For a director best known for gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis could pull off a very subtle psychological horror story. I'm not trying to claim Two Thousand Maniacs! is some misunderstood intellectual masterpiece. I am saying there's a lot more going on than face value, which is all I ask for in gore films.
Two Thousand Maniacs! is a torture film about six Yankees caught on the wrong side of a Civil War centennial celebration. They get rerouted from the highway to the tiny little town of Pleasant Valley, where the proud citizens declare them the guests of honor in their two day celebration. The northerners are put up in fancy rooms at the local hotel and given the red carpet treatment. That is until, one by one, they get brutally murdered in elaborate death traps resembling common celebratory activities, like barrel rolls and barbecues.
The acting isn't particularly good. The dialogue is hokey. The sound recording is so bad that probably a third of the lines got rerecorded in what sounds like a tin can. About the only consistent element in the film is the costuming of the locals, since they wear the same clothes the entire film. Everything else is a low budget mishmash of quick shoots and close-enough design.
But that's not the point. There's something strange going on in Pleasant Valley beyond the murderous centennial celebration and Lewis cleverly drops clues throughout the entire film. The opening song itself is a sort of Rosetta Stone for the real story, a diddly little riff of backwoods folk music with a lot more to offer than pleasant harmonies and high quality picking. Two Thousand Maniacs! is a mystery film from the perspective of two northern guests of honor told at the same time as a revenge film told from the perspective of the town. It's a whole lot more ambitious than its gory reputation might lead you to believe.
As for the gore itself, it's surprisingly never sensationalized. These Pleasant Valley folk are bloodthirsty, to be sure, but they're not savages. The second big set piece actually results in a few of the townspeople being threatened with new jobs in the celebration if they don't straighten up and fall in line. The fourth set piece is honestly one of my favorite scenes in all of horror. The pacing is just so unexpected and the celebration so absurd that you just go numb. There's clearly no hope, but for the sake of entertainment, the people create the false impression of hope, poorly and intentionally.
Two Thousand Maniacs! is not a great film, but it is an engaging one. The bits and pieces that work well are some of the most original in the entire horror genre. The stuff that doesn't work well is no worse than any other B-movie from the time period. Plus, this makes two quirky horror musicals about deep secrets in quiet country towns explored by outsiders. It actually beats The Wickerman to that distinction by a decade. That's something to appreciate.
Two Thousand Maniacs! can be streamed on Shudder, a new streaming service for the horror fan..
