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Two Thousand Maniacs!
Promotional poster for 2000 Maniacs
Directed by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Produced by	David F. Friedman
Written by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring	William Kerwin Connie Mason Jeffrey Allen
Music by	Larry Wellington
Cinematography	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Editing by	Robert Sinise
Distributed by	Box Office Spectaculars
Release date(s)	March 20, 1964
Running time	87 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$65,000 (estimated)
Followed by	2001 Maniacs

Two Thousand Maniacs! is a low budget 1964 splatter film directed and written by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It is the second part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy," including Blood Feast (1963) and Color Me Blood Red (1965). The film has since become known as a classic of the drive-in theater era.

The film is known for its scenes of full color gore and torture, as well as for B-movie type direction and acting. The film and its director attracted a cult following, largely due to the over the top quality of the violence and the villains. The film starred 1963 Playboy Playmate Connie Mason. It was remade in 2005 as 2001 Maniacs, starring film actor Robert Englund.

The film's title song was written and sung by director Lewis. The movie would later inspire the name of the band 10,000 Maniacs.

Synopsis

The story of the film is inspired by the Lerner and Loewe musical Brigadoon (1947).^[1] Six Yankee tourists are lured into the small southern town of Pleasant Valley by the redneck citizens to be the guests of honor for the centennial celebration of the day Union troops destroyed the town. The tourists are separated and forced to participate in various sick games which lead to their gory deaths. The methods employed by the festive townspeople include:

• dismembering a woman with an axe, and thereafter roasting her in a barbecue pit;
• staging a "horse race" in which a man is ripped limb from limb;
• rolling a man downhill in a barrel embedded with nails;
• and crushing a woman with a boulder held aloft in a contraption resembling a carnival-style dunk tank.

After discovering the nefarious plans of the townspeople, the two remaining tourists manage to escape; they then return with a local sheriff, only to discover that the town has disappeared. The film ends with two of the townspeople looking forward to the next centennial in 2065, when Pleasant Valley will rise again to resume its vendetta against the Yankees.

Production

Two Thousand Maniacs! was filmed in 15 days, early in 1964, in the town of St. Cloud, Florida. According to a contemporary report, the entire town participated in the film.^[2]

References

1. ^ Doll, Susan; and Morrow, David. Florida on Film: The Essential Guide to Sunshine State Cinema & Locations. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8130-3045-6. p. 163.
2. ^ Romer, Jean-Claude, Silver Alain (trans.) "A Bloody New Wave in the United States" (July 1964), in Silver, Alain & Ursini, James (eds.) Horror Film Reader. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. ISBN 0-87910-297-7. p. 63-64.

External links

• Two Thousand Maniacs! at the Internet Movie Database
• Two Thousand Maniacs! at Allmovie