Oily Maniac is a 1976 Shaw Brothers horror/monster film (co-produced with Malaysia) starring Danny Lee.
Based on the Malaysian legend of the orang minyak
, or oily man, a supernatural creature born of crude oil and fueled by vengefulness towards those who wronged him, the film is a highly fictionalized take on the myth by Shaw Brothers studios, combined with elements from Hollywood slashers popular in Asia at the time.
Danny Lee, who played Inframan for the studios the previous year, this time portrays the titular monster. Shen Yuan (Lee) was a mild-mannered, lowly office worker who suffers from a permanently crippled leg due to polio, and merely trying to eke a living as an accountant. But when Shen Yuan’s Malaysian uncle / adoptive father gets unjustly sentenced to death by the corrupt legal system, with Shen Yuan helpless to do anything about it, he becomes desperate – to the point of suicidal - to have the corrupt business rivals responsible for his uncle’s demise put through justice.
Cleaning out his uncle’s house which he inherits, Shen Yuan comes across one last will from his uncle; instructions to access a hidden crypt buried under his house, and a talisman that will awaken the slumbering demon living in the crypt – an orang minyak, or oily man, which will take over the body of those who awakens it, granting them it’s powers at the cost of their sanity.
Yeah, the movie is practically Venom (2018), but in the 1970s.
Not to be confused with The Greasy Strangler.
Oily Maniac contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Danny Lee, who previously played The Super Inframan, a superhero who fights monsters portrayed by People in Rubber Suits, is now a rubber-suited monster himself. Huh.
- An Arm and a Leg: In the factory battle, a mobster hacks off Shen Yuan's arm. But since Shen Yuan has turned into an oily man, he simply regenerates himself a new one.
- Antagonist Title: The titular oily maniac refers to Shen Yuan, a human who willingly went through a curse to turn himself into a cryptid with superpowers.
- Blob Monster: Shen Yuan's monster form is one of these... made of crude oil.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Shen Yuan gets into a fight with a bunch of gangsters. Given that he is imbued with the strength of several dozen men, and the cursed incantation made him invulnerable to all kinds of damage, his very appearance quickly turns him into a Mook Horror Show.
- Disability-Negating Superpower: Shen Yuan in human form is a cripple, who needs to move around on crutches. Once he learnt of the spell that transforms him into the oily maniac, he can walk and run just perfectly.
- Elemental Baggage: Shen Yuan’s powers are effective as long as he’s within vicinity of a source of oil e.g. a petrol pump or fuel-processing plant.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Shen Yuan, an elemental made of crude oil, who can dissolve into a moving puddle of oil and reassemble himself at will.
- Fan Disservice:
- Many of Shen Yuan’s victims in oily man mode are girls who cheated on him or are otherwise unfaithful, which he chokes to death while they’re in their nightgowns, lingerie, taking their shower, etc.
- There is a scene where a woman bares her boobies… after a breast surgery. With really, really graphic onscreen scars and mutilations on her tits.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Displayed on Shen Yuan throughout the film when he turns into an oily man.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: EVERY attempt to dismember or hack Shen Yuan apart while he’s on a killing spree is negated by the fact that his removed body parts (head, limbs, etc.) simply regenerates within seconds.
- Harmless Liquefaction: The titular creature is a Blob Monster whose body is made of crude oil, who can melt himself into liquid puddles before turning back to human again. In more than one scene, he infiltrates his victims' homes via the bathroom, emerging from showerheads or from taps before turning himself back to monster form.
- Heal It with Water: Heal it by drinking copious amounts of crude oil!
- Implacable Man: When Shen Yuan turns into an oily man, NOTHING can stop him from going on a killing spree.
- Kill It with Fire: Shen Yuan's fate while in his oily man form, after catching fire which soon spreads completely out of control. See one line below.
- Logical Weakness: It’s not a surprise that the major weakness a monster literally made of crude oil would be fire, would it?
- Man on Fire: Shen Yuan in the end of the film after an industrial stove explodes next to him. He burns for maybe five minutes before he finally, finally dies, due to his body being literally made of concentrated crude oil.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Shen Yuan, as an elemental made of oil, can absorb all kinds of damage and keep going.
- Off with His Head!: A gangster tries killing Shen Yuan by hacking off his head while he’s in oily man form, but he simply regenerates it.
- Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: The titular "Oily Man" is based on the orang minyak, a Malaysian-based cryptid which is an oil-based elemental, but reimagnied as a Terminator-esque stalker and killing machine.
- Mook Horror Show: The moment Shen Yuan ambushed mobsters in the form of the oily man, and once he starts his unstoppable killing spree. That's a massive Mass "Oh, Crap!" moment there.
- People in Rubber Suits: This is how the oily maniac is depicted onscreen. Hilariously enough, his body texture looks more rubber than oil-like. Maybe it’s crude rubber?
- Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes: Shen Yuan in oily man form is often depicted in this manner, notably on the poster above.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Played straight when Shen Yuan goes out on a killing spree; his transformation into the oily man requires him to shed all his clothes, and after every muder he returns home only to transform back in the nude.
- Super-Strength: One of the many powers Shen Yuan gains after the incantation turns him into an oily man, where he can fling mobsters and punks like ragdolls.
- Start of Darkness: Shen Yuan starts off using the oily man’s powers to avenge his uncle by hunting down and eliminating the killers, and later use those powers to take on the local mob harassing his business, but when he decides to use his powers to kill his unfaithful girlfriend, he realized he had gone too far to stop his killing spree and had officially embraced his evil, murderous nature.
- Trademark Favorite Drink: Shen Yuan in oily man form loves drinking petrol.
- Tragic Monster: Ultimately, Shen Yuan himself, a desperate man forced into becoming a monster due to circumstances; he’s a cripple due to having polio as a teen, he lost his parents and grew up raised by his uncle, only to have his uncle sentenced to death from being screwed over by the justice system which he is helpless to avenge, and his girlfriend cheats on him behind his back. He’s in fact borderline suicidal the night he made a pact to have himself transformed into an oily man.
- Transformation Horror: At first. But later Shen Yuan realize he can control his newfound powers and how he can benefit himself once he gets used to it, that’s when he starts enjoying his transformation.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Shen Yuan, once he had consumed enough crude oil, can transform himself from human to an oily Blob Monster, to a sentient puddle of oil which can move around by itself. More than once, in puddle form, he can infiltrate his victim’s home by entering through the shower.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Shen Yuan visibly becomes increasingly unhinged and maniacal the more he uses his powers for his own benefits.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Played straight with Shen Yuan, who started off as an often-abused lowly worker before he is granted the oily man's powers and subsequently becoming an increasingly horrifying monster once he starts an unstoppable killing spree.
