The short film stars American rappers Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi and Chris "Cage" Palko as French-speaking serial killers.

A filmmaker (Shia LaBeouf) documents the exploits of two serial killers (Scott Mescudi and Chris Palko).

Shia LaBeouf first directed a music video for New York-based rapper Cage in 2009, for his track "I Never Knew You": "I'm 22 and I'm directing my favorite rapper's music video," LaBeouf told LA Weekly of the project, "This shit is better than riding unicorns.

LaBeouf subsequently went on to collaborate with Cudi and Cage on a short film titled MANIAC.

[3][4] In an interview with Complex, Cudi went into detail about the short film, as he discussed how Shia LaBeouf reached out to him to do the project, playing the role of a killer, funding the video and why was it in French: "It was me creating the back story for this person in my mind.