns as part of the fun, which will be as effective as real guns against the monsters. It doesn't seem to occur to them that the other attendees don't know about the Maniacs' weakness, and wouldn't bother trying to use water pistols against dangerous killers. Predictably, chaos ensues instead.
- A Dog Named "Dog": There's an early joke revolving around this, which then verges literally into A Dog Named "Cat" (The dog's name is actually Elvis).
- Final Girl: Natalie, although in an unusual spin she becomes one when the Maniacs slaughter all the other victims in a single scene and spends the rest of the movie on the run from them.
- Meaningless Meaningful Words: The above Opening Narration. It's as unexplained as the origin of the killers themselves.
- Mysterious Past: The movie never attempts to explain what the killers are or where they come from, or even what's "neon" about them.
- No Name Given: The Maniacs are only named in the end credits, and even then it's a little hard to place a couple of them.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Natalie, apparently. She's barefoot when relaxing in the van at her birthday party (with the camera lingering on her bare feet for a good couple seconds), doesn't wear sandals or flip-flops when walking around poolside, and never wears socks when she does wear shoes.
- Rain of Blood: One happens to Natalie midway through the movie. Fortunately, It Was All Just A Dream. Unfortunately, killer mutants still want to murder Natalie when she wakes up.
- Shout-Out: One of the attendees of the costume party at the end is dressed up as lesser-known comic hero Mister Miracle.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The opening theme for this gory 80s slasher movie is... light jazz.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In one scene a subway cashier sees the maniacs jump the turnstiles, and another one fries the turnstiles with lightning from his fingers. His reaction? Moderate curiosity.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Neon Maniacs are seemingly unstoppable, except for being water-soluble.
