2000 Maniacs

Two Thousand Maniacs (1964)

Ranking: Hells Yes!
Trashiness: Trashtastic

Oh man. Even more crazy antics from the Ultimate Master of Horror and my new hero, Herschell Gordon Lewis (see: Blood Feast & Gruesome Twosome).

This particular extravaganza, similar in sentiment to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other such films, involves a group of wayfaring yanks who wander into a seemingly friendly Southern town. Little do they know, the townspeople were really slaughtered 100 years ago by Yankee soldiers, and they're still pissed off about it.

What follows is the standard murderfest, depicting some of the stupidest modes of death ever conceived such as 'The Barbecue', 'The Horse Race' and my favourite 'The Rock Drop'. WTF.

Although this film is perhaps the best Lewis film I've seen so far (they nearly fill up 85 minutes with stuff happening), it's still chock full of crappy looking FX, terrible acting and script, babes babes babes and gratuitous gore. In fact, the only really good thing in the movie was the awesome music, in particular the song 'Rebel Yell (The South's Gonna Rise Again!)', written and performed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. "Surprising," quoth Mr. Blue, "seeing as the song shows some degree of competence".

The film does tend to drag a little bit towards the end, and there's probably about ten minutes worth of extra stuff which need not be there, but otherwise it's a real party throughout.

Okay, granted, it is idiotic and exploitive and it's probably true that no feminist in her (or his) right mind should enjoy it as much as I did, but I had a kind of odd upbringing.

Anywho, I thought it was a blast (although I kinda liked Bloodfeast a little bit more - maybe just coz I saw it first, I dunno). I digs.

END

Written and Directed by: Herschell Gordon Lewis. Starring: Thomas Wood, Connie Mason, Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore, Gary Bakerman, Jerome Eden, Shebly Livingston, Michael Korb, Yvonne Gilbert, The Pleasant Valley Boys