2001 Maníacos: Campo de Gritos

The previous 2001 Maniacs was pretty good. I was surprised that the parts between the murders were just as fun the deaths themselves (unlike HG Lewis's original). This sequel to the remake, however, is an absolute travesty where NOTHING works.

I'm all for a bad movie, but this one made me angry. The characters are the definition of cliché, the dialog is miserable, and the actors do nothing to even slightly improve upon the crap they're given to work with. Everyone puts on an accent or persona they simply can't pull off. Even Bill Moseley stinks. Every one of his lines comes off as something you'd find on the gag reel. He laughs through each line as though he no longer wants to laugh.

The worst part of this wreck is the merciless attempt at comedy. Trust me, there is nothing funny about this movie! When one joke fails, the viewer moves on. When every joke fails, the viewer gets enraged, especially when each stone aged joke relies too heavily upon multicultural racism and flamboyant homosexuality.

This movie is worse than bad. This movie is, by and large, a sheer waste of time and energy.

As I really enjoyed Tim Sullivan's 2005 remake '2001 Maniacs', I foolishly thought this would have the same fun set pieces and wacky script.

However it is devoid of any real gore, the acting is wooden, and the script so poorly written. I was forced to hit the fast forward, which is something I rarely do.

The real shame is that does have actors like Lin Shaye and Bill Moseley going to waste. It's easy to maybe cite a reduced budget or external factors, but it's hard to make excuses for this turkey.

I'd avoid unless your a real masochist.

After watching the original 2001 Maniacs, with Robert Englund, and really enjoying it, I was quite excited about the sequel when I heard about it.

Lots of positive reviews, saying it was better than the first, and more gorier...my hopes were quite high.

...Now I have seen the sequel, and I'm not kidding here....it's one of the worst films I have seen in years, honestly, the acting is soooo bad it's as if they are just people who were randomly picked up off the street! I know you don't watch a film like this for the acting, but when it's this bad, there really is no excuse!

As for the gore, well frankly it does'nt come close to the first one. after 45 minutes only 2 folks have bitten the bullet, and neither one was gory at all!...Then you wait for it to kick off (that's if you haven't press eject on your DVD player by now), it just don't happen. The couple of so-so gory effects towards the end are so badly done, obviously dummy's, you could'nt care less.

Anyway, I don't want to waste any more time on this pile of dog turd. I must just say, all the 10/10 reviews MUST be people involved with this film, they have to be!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!

Train wreck of a film and before the hate mail starts - no budget is no excuse - I could have done a hell of a lot more with 400 grand (any takers :) The film looked like it was shot on video (HD is fine but needs to be graded properly) thrown together in about a week or so and featured some truly diabolical performances.

The only saving grace and giggle this crap got out of me was from the fabulous Lin Shaye (who was slumming here) and Bill Mosely please get your agents to read the scripts before doing the films - YOU deserve so much better than this - sheesh - and I enjoyed the first one. It's independent efforts like this one that are going to sink the indie horror scene not re-invigorate it. Unfortunately due to the offensive nature of most scenes it'll probably make a good return on investment and there'll probably be a third but for God's sake at least work with a script that doesn't seem like it was written on the back of a piece of toilet paper, and hire an editor who can grade your picture properly.

A wasted opportunity.

2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams is bad. Very bad. It lacks the originality of its source material, the 1960s Herschell Gordon Lewis film 2000 Maniacs, and is crippled by largely poor production values.

This sequel takes the maniacs out of the South, as a lack of victims forces them to go on the road to Iowa. There, they encounter a pair of Paris Hilton / Nicole Richie clones and their reality TV entourage. Carnage follows.

Perhaps the most glaring problem of the film is its death scenes. Although they shed plenty of blood, at least in the unrated edition, they are not particularly creative. Only one of the killings is at all original or entertaining. In a franchise that prides itself on outlandish deaths, this is a fatal flaw.

Furthermore, due to the extremely low budget, the movie lacks in some of the basic areas of film making. The sound quality is terrible, so that I had to turn my television up to top volume just to make out the dialogue, some of which is clearly dubbed. Aside from Bill Moseley and Lin Shaye, the acting is bargain basement variety. Even more damning for an unrated horror film, one of the deaths-a hanging-occurs off screen, one suspects because the filmmakers could not afford the safety equipment or stunt person to safely simulate it.