2000 Maniacs!

'Two Thousand Maniacs!' may not get name-dropped as much as the infamous 'Blood Feast', but it is arguably the better and more entertaining movie, and quite possibly Herschell Gordon Lewis' best effort. HGL's budget seems to be a tad bigger this time around, though the acting is just as poor. In fact the two leads (Thomas Wood and Connie Mason) are both from 'Blood Feast', so that explains a lot. The plot in this one concerns a small town in the South that is celebrating its centenary by luring unsuspecting "yankees", and basically torturing them to death. HGL doesn't spare us the gore, but the murders are done with such good humour that the movie ends up with an odd feel somewhere between 'The Beverly Hillbillies' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. This is a very silly movie obviously, but also very entertaining fun for those with a strong sense of the absurd.

Two carloads of travellers are diverted to the quirky town of Pleasant Valley where they become guests of honour at the centennial Civil War celebrations. But these are far from ordinary commemorations, and as the title suggests, the town's population aren't fond of Yankees as their sinister brand of southern hospitality is gradually revealed.

Early hicksploitation horror no doubt inspired 'The Cars that Ate Paris' and does a good job at depicting the isolation and increasing discomfort experienced by the reluctant guests as they begin to suspect something more unsavoury than bootleg might be brewing.

Notwithstanding the outrageous plot, there's one or two moments of genuine terror, and despite being occasionally absurd HGL's sadistic shocker has a bigger budget than his previous attempts and shows more technical polish (save for some looping issues and stilted dialogue delivery) as a result potentially making it more accessible.

Coherent, imaginative, chilling and ultimately worthy of celebrated cult status.

It never fails to amaze me what some people have filmed as entertainment. This film, for example, tells the story of a town that magically reappears 100 years after being destroyed by Union soldiers to wreak its vengeance on Yankee tourists. Herschell Gordon Lewis uses his same lack of directorial style, bad actors, and hideous dialogue to incorporate into this cheesy, sleazy, yet highly enjoyable gore film, his second in his gore trilogy. The Southern characterizations alone are so stereotyped and, if I were a Southerner, so offensive that they make the viewer wince more than the bright red that dapples the screen over the various killings such as a woman being made into a barbecue, a man being nailed as a barrel rolls down a hill, another man is quartered, and finally a woman is squashed by a gigantic boulder. The southern "maniacs" have missing teeth, no idea of standard English, always wear overalls and red scarfs about their necks, and lastly have no humanity at all in them....nor does the Yankee cast as not one of them can act either. This film, with its major problems not withstanding, is entertaining solely for its shock element of yesteryear which is now its comedy factor of today. One last note, some people consider this Lewis's masterpiece, but it is decidedly a notch below Blood Feast.....both of which are a notch below most Ed Wood films.

Writer/director/cinematographer Hershell Gordon Lewis is considered by bad movie fans to be one of the few "autors" in film history to have equaled or at least come close to equaling the abysmal work of Ed Wood, Jr.. While it's debatable which was worse or if another small-time film maker (such as Ray Dennis Steckler or Al Adamson) was the worst, no one in the know would argue that Lewis was a brilliant film maker! However, even the most inept can occasionally get lucky and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS is Lewis' moment in the sun. Unlike previous films such as BLOOD FEAST (which were all amazingly bad), there was enough good about TWO THOUSAND MANIACS that I actually recommend you watch it--particularly because it proves substantial budgets or consistently good acting aren't necessary to make a decent film!

The film begins with two very stereotypical hillbilly idiots tricking two cars full of Yankees off the highway and into their town. There the locals declare that these outsiders are their guests of honor for a centennial celebration and they are convinced to stay. Now the audience knows this is a very bad idea, but the six folks don't yet suspect that these hicks mean to do them great bodily harm. Of course, that might also be because they didn't see the folks running around town with nooses in preparation for their arrival! One by one the Yanks are brutally killed and the ways they did it were pretty clever and the gore was amazingly realistic for 1964. It's amazing to think that with a budget of $46.28 that they were able to achieve these effects, as the blood actually looked like blood and the killing was quite shocking for the mid-1960s.

Two of the six are reasonably bright and guess what is in store, so the last part of the film consists of showing their efforts to leave this deathtrap. Oddly, despite the budget, the acting of these two was pretty good (particularly William Kerwin) and the last 15 minutes of the film turned out to be by far the best. There were several wonderful twists and turns that showed Lewis could actually write a clever script and despite the stupid hillbilly acting earlier in the film, the film was surprisingly good. I won't ruin it, but it sure was nice to see that things only improved as the film progressed. Plus, every time I thought that the movie SHOULD have ended sooner, the additional portions kept building on an excellent "Twilight Zone" style script.

By the way, the film offended many when it debuted--though it also became a cult favorite. The gore and offensive portrayal of Southerners as crazy morons must have made many at the drive-ins have heart attacks! I sure wish I could have been there to see it!

The second part of the blood trilogy that began with Blood Feast.

This one is considerably more professional than the first. But it still as its short comings. Acting is variable. And the plot is weak and does not make a lot of sense. The gore scenes (which is probably the reason why you are watching) are great. And even quite brutal, although the film is too camp to take too seriously. The music is also great and very fitting.

It does suffer from two annoying things however. The annoying little boy for one. But I do think they knew how annoying he was, because at the end even the villagers don't want him back. The other thing is how long the film takes to end. Its got more endings than Spielberg film.

Still its pretty good and worth it if you like gore films...