Two Thousand Maniacs! by Herschell Gordon Lewis

There's nothing clever or low-key about how the hicks from the sticks pick off the visitors, which is fitting considering the mentality of the villains.īecause the film gets moving quickly, diving right into the madness of Pleasant Valley, there's not a great deal of character development when it comes to the victims, which makes it hard to care much about them when they meet their gruesome fates. Foisting their aggressive form of hospitality on a half-dozen wayward northerners, these small-town folks-including kids toting hangman's nooses-are instantly off-putting, so there's not a great deal of subtlety to the threat our protagonists face, and the film wastes little time in putting them in the line of fire. In Herschell Gordon Lewis' Two Thousand Maniacs!, that's certainly the case for the unfortunate vacationing 'yankees' who are guided off-course to the small berg of Pleasant Valley, Georgia, which is enjoying a Confederate-flag waving centennial celebration. If you place most of the great southern horror films-your Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance or any of a number of 'lost in the backwoods' nightmares-anywhere besides the heavily-accented places they are set in, they would never have the same feel, as the insular reputation of the small-town South puts you on edge from the start thanks to a lack of control of the situation. There's a long tradition of southern horror, as the stereotypes of the American South-racism, ignorance, inbreeding and poverty-all lend themselves perfectly to the dread-inducing atmosphere of a scary movie. This new standalone Blu-ray release follows the film's inclusion in Arrow Video's massive 'The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast' box set, and joins a series of releases, including Something Weird's 2001 DVD.

Two Thousand Maniacs!, the second film in gore master Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Trilogy, is an unfortunately still-timely horror take on the story of Brigadoon.

Two Thousand Maniacs! by Herschell Gordon Lewis