2000 MANIACS! is the second of exploitation director Herschell Gordon Lewis' notorious 'blood' trilogy that began with the world's first gore film, BLOOD FEAST. This follows similar ground, using a lightweight story as an excuse for a string of shoddy but bloody gore sequences that still have the power to shock and disturb even to this day. The gore scenes are played out humorously, with a grinning bunch of loons taking great delight in dispatching their victims. There's a suspenseful scene where a girl has a boulder dropped on her; a genuinely ingenious bit where a guy is rolled down a hill in a barrel lined with vicious nails, an unpleasant murder where a girl has a arm hacked off (it's later barbecued) and a shoddy bit where a guy is quartered between four horses. The bright red blood splashes liberally about the scene in this excessive display of sadism.Otherwise, the movie is drab and dull. The amateurish cast give a range of performances. The two leads (slightly wooden William Kerwin and extremely pretty Connie Mason) are good, the rest aren't. The nadir is the redneck laughing boy whose overacting knows no bounds. The direction is pedestrian and the lengthy dialogue sequences are dull to watch. There's a good, suspenseful chase towards the end, but then the films goes on another TWENTY MINUTES to bolster the running time and these are even more excruciating than the epilogue scenes in RETURN OF THE KING: a real chore to sit through. In the end, it's obvious this film was written around four vicious, inventive death sequences but that isn't enough to make a good movie. 2000 MANIACS! is a bore for the most part. Great soundtrack, though.

A group of "yankees" from "up north" are driving on the highway when they are purposely diverted by detour signs into a small "backwoods" Southern town where a joyful local gathering invites them in with welcome cheers to be their very special, "selected" guests for a Centenniel celebration commemorating past history not revealed. Two different cars, one carrying two married couples, another with pretty Connie Mason(..as Terry Adams)and her hitchhiking passenger, William Kerwin(..referred to as Thomas Wood in the film's credits;portraying Tom White), whose car broke down as he was on his way to a teacher's convention, are removed from their vehicles pretty much against their will, set up in a hotel with food free, not knowing that they are actually to be the entertainment for their celebration festivities, victims of gruesome games arranged as a "blood revenge" for a dark period in Civil War history. This Southern town, Pleasant Valley, was actually slaughtered by Union soldiers and the vengeful spirits of those killed participate in the celebration of destroying yanks. While the other northerners are unable to see what horrors lie ahead, Tom is suspicious almost immediately and coerces a confused Terry into planning an escape..it won't be easy with hick crazies all over the place.Considered by his beloved fans as director Herschell Gordon Lewis' masterpiece, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS!, his second film, is much better than BLOOD FEAST, in that the black comedy works to a greater extent, and he's operating completely tongue-in-cheek. While the camera work is still suspect, there are some overhead set ups early on which are effective, and the film doesn't drag as much as in BLOOD FEAST, where scenes would often linger tediously. The non-actors in the film are not as dreadful as in HGL's previous flick, and the cast portraying the "rednecks" really get into their roles, particularly when the victims are about to be executed. Jeffrey Allen, as the blustery mayor, is memorable as the overseer of his town, really relishing along with the folks over executing the yanks one at a time, mocking each victim as they are about to die. The gory set-pieces are certainly shocking such as one poor soul whose limbs are pulled apart from his torso by four different horses going in opposite directions, a woman's finger(..taken off by a knife)and arm(..chopped off by an ax)being removed, another victim bound as contestants attempt to drop a boulder on top of her by hitting a target with a softball, and one victim is rolled down a hill in a barrel with nails hammered inside. The twisted imagination for coming up with such grisly set pieces, HGL deserves credit for setting a standard others would soon surpass as demand for such movies increased with talented make-up artists and production values emerging. Still, the film features crude photography and bad sound(..sometimes, the dialogue is a bit drowned out by bluegrass music)..and I wouldn't say the acting is of superb quality, far from it. But, there's an irresistible energy and a method to the madness, with some terrific bluegrass numbers to entertain as well. In order to appreciate a sick gore comedy such as this, you must gloss over HGL's inadequacies as a filmmaker, still learning his trade, but the man has a knack for repulsive murder sequences. As a gorehound, I admire his contributions to the artistry of graphic violence, even if I find his cinematic prowess lacking.

If you've never seen a film by H.G. Lewis, then by crackies, it's high time you set yourself a spell,pop this evil mother into your DVD (or VHS,depending on what format you own)player,sit back & have your mind screwed with for 90 giddy minutes. H.G. Lewis was the pre cursor of splatter cinema,that would inspire untold generations of horror/exploitation directors to move ahead in this field. Lewis,and his partner in crime, Dave Friedman,crafted 'Blood Feast',',2,000 Maniacs',and others like it for drive in's across the Southern United States back in the 1960's to entertain & gross out audiences. 'Maniacs' concerns two couples that find themselves rail roaded into a Southern back water town that is celebrating a centurary of sorts. What the two couples don't know that the celebration is the 100th birthday of the Civil War. What follows is a nearly non stop blood orgy of graphic dismemberment,and sadism that even by today's standards, is very graphic. The acting is easily grade Z,and most of the special effects are laughable. If you want to scratch a truly perverted itch for a dose of early splatter cinema,then '2,000 Maniacs',or for that matter, any H.G. Lewis film should do the trick for you. Unrated,but contains enough blood,guts & gore to have earned it an 'X' rating (had there been a rating system at the time),but did earn an 'Adults Only' legend on the posters.

**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".