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Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
87mins
Revuew by Tyler Shainline
“Two Thousand Maniacs” is the second film in director Herschell Gordon Lewis´s infamous “Blood Trilogy.” “Maniacs” was often bundled together with his earlier film “Blood Feast” and the 1965 release “Color Me Blood Red” at drive-ins and budget theaters across the country, although these films were narratively unconnected to each other. Lewis is a relatively unknown filmmaker to anyone outside of horror fans who have rightfully dubbed him “the grandfather of gore.” During the early sixties, Lewis, along with longtime collaborator and producer David F. Friedman, reinvented drive-in exploitation horror with the aforementioned “Blood Feast,” which ignited the flame of profitable gore flicks. “Two Thousand Maniacs” kept the torch burning brightly until Lewis and drive-in theaters dropped out of sight in the 1970´s.
Generally regarded as Lewis´s best film, “Two Thousand Maniacs” follows the story of three young couples driving through the South on their way to a teachers´ conference in Georgia. As is the case in most horror films, their plans hit a slight detour that lands them squarely in the middle of Pleasant Valley´s centennial celebration of the Civil War. Putting common sense out to pasture, the carload of young Yankees don´t even question why a Southern town would celebrate the end of the Civil War, let alone make a bunch of Yanks the guests of honor. If I were behind the wheel pulling into a town full of hillbillies waving confederate flags and kids swinging little nooses over their heads, you´d still be picking Colonel Sanders ties and giant belt buckles out of the car´s grill when I finally stopped in Arizona. But, of course, the couples do stop; after all, they don´t want to spoil the town´s centennial, what with them being the guests of honor and all.
Mayor Buckman, played with great zeal and delight by Jeffrey Allen, puts them up in the best and only hotel in town, which is, needless to say, without a working phone. The terror begins the first time one of the “guests of honor” steps out with a local alone. Pleasant Valley resident Harper takes the visiting Bea out for a walk, and soon wedded Bea makes her intentions known with the line “give me a country boy every time.” An expected make-out scene ensues, interrupted by Harper unexpectedly slicing Bea´s thumb clean off. Feigning repentance, Harper rushes the solo-thumbed Bea to the doctor´s office, only to be met by the equally fraudulently concerned Mayor. Once Mayor Buckman soothes and comforts Bea, her arm is hacked off without warning by crazed ax-wielding local, Rufe. “We´ve got ourselves the makin´s for a barbecue,” Buckman declares, as Bea lies dying in a pool of her own blood.
Surrounded by the musical stylings of the Pleasant Valley Boys and the dancing locals, and unknown to the remaining five visitors, a rack of Bea is on the spit, and everyone can´t help but have a good time. Even Bea´s unconcerned husband, John, loopy on bathtub gin, gets into the spirit, agreeing to judge a horse race before passing out in a drunken stupor. John wakes up to discover that in this equestrian competition the judge has each of his limbs tied to a different horse racing in different directions.
The next day the post-party vacationers are missing two of their group and still haven´t caught on that something is very UNpleasent in this valley town, so another member of their group goes off alone with the town folk to participate in the barrel-roll competition. Perceived by fans as the movie´s crowning moment, tourist David is loaded into an open-ended barrel and set for an innocently fun trip down the hill. Mayor Buckman asks David “to hold still, while we do something to this barrel.” That “something” is to drive several long nails into the wooden barrel before unceremoniously shoving the spike ridden keg down the hillside, turning David into a bloody pulp of mess. What could have been a horrifying scene is transformed under Lewis´s direction of the enthusiastic townsfolk into a moment of comedic uneasiness.
The deaths continue to mount up when vacationing Beverly is forced to participate in a revised version of the old dunk-tank booth game. In Pleasant Valley´s version, instead of the helpless victim falling into a tank of water, a giant boulder falls on the unsuspecting would-be dunkee. Finally, a reason to go to the county fair besides the cotton candy and corn dogs! Now that the Yanks´ ranks have been thinned down to two–Tom, played by the aptly named Thomas Wood (it´s like watching a redwood two-by-four trying to emote) and Terri, played by “Playboy´s” favorite playmate, Connie Mason (who´s even worse than Wood)–discover Pleasant Valley´s secret. In 1865 the entire town was slaughtered by those no-good Northerners, and now the town reappears every hundred years to extract revenge on any Yankees they can get their claws on. As expected, Tom and Terri escape only to have the nearby town´s police officers administer a “Breathalyzer” test to the suspected drunken couple claiming to have been attacked in a town that hasn´t existed for a hundred years.
Filmed on location in St. Cloud, Florida, where the garish Walt Disney World now stands, “Two Thousand Maniacs” offers charming shots of scenery lost to the ironclad hand of Uncle Walt´s empire of themed rides. Obviously inspired by the 1954 Broadway musical “Brigadoon,” Lewis does more than borrow the film´s premise of a town that appears every hundred years; he also swipes the musical aspect. Throughout “Maniacs” the audience is treated to great country folk songs preformed by the guitar trio, the Pleasant Valley Boys, playing classic standards and even a few originals written by Lewis himself. The songs are so catchy that days later you´ll find yourself belting out yeeee-ha´s and proclaiming the South´s gonna rise again!
Presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio “Two Thousand Maniacs” is easily the best-looking of all of Lewis´ films. For a flick shot in 1963 on a budget under forty grand, it looks amazing. In both day and night scenes the images are crisp and clean, and the blood is as red as that on any confederate flag.
Again, for a low-budget independent film from the early 60´s, the sound is surprisingly sharp and clear. With the Dolby Digital 2.0 mono presentation the crowd scenes seem occasionally garbled, but otherwise every hoot, holler and bloodcurdling scream comes through with alarming clarity.
As always, Something Weird Video does their best to dig up any possible extras to include on their discs. Thankfully, the original theatrical trailer is included, as are rare outtakes, a gallery of exploitation art, and a feature-length commentary. Less necessary than the trailer, the twelve minutes of rare outtakes end up being almost ten minutes of Connie Francis combing her hair. It´s only worth viewing if you want to hear the Pleasant Valley Boys one more time. Similar in lack of worth is the seven-minute-long collection of stills and gallery of exploitation art that add up to little more than a collection of print ads for old shock films and only worth viewing by the hardcore fans of the genre. While entirely unnecessary viewing, it is very gracious of Something Weird to go to the trouble of collecting and releasing these outtakes and stills.
Almost as much fun as the film itself is the feature-length commentary with Lewis, Friedman, and representatives of both Something Weird Video and Shock Films. The commentary is dominated by the always pleasant Lewis and story-filled Friedman, with little input from the others except to ask the occasional “fanboy” question. Lewis, who´s a delight on every film commentary he´s featured on, offers up great insight into the production of the film–from Connie Francis´ terrible driving to the town´s reaction to being featured in such a bloody piece of film. Friedman chimes in with many a story and an occasional vicious jab at actor Jerome Eden, who portrayed horse aficionado John.
While a Herschell Gordon Lewis film will never be confused for a work of art, even the most elite movie watcher would have a hard time finding nothing to enjoy in this town full of maniacs. YEEEEE-HA!
9/10 Stars
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