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Two Thousand ManiacsRating:
Release Date: 22 February, 2000 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $13.99 You SAVE: $1.00! Cast: Complete Cast (9 total) |
Two Thousand Maniacs Reviews
The Crown Jewel Of The ' Blood Trilogy'..."YEEE-HAW!! The South's Gonna Rise Again!!"
With a remake of this (featuring no less than Robert Englund) on the distant horizon, it's time to go back to basics and review "Two Thousand Maniacs". Which, seeing as how it is a really cool ghostly-gore flick, I was happy to do.
When a couple of car loads of lost road-trippers are unlucky enough to be re-routed into Pleasant Valley for it's Centennial Celebration, things immediately seem wrong. And they are, because although the hayseed residents come off all nice and hospitable, there is a not-so-nice reason they went to the trouble to get the strangers there in the first place. Something to do with releasing a lot of pent-up Civil War aggression on unsuspecting Yankees.
Bloody and torturous carnival games soon ensue, egged-on by Pleasant Valley's deliriously-cheerful mayor (played by a very good Jeffrey Allen), and it's up to William Kerwin and Connie Francis (practically reprising their roles from "Blood Feast") to put the kabosh on all this madness and get the hell out of town.
The DVD of this 'class-sick' is decent, but the sound quality of the original film is rubbish in some places. Likewise with the audio commentary, which fades annoyingly in-and-out. But the movie itself is the main attraction here, as it features some of Herschell Gordon Lewis' most creative story-telling, even if the idea of Civil War ghosts had been done already. Considering the mean-spirited violence and psychosis of the town's banjo-twanging residents, "Two Thousand Maniacs" is still a hoot, a horror hoe-down for fans of low budget shockers. It also features a catchy-as-all-get-out theme song, penned by the filmmakers themselves.
Worth seeing... Once.
'Two Thousand Maniacs' is apparently the second gore flim ever made. Technically speaking, it's superior to Lewis's 'Blood Feast' in pretty much every way, but I think I like that film more than this one. Suffice to say, you can be a lot better than 'Blood Feast' and still really not be very good, which this film proves amply. The direction is less flat, the acting is somewhat more natural, or intentionally over the top, rather than by accident, as it appeared to be in 'Blood Feast'. Still, this movie is quite a bit longer than 'Blood Feast', which is liable to hurt you, and the intentional humor and wackiness of this film can't match the unintentional humor and wackiness of that movie. Also, it's quite a bit less gory, though it's still severely out there by the standards of the time. Occasionally, the film does manage to generate a somewhat disturbing atmosphere, via the juxtaposition of the violence and the jovial behavior of the southern town. Of course, some people think the light-hearted behavior of the townsfolk actually lessens the impact, so you never know.
Most people seem to think that 'Two Thousand Maniacs!' stands out from Lewis's other films because it actually has something going for it other than the violence, i.e. the nutty southern townfolk. I'll admit it, there over the top antics are kinda amusing for a while, but it starts to were thin well before the film is over. (Much like how the terrible acting/dialogue in 'Blood Feast' starts to lose interest pretty quickly, though I found that stuff more amusing to begin with) Southerner's may not be too fond of how they're portrayed here, but it's so over the top that it really shouldn't be taken personally. The film also earns some points for it's somewhat novel premise. (For those who don't know, it's about a group of northerner's who are tormented and assailed by the ghosts of a southern town that was massacred in the Civil War.) Also, the countrified soundtrack is kinda fun, particularly the theme song.
Overall, this film certainly isn't great, or even good, but it's sufficiently amusing, and is definitely worth a look for serious horror fans.
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