Two Thousand Maniacs!
1964
83 minutes
Image Entertainment/Something Weird Video
UnratedCast • Thomas Wood, Connie Mason, Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore, Gary Bakeman, Jerome Eden, Shelby Livingston, Michael Korb, Yvonne Gilbert, Mark Davis, Linda Cochran, Vincent Santo, Andy Wilson
Writer • Herschell Gordon Lewis
Director • Herschell Gordon Lewis
Today is Day Seventeen of VE's CreepFest!
BETTER PASS ON THAT TUB O' POPCORN WITH EXTRA GREASE before checking out this deep-fried shockshow. This here's another gruesome drive-in masterpiece from the Godfather of Gore himself, Herschel Gordon Lewis. This "bloody Brigadoon" takes place in Pleasant Valley, Georgia, where the inhabitants, slaughtered 100 years before by Union troops, return to show a bunch of waylaid Yankees some extreme southern hospitality. You'll scream with delight as the less-than-willing guests of honor are introduced to such quaint local customs as the Barrel Roll, the Horse Race, and everybody's favorite, Ol' Teeterin' Rock. It's a real corker!
Gorehounds take note: Two Thousand Maniacs! isn't HGL's grisliest film (The Wizard of Gore cops that honor), but make no mistake, this is the kind of mean, raw and stupid flick we've come to expect from him. This is a no-holds-barred Psycho Redneck Rampage, the most gleeful downhome deviance this side of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre family. MORE AFTER THE JUMP
If you've seen any of Lewis' films, you know what to expect: blood, and lots of it. Two Thousand Maniacs! doesn't disappoint in this department. People are drawn and quartered, squashed under huge boulders, and rolled down a hill in a barrel bristling with nails. Lewis claims to "draw the line" at extreme sadism, but you'd be hard-pressed to call these scenes anything but. He was the first director to show such atrocities in lingering, leering detail, and they're just as nauseating today as they were 40 years ago.
Lewis had a longer shooting schedule than usual on this film (three weeks instead of a few days) and it shows. It's less laughable and paced much faster than most of his pictures; it's also a showcase for his ability to manipulate the audience's expectations. For the first 20 minutes, the viewer is lulled by the amateurish acting and talky script into believing this'll be just another routine horror flick. Then the first horrible murder occurs, and the audience is shocked right out of their seats. The murders that follow are so preposterously gruesome they seem tongue-in-cheek, but it's still an unsettling ride.
Despite decent camerawork by Lewis and editing by Robert Sinise, there's still plenty of unintentional humor to be found in the film's limitations. As if the film weren't weird enough, the vocal track unexpectedly slows down in several places while the film speeds up.
Lewis' script contains some great awkward, absurd dialogue — it's easy to see where John Waters found inspiration for his Multiple Maniacs ('70). Lewis regular Thomas Wood (aka Bill/Rooney Kerwin) does a mean Jack Webb as the hitchhiking teacher, while ex-Playmate Connie Mason seems cranky and dyspeptic throughout. The two Yankee couples are stiffs, but the Maniacs, especially Jeffrey Allen as the town's Andy Devine-esque mayor and Gary Bakeman and Ben Moore as de-luxe yokels, all give inspired, berserk performances. • PAUL GAITA
Notes:
Something Weird Video's DVD features audio commentary by HGL and producer David Friedman, the theatrical trailer, some outtakes, and a gallery of "exploitation art," mainly newspaper advertisements from various HGL movies.
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