''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' is a 1964 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

written and directed by

Herschell Gordon Lewis Herschell Gordon Lewis (June 15, 1926 – September 26, 2016) was an American filmmaker, best known for creating the " splatter" subgenre of horror films. He is often called the "Godfather of Gore" (a title also given to Lucio Fulci), though h ...

and starring 1963 ''Playboy'' Playmate Connie Mason. It follows a group of Northern tourists who are savagely tortured and murdered during a

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

celebration of a small Southern community's

centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

. The film has been noted by critics as an early example of hicksploitation in

exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that seeks commercial success by capitalizing on current trends, niche genres, or sensational content. Exploitation films often feature themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudi ...

s, as well as for its sensationalizing of national perceptions between the North and South. The film was remade in 2005 as '' 2001 Maniacs''. The story of the film was inspired by the 1947

Lerner and Loewe Lerner and Loewe is the partnership between lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. Spanning three decades and nine musicals from 1942 to 1960 and again from 1970 to 1972, the pair are known for being behind the cr ...

musical ''

Brigadoon ''Brigadoon'' is a musical with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and score by Frederick Loewe. The plot features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years; on ...

''.

Plot

In 1965, two

rednecks ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term mainly applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, ''Dictionary of American ...

named Rufus and Lester use detour signs to lure six young tourists into their rural town of Pleasant Valley,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Upon their arrival, they are warmly welcomed by the townsfolk, and are introduced to some of them, including Rufus, Lester, and town mayor Earl Buckman. The tourists are invited to be "guests of honor" for their centennial celebration being held over the weekend. The mayor promises to provide the tourists complimentary hotel rooms, free food and entertainment throughout the celebration, and the visitors decide to go along with it. That night, while one of the tourists, Bea Miller, is alone in her hotel room, she gets a call from local store owner Harper, who invites her to take a walk with him. She accepts the invitation and he leads her into the woods nearby, where he suddenly takes out a knife and cuts off one of her fingers. Bea is then accosted by Buckman, Rufus, and Lester. As the other three hold her down, Rufus hacks off her arm with an axe, killing her. Meanwhile, two other tourists, Tom White and his girlfriend Terry Adams, have growing suspicions about the town. During a barbecue later that night (where, unbeknownst to the tourists, Bea's arm is being slowly spit-roasted), Tom quietly leads Terry away to a plaque he found in the woods, which states that a group of renegade Union soldiers massacred much of the Pleasant Valley townsfolk near the end of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

in 1865. They realize that this "centennial" is really an act of

revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...

for the destruction of the town one hundred years ago, and that they and the other tourists are the intended victims. Buckman, Rufus, and Lester spot Tom and Terry and chase after them, but the couple manages to escape. Meanwhile, back at the festivities, Harper's girlfriend Betsy gets Bea's husband John drunk on

moonshine Moonshine is alcohol proof, high-proof liquor, traditionally made or distributed alcohol law, illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of distilling the alcohol (drug), alcohol at night to avoid detection. In the first decades of the ...

while the final two tourists, David and Beverly Wells, secretly watch. After Harper escorts the couple back to the hotel, the townspeople surround John and tie both his arms and legs to four horses that are sent running in different directions, dismembering him. The next morning, Betsy takes David to a gathering on a hill near the lake. Rufus and another man force David into a barrel, which Mayor Buckman hammers nails into before rolling it down the hill, killing David. Later, Lester brings Beverly to the town square to be the judge for the next event; a

dunk tank A dunk tank, also known as a dunking booth or dunking machine, is a common feature at Canadian and American fairs, fundraisers, and celebrations. It involves at least two participants, one of whom sits on a collapsible bench above a human-sized ...

-esque attraction, but one which has a boulder instead of a water tank. Beverly is forcibly tied down to the platform and the crowd take turns throwing rocks at the target, before Lester eventually manages to hit the target, releasing the boulder and causing it to crush Beverly to death. Meanwhile, Tom and Terry attempt to sneak out of the hotel, but Harper sees them and gives chase. They run through a nearby swamp, where Harper gets stuck in a pool of

quicksand Quicksand (also known as sinking sand) is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it crea ...

and apparently sinks to his death. Eventually, Tom and Terry manage to locate their car and escape the town, as Mayor Buckman deems the centennial a success, and declares the celebration over. Tom and Terry make it to a police station and tell the sheriff about what happened. The couple returns to Pleasant Valley with the police chief, only to find that the town has mysteriously vanished. The chief becomes skeptical of their claims, but then recalls a local rumor, which claims that the vengeful spirits of those killed in the 1865 massacre still haunt the area where the town once stood. The film ends with the ghosts of Rufus, Lester and Harper heading towards the woods and disappearing, while looking forward to the next centennial hosted in 2065.

Cast

William Kerwin William Kerwin (April 17, 1927 – October 27, 1989) was an American actor and filmmaker. He was most well known for his character roles in the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Career Kerwin enjoyed some success on the stage and screen bef ...

(credited as Thomas Wood) as Tom White * Connie Mason as Terry Adams * Taalkeus Blank (credited as Jeffrey Allen) as Mayor Buckman * Ben Moore as Lester MacDonald * Gary Bakeman as Rufus Tate * Jerome Eden as John Miller * Shelby Livingston as Bea Miller * Michael Korb as David Wells * Yvonne Gilbert as Beverly Wells * Stanley Dyrector (credited as Mark Douglas) as Harper Alexander * Linda Cochran as Betsy * Vincent Santo as Billy * Andy Wilson as the Policeman * The Pleasant Valley Boys

Production

''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' was filmed in 15 days, early in 1964, in the town of

St. Cloud, Florida St. Cloud or Saint Cloud is a city in northern Osceola County, Florida, United States. It is on the southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga in Central Florida, about southeast of Orlando. The population was 35,183 in the 2010 census, and 58,9 ...

. According to a contemporary report, the entire town participated in the film. The film was the feature film debut of a nonprofessional Illinois stage actor named Taalkeus Blank (1910-1991; nicknamed "Talky" his entire life) who played Pleasant Valley Mayor Buckman. He used the pseudonym "Jeffery Allen" in all of his film appearances because he was never a member of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

. Director Lewis was so impressed by Blank's ability to perfectly mimic any type of Southern accent that he hired Blank to appear in many of his later films, among them ''Moonshine Mountain'' (1964), ''This Stuff'll Kill Ya!'' (1971) and ''Year of the Yahoo!'' (1972), playing various Southern-accented characters under the Jeffrey Allen pseudonym. The film's budget was considerably larger than what the filmmakers had previously had to work with, and afforded the film a more polished production.

Release

''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' was heavily cut by the

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, the mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. F ...

before its release, which resulted in the film being scantily screened across the country. The film mostly played at

drive-in theater A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, c ...

s, especially in the Southern United States, where it did considerably well. Among its earliest releases was on October 1, 1964, in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Critical reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' holds an approval rating of 41%, based on 22 reviews, and an average rating of 4.33/10. Its consensus reads, "It didn't take much to thrill early splatter fans, and ''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' proves it with its shrill soundtrack, basement-level theatrics, and goofy flesh-tearing gore."

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

wrote, "drive-in gore king Herschell Gordon Lewis reached a creative peak with this darkly comic slaughterfest". In a retrospective, Marjorie Baumgarten of the ''

Austin Chronicle Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

'' called the film "remarkably durable" and referred to it as "one of the sickest movies ever made."

Critical analysis

''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' was one of the early films to introduce audiences to the formulaic plot of Southern gore films: Northern outsiders who are stranded in the rural

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

are horrifically murdered by virulent, backwoods Southerners. This subgenre of exploitation peaked with the release of

Tobe Hooper Willard Tobe Hooper (; January 25, 1943 – August 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker, best known for his work in the horror film, horror genre. The British Film Institute cited Hooper as one of the most influential horror filmmakers of al ...

's ''

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, ...

'' (1974), and ''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' has been credited as being influential on Hooper's film. During the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, television and mainstream narrative films used the "

" caricature rather than a realistic depiction of white Southerners like the televised news of the era. However, Lewis' plotline in ''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' focused on the ghosts of a violent, vengeful Confederacy, and acknowledged the region's violent history and place in the anxiety of the rest of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The film has been noted by scholars as sensationalizing historical anxieties that the rest of the nation held toward the South's history (and that of its white inhabitants) of extra-legal violence, perceived

primitivism In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...

, and unresolved regional conflict. In his essay "Remapping Southern Hospitality", Anthony Szczesiul explained the film's use of

Southern hospitality Southern hospitality is a phrase used in American English to describe a cultural stereotype of the Southern United States, with residents perceived to show kindness, warmth, and welcoming of visitors to their homes, or to the South in general. O ...

and other Southern stereotypes: "The film's ironic parody of southern hospitality highlights the

performative In the philosophy of language and speech acts theory, performative utterances are sentences which not only describe a given reality, but also change the social reality they are describing. In a 1955 lecture series, later published as ''How to D ...

nature of the discourse. When Mayor Buckman delivers his promise of southern hospitality in his thick, cartoonish accent, the reference is immediately recognizable to all–the characters in the film, its actors and director, its original audience, and by us today–but here the possibility of southern hospitality is transformed into a cruel joke: the visitor becomes victim.

Legacy

"An all-time great because of all the sadism", enthused

Cramps A cramp is a sudden, involuntary, painful skeletal muscle contraction or overshortening associated with electrical activity. While generally temporary and non-damaging, they can cause significant pain and a paralysis-like immobility of the affe ...

singer and horror aficionado Lux Interior. "The people who act in the movie actually live in the town where it was filmed—they look very inbred. There's a wonderful scene where they take this sexy girl and drop this 2,000lb. rock on her from 20 feet, and the whole town's out there watching. Old ladies all looking, like, 'What are ''we'' doing here?'"

In popular culture

The 1980s

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

10,000 Maniacs 10,000 Maniacs are an American alternative rock band founded in 1981. They have released nine studio albums, six EPs, and five live albums. They achieved their most significant success between 1987 and 1993, when they released four albums that c ...

took their name in homage to the film as a way of making them stand out from other bands on the

college rock College rock is rock music played on student-run university and college campus radio stations located in the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. The stations' playlists were often created by students who avoided the mainstream rock p ...

scene. The

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

film '' Multiple Maniacs'' is named in homage to the film, as well.

References

Notes

* * * *

External links

* * {{Herschell Gordon Lewis 1964 films 1964 horror films 1960s American films 1960s English-language films 1960s exploitation films 1960s slasher films American Civil War films American exploitation films American films about revenge American ghost films American slasher films American splatter films Films about torture Films directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis Films set in 1965 Films set in Florida Films shot in Florida Southern Gothic films Films about mass murder Supernatural slasher films Films about vacationing American supernatural horror films English-language horror films Films about psychopaths and sociopaths