Two Thousand Maniacs! is set in the small southern town of Pleasant Valley which has a population of 2000, two cars are lured there via a fake detour. First up is a car with two couples, John (Jerome Eden) & his wife Bea Miller (Shelby Livingston) along with David (Michael Korb) & his wife Beverly Wells (Yvonne Gilbert, whom director Lewis married in 1975...) closely followed by a car with a young woman named Terry Adams (Connie Mason) & a hitchhiking teacher she picked up Tom White (William Kerwin). They are all greeted by the townsfolk & Mayor Buckman (Jeffrey Allen) insists all six stay for the towns 100 centennial celebrations as guests of honour although what they are celebrating exactly the locals seem reluctant to admit. The six strangers quickly discover that the townspeople are taking a bloody revenge for past atrocities committed against them...
Photographed, written & directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis who has become known as the 'Godfather of Gore' this was the second in his so-called Blood Trilogy following Blood Feast (1963) & followed by Color Me Blood Red (1965) & is a neat enough little exploitation gore film that has a reasonable story behind it. The script moves along at a nice enough pace, it's populated by over-the-top character's & gore although I think the twist ending goes on for too long & could have been edited down to be a bit punchier & dramatic. The basic story here is pretty good, it show's a bit of imagination especially during the set-piece gore scenes & I especially liked the barrel with nails hammered inside which is then rolled down a hill with someone inside, ouch! This is a surprisingly good effort on what was probably intended to be no more than a quick cheap gore film to capitalise on the huge success of Lewis' seminal Blood Feast which is widely regarded as the very first gore film ever made. I liked it.
Director Lewis has a decent imagination & is good at getting the most out of what must have been tiny budgets (apparently he did the voice over on the trailers for his films because he didn't want to pay anyone) but he really can't direct at all, his films look dull & are very poorly staged. Here for instance look at the reactions of the victims as they appear to be in mortal danger, none of them put up any sort of fight or struggle & almost seem willing to let their tormentors kill them, he just can't direct actor's & Two Thousand Maniacs! is a good case in point. There's some good gore here although tame by todays standards, someone has her thumb cut off & then her arm chopped off with an axe, someone is drawn & quarter having had his arms & legs tied to four separate horse, someone is rolled down a hill in a barrel full of nails which ends in very bloody results at the bottom & someone is squished with a huge boulder. The special effects aren't too bad either although the blood looks a bit bright. The IMDb lists 'Severed Tongue' as a Plot Keyword but there is no tongue severing in Two Thousand Maniacs! & probably refers to his earlier film Blood Feast which does.
With a supposed budget of about $65,000 only Two Thousand Maniacs! didn't turn out too bad but it's hardly any work of art & the sound is absolutely terrible. It's sometimes hard to understand what character's are saying as their voices 'echo' on location, there are constant pops & crackles in the soundtrack & the sound effect of those cars at the start sound nothing like cars at all, I have to admit I thought the opening theme was annoyingly catchy. The acting is truly terrible, I'm sorry but there's no other word to describe it.
Two Thousand Maniacs! is a neat enough exploitative gore film from the 60's with a slightly better story than you would perhaps expect, if that sounds like a film you might like then by all means check it out, if it doesn't then don't. Remade as 2001 Maniacs (2005) which I haven't had the 'pleasure' of seeing yet...
Photographed, written & directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis who has become known as the 'Godfather of Gore' this was the second in his so-called Blood Trilogy following Blood Feast (1963) & followed by Color Me Blood Red (1965) & is a neat enough little exploitation gore film that has a reasonable story behind it. The script moves along at a nice enough pace, it's populated by over-the-top character's & gore although I think the twist ending goes on for too long & could have been edited down to be a bit punchier & dramatic. The basic story here is pretty good, it show's a bit of imagination especially during the set-piece gore scenes & I especially liked the barrel with nails hammered inside which is then rolled down a hill with someone inside, ouch! This is a surprisingly good effort on what was probably intended to be no more than a quick cheap gore film to capitalise on the huge success of Lewis' seminal Blood Feast which is widely regarded as the very first gore film ever made. I liked it.
Director Lewis has a decent imagination & is good at getting the most out of what must have been tiny budgets (apparently he did the voice over on the trailers for his films because he didn't want to pay anyone) but he really can't direct at all, his films look dull & are very poorly staged. Here for instance look at the reactions of the victims as they appear to be in mortal danger, none of them put up any sort of fight or struggle & almost seem willing to let their tormentors kill them, he just can't direct actor's & Two Thousand Maniacs! is a good case in point. There's some good gore here although tame by todays standards, someone has her thumb cut off & then her arm chopped off with an axe, someone is drawn & quarter having had his arms & legs tied to four separate horse, someone is rolled down a hill in a barrel full of nails which ends in very bloody results at the bottom & someone is squished with a huge boulder. The special effects aren't too bad either although the blood looks a bit bright. The IMDb lists 'Severed Tongue' as a Plot Keyword but there is no tongue severing in Two Thousand Maniacs! & probably refers to his earlier film Blood Feast which does.
With a supposed budget of about $65,000 only Two Thousand Maniacs! didn't turn out too bad but it's hardly any work of art & the sound is absolutely terrible. It's sometimes hard to understand what character's are saying as their voices 'echo' on location, there are constant pops & crackles in the soundtrack & the sound effect of those cars at the start sound nothing like cars at all, I have to admit I thought the opening theme was annoyingly catchy. The acting is truly terrible, I'm sorry but there's no other word to describe it.
Two Thousand Maniacs! is a neat enough exploitative gore film from the 60's with a slightly better story than you would perhaps expect, if that sounds like a film you might like then by all means check it out, if it doesn't then don't. Remade as 2001 Maniacs (2005) which I haven't had the 'pleasure' of seeing yet...