Two Thousand Maniacs!

• Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Horror
• Movie Type: Slasher Film
• Themes: Nightmare Vacations, Small-Town Life, Cannibals
• Release Year: 1964
• Country: US
• Run Time: 88 minutes

Plot

Drive-in gore king Herschell Gordon Lewis reached a creative peak with this darkly comic slaughterfest about six vacationing Yanks who fall victim to the cheerfully violent Southern hospitality of Pleasant Valley. Made the guests of honor in the town's centennial celebration, the hapless visitors soon discover that the obligations of their title include being used for the locals' bloody amusements -- which include being rolled downhill in a barrel full of sharp spikes and strapped down beneath a boulder for a hideous variation on the dunking booth -- and eventually ending up on the spit for the evening's barbecue. It turns out the bloodthirsty rednecks have come back from the dead after 100 years to exact symbolic revenge for the slaughter of the entire town by the Union Army. Filming on a shoestring in St. Cloud, FL, Lewis even contributed his talents to some of the songs (credited to the Pleasant Valley Boys), including "Rebel Yell" (not to be confused with the Billy Idol tune) and a rousing rendition of "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms," which accompanies a shot of a severed arm rotating on a barbecue spit. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Review

After the unprecedented success of their earlier gore epic Blood Feast, director Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David Friedman started planning their next move. If a plotless, no-budget splatter film written and shot in a week could do such boffo business, it stands to reason that the same gore in a well-made film will double the take, right? Well, despite their best intentions, the subsequent feature, 2000 Maniacs, was successful but not the blockbuster that Blood Feast was, and Lewis went back to not trying so hard. Of course, by no means was 2000 Maniacs a technical triumph. The actors are as amateurish as any of Lewis' films and the direction is still fairly slapdash. However, the story of a crazed Southern town's revenge against a group of traveling Yankees is a lot more colorful than Blood Feast's simple-minded lone-slasher plot. Lewis has claimed that this was the first of any of his films to be thoroughly scripted, and it's stuffed with overwrought, down-home "cracker" language. The gore set pieces are graphic but not as cruel as before; the filmmakers instead opt to create mayhem with elaborate contraptions and bizarre executions. There's even a car chase -- usually not a noteworthy event in your average film -- but compared to Blood Feast's climactic (and long-winded) foot chase, it's an extremely special effect. For fans of horror, 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast are certainly worth watching to see sacred ground get broken; for fans of grade-Z trash films, his entire canon is indispensable. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Cast

Jeffrey Allen - Mayor Buckman; Gary Bakeman - Rufe; Linda Cochran - Betsy; Mark Douglas - Harper; Jerome Eden - John Miller; Yvonne Gilbert - Beverly Wells; Michael Korb - David Wells; Shelby Livingston - Bea Miller; Connie Mason - Terry Adams; Bennie Moore - Lester; Vincent Santo - Billy; Andy Wilson - Policeman; Thomas Wood - Tom White

Credit

Herschell Gordon Lewis - Director, Robert Sinise - Editor, Herschell Gordon Lewis - Composer (Music Score), Larry Wellington - Composer (Music Score), Chuck Scott - Musical Direction/Supervision, David F. Friedman - Production Designer, Herschell Gordon Lewis - Cinematographer, David F. Friedman - Producer, Herschell Gordon Lewis - Special Effects, Herschell Gordon Lewis - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

Bad Taste; Bloodsucking Freaks; The Fog; The Gore Gore Girls; The Undertaker and His Pals; Inbred Rednecks

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