Best movie of this year hands down!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

One of splatter master Herschell Gordon Lewis's more accomplished films, and certainly one of his most popular, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" is agreeable entertainment; in fact, it's so spirited, with such upbeat performances by the sadistic maniacs, that it's just about impossible to resist. It's not as utterly silly as the cheesiness that is "Blood Feast", and actually has something of a story, inspired by the musical "Brigadoon". Six Yankee travellers are deliberately detoured towards a little town named Pleasant Valley where the locals eagerly greet them upon arrival. They're celebrating a centennial, and the Yankees will make for perfect victims - I mean, "guests of honour". Only one of them, a schoolteacher named Tom White (William Kerwin) has brains enough to question the matter. Some of those who loved "Blood Feast" might actually not love "Two Thousand Maniacs!" quite as much, basically as it's not wall to wall gore like its predecessor, is more padded out, and depends on characterization just as much as it does unpleasantness. Still, it's got a couple of grisly highlights that will have you smiling - one person is chopped up, another is quartered, one is sent down a hill inside a barrel that's had nails hammered into it, and another is positioned underneath an enormous rock that's poised to fall if a target is struck. Things get off to one hell of a fantastic start with one of the catchiest down home ditties to be found in Hixploitation horror, composed by HGL himself. Trust me, once the tune is over, you may find yourself wanting to hear it again! Location shooting in St. Cloud, Florida, adds flavour, and the cast easily gives this thing 100%. Kerwin, one of the clueless detectives from "Blood Feast", is typically solid, while his real life wife Connie Mason looks delectable. The true standouts are the blustery Jeffrey Allen, who's a riot as the mayor, and Ben Moore and Gary Bakeman as amiable rednecks Lester and Rufe. Enjoyable from beginning to end, this movie ends on an interesting and atmospheric note. This was the second movie in HGLs' "Blood Trilogy", which began with "Blood Feast" and ended with "Colour Me Blood Red". The remake "2001 Maniacs" came along 41 years later. Eight out of 10.

This follow up to the seminal Blood Feast seems to be regarded by many as the best film that H. G. Lewis ever directed. Personally I can't agree with this view seeing as I just can't see past Blood Feast, a film of much more excessive gore, belly laughs and sheer trash value. That said, Two Thousand Maniacs! ain't bad. It's a more expansive film, although anyone familiar with Lewis's output will know that this is a very relative statement because despite having a more elaborate set-up this is still an ultra-cheap drive-in movie. What keeps it interesting though is the combination of inventive murder set-pieces, demented humour and an overall deranged feel. Its Southern town of Pleasantville gives the movie a sense of place which adds nice detail as well. Not only that but there is also the highly infectious title song 'The South's Gonna Rise Again!' by The Pleasant Valley Boys. Yeeeeha!Like all of Lewis's other gore films this one has a curious mixed tone. It combines broad comedy with pretty mean-spirited violence, usually in the same scene. It's a bizarre thing to see and it gives Lewis's movies an edgy sensibility that remains compelling no matter how unrealistic the gore might actually be. His films are all comedies as much as horror films, maybe even more so. There's never really any suspense in the build up to the acts of violence. They're just presented in front of us in a way that must've shocked early 60's audiences due to their draw-dropping audacity. This one could maybe have done with a little more carnage for it to have been entirely satisfying but there sure is enough here for trash movie enthusiasts to lap up.

Herschell Gordon Lewis' "Two Thousand Maniacs" is a classic horror/snuff film, the best bad movie in the psychotronic-style... it must be seen to be believed.In-bred Southerners lure unsuspecting Yankees into town for a festival of violence and torture. The film is a perfect mixture of sex and depravity, senseless gore and small-town stupidity. The best sequence features a charming Southern man who lures a blond away from her husband and- after a casual make-out session- proceeds to cut off her thumb with a paring knife. She's bloody, outraged, and still conscious, but his friends have the perfect solution for her: chop off her entire arm with an axe. And watch the bright red blood flow.If you're not vomiting yet than this is the movie for you. The best performance is surely Linda Cochran as Betsy, a sultry Southern temptress with a wonderful pair of shoulders and sadistic sense of humor. A great film to riff on with friends or to give yourself a genuine creep-out.GRADE: B

**PLOT SPOILERS ALL THROUGHOUT THIS REVIEW** Early gore film. It's about this town in Georgia called Pleasant Valley that was destroyed by the Yankees during the Civil War in 1864. It magically reappears a hundred years later and six Northerners are purposely detoured there to be killed off.The second gore film by the immortal Hershell Gordon Lewis. This followed "Blood Feast" which was an (inexplicable) hit. Like the first this has a stupid story, lousy acting (although Connie Mason did improve from the first one) and terrible direction. This was made just to show some likable people being killed off in bloody ways. One woman is gorily dismembered; another woman is crushed by a boulder; a man is drawn and quartered and another guy is rolled down a hill in a barrel studded with nails! The gore is, by todays standards, pretty poor and there's buckets of blood used in each killing. Also the womens murders are protracted and pretty sick--Lewis seems to take a sick kind of delight in showing them. Aside from all the murders this is surprisingly dull. The pathetic acting and script don't help at all. I'm just giving this a 2 only because it's slightly better than "Blood Feast".