Box Office Spectaculars released Two Thousand Maniacs! on 20 March 1964.
Herschell Gordon Lewis was no kind of artist. But he had a great idea here. As far as I know, it was the first time we get the horror film trope of Northern visitors being harassed by Southerners. And the film does it in a really great way.
Ghosts who were killed during the Civil War reincarnate every hundred years. They use the opportunity to take revenge against Northerners. And the film plays it straight. The Southerners are psychopaths. They just want to harm and kill the Northerners as collective punishment. But Lewis, originally from Pittsburgh, shows no sign of wanting to rationalize this behavior. The Southerners are just evil. Thankfully, he is not part of the vile history of the motion picture business justifying and even celebrating southern treason.
Two Thousand Maniacs! is the second of the Blood Trilogy. They bookended it between Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red. And it is my least favorite of the three. Sure. The first is, in so many ways, just bad. But it knows what it’s doing. The gore in it is spectacular! And the last features a great central performance and an interesting plot.
But this one? The story’s pretty good. But it’s mostly just a set up for a number of gore scenes. But the gore is pretty tame! Regardless, no one watches a Friedman-Lewis film looking for deep thoughts and complex characters. Because their films appeal to our basest impulses. And this one just lies there on the screen. There is shockingly little blood!
But all psychotronic fans should see Two Thousand Maniacs! After that? I’ve seen it a few times. But I feel no interest in watching it again. I still watch Color Me Blood Red from time to time. I don’t watch Blood Feast. But that’s because I have literally watched it three dozen times! (I’m not insane; I was writing about it.)
If you’ve seen it before, you are excused from watching it again. But if not, well, you know what you need to do…
Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
