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Two thousand Maniacs!
When "Cahiers du cinema" wrote that "Blood Feast" and "Two Thousand
Maniacs!" were among the most beautiful horror films of all time and
that Herschell Gordon Lewis was a "subject for further study," the
director replied that "This is what they say about cancer." This
splendid joke of black humour explains much more than a thousand words
that was, the funny, Herschell Gordon Lewis.
We met him again in 1964 with his friend Friedman, with a great desire
to do things bigger, at least, according to them, with a more complex
history than the mythical "Blood Feast". A budget three times larger
("Blood Feast" estimated budget was $ 24,500) and three weeks of
production versus five days. And above all, a plot inspired by
"Brigadoon", in a story that arrives into splatter areas.
Despite the commitment (...) "Two Thousand Maniacs!" did not repeat the
success of "Blood Feast", because of a central theme that still creates
discussions in the United States. The audience was there but there were
fewer cinemas who wanted to show the film, especially in the
ex-confederate states.
The reason is that "Two Thousand Maniacs!" it is set in the fictitious
town of "Pleasant Valley" (actually St. Cloud in Florida), where the
residents are about to celebrate the centenary of an event that
happened in 1865. This celebration has six people as special guests
bring to the city by the inhabitants with a trick. These six are
actually the meat of the celebration which is actually revenge against
the Union army that had massacred the population a hundred years
earlier. So a woman is torn to pieces and used as a barbecue main dish.
A man is tied to four horses that run in the opposite direction. A
woman is crushed by a stone and a man thrown down a hill in a barrel
full of nails (a scene in which the director's son Bob made his
contribution at eight years!). Two of these six, however, understand
the danger and manage to escape.
With his usual slowness and little art behind the camera, Herschell
Gordon Lewis creates a film that to see it today (aside from the
Confederate theme) looks more like a black comedy than a splatter
movie. The blood that circulates is very little and is not very
impressive. Just the scene of the woman torn to pieces shows a little
more red.
However, this is an excellent b movie with a surprise ending that overturns the story.
The cast is made up of genre film actors of the time, some of whom have
already been seen in the director's films. Above all, the ex-playmate
Connie Mason already present in "Blood Feast" and William Kervin.
